Stingy Buffs Defense To Face Major Test In Bruins QB Rosen
September 25, 2017 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — That Colorado defense many folks thought would be in "rebuilding" mode this year?
After four games, the 3-1 Buffs appear to have made good on their vow to reload instead. Even after last weekend's matchup with (now. No. 6) Washington, the Buffs are still among the nation's leaders in a number of key defensive categories — including the most important defensive statistic of all.
That would be scoring defense, an area in which the Buffs have been rather stingy, allowing an average of just 16.0 points per game, putting CU 20th in the nation and second-best in the Pac-12. That number would be even better — enough to put the Buffs in the top 15 in the nation — if it weren't for last week's interception return for a touchdown by Washington, which still counts as points yielded by the defense.
So far, CU's defensive effort has been overshadowed by an offense that has yet to meet preseason expectations. The Buffs, who were in the top half of the nation in yards per game offensively before the Washington game, are now 66th in yards per game. That's certainly not where they expected to be heading into the season, but with eight games to go, obviously a ranking they have plenty of chance to improve.
Of course, the opposite could be said for the defense — and defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot's crew will get maybe its toughest test of the season thus far when CU travels to the Rose Bowl on Saturday for an 8:30 p.m. matchup with UCLA (ESPN2).
Led by quarterback Josh Rosen, the 2-2 Bruins are lighting up the scoreboard this year, averaging 45.0 points per game (second in the Pac-12), 571.8 yards (first in the Pac-12) and 451.8 yards in the air (first in the Pac-12 and second in the nation).
"They're extremely athletic and they score points in bucketloads," was CU head coach Mike MacIntyre's succinct description Monday morning. "You can say all you want about their quarterback, Josh Rosen. He can make every throw every play."
Rosen enters Saturday's game as the national leader in passing yards per game (440.8) and passing touchdowns (16) and is 20th in passing efficiency (161.9), 32nd in completion percentage (.655) and 41st in passing yards per completion (13.46).
Thus far, CU's secondary has played well against quality quarterbacks. While Colorado State's Nick Stevens threw for 309 yards against CU in the season opener, the Buffs also intercepted Stevens twice and did not give up a touchdown pass. Last week, they limited Washington's Jake Browning to just 160 yards on an 11-for-21 night that included one touchdown and one interception.
Overall, CU's secondary is ranked third in the conference in completion percentage, allowing opponents to complete just 51.2 percent of their passes thus far. CU is also giving up just 199.5 yards per game in the air, also third best in the conference.
The Buffs' leader in the secondary has been no surprise thus far. Junior cornerback Isaiah Oliver is tied for the national lead in passes defended (7 breakups and 2 interceptions). Four different Buffs have interceptions thus far, with Afolabi Laguda, Trey Udoffia and Evan Worthington with one apiece to go with Oliver's two.
Other defensive categories in which Colorado is among the national leaders include third-down defense (26th nationally, second in the Pac-12), red zone defense (10th nationally, first in the Pac-12) and fourth-down defense (tied for first in the nation with opponents 0-4 thus far).
This week, the Buffs need their offense to meet its potential and the defense to maintain its current pace. The offense will certainly have its opportunity: UCLA is giving up 43.2 points (11th in the Pac-12) and a league-worst 524.8 yards per game.
"We have to play better against UCLA to score more points," MacIntyre said. "We're going to have to play better on the offensive line. I thought we held our own (against Washington) but we have to play much better and be able to create more points — and that goes for everybody on offense. Defensively, we were holding our own there for a little bit and then let it bust through on the run. We didn't finish the game like we wanted — we have to do that on both sides of the line in this next game."
LINDGREN ON MONTEZ: Buffs offensive co-coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Lindgren said he continues to see improvement in quarterback Steven Montez.
The redshirt sophomore had a career-high three interceptions against Washington while completing 21 of 27 attempts for 171 yards.
"I thought for most of the game he did a better job of staying in the pocket, seeing coverage and getting through his reads and letting things naturally happen," Lindgren said. "He made a couple of plays with his feet in the run game (he had Colorado's longest gain of the night, a 29-yard run) and he made some plays when things broke down on scrambles, which is what we want him to do. He just has to reduce the number of mistakes. Be smart in situations where the first read may not be there. He's got to work through his progression."
One of the interceptions came on a ball that slipped through the intended receiver's hands. But, Lindgren said, "There were just a couple, two interceptions, that were just really poor decisions that you just can't do. You can't have those against a team like Washington, it's just going to get magnified."
Still, Montez's completion percentage against the Huskies (77.8) was better than any Pac-12 quarterback against a ranked team in all of 2016. In his first full year as a starter, his 70.3 percent completion percentage currently ranks 11th in the nation.
"I think i've been playing decent, I don't think I've been playing phenomenal," Montez said Monday morning. "That leaves a lot of room for improvement and that's how I'm kind of looking at it. I haven't been playing perfect football — no one really does. There's always room for improvement and there's tons of improvement in my case for sure, so I'm just working hard every day."
START TIME SET FOR ARIZONA: The Oct. 7 Arizona at Colorado game (part of CU's annual Family Weekend) will kick off at 6 p.m. MDT and will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks.
ESPN2 CREW: The crew calling Saturday night's Colorado-UCLA game for ESPN2 will be Mark Jones, Rod Gilmore and Quint Kessenich.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
