Head coach Deion Sanders of the Colorado Buffaloes speaks with the media.
When the quarterback-challenged Colorado Buffaloes host Arizona on Saturday evening at Folsom Field, head coach Deion Sanders says it's safe to expect the Wildcats will follow the same formula that the Utah Utes used to demolish the CU offense last Saturday in Salt Lake City: Lots and lots of blitzes. The Utes sacked Colorado quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Ryan Straub seven times and held the Buffs to negative total offensive yards through three quarters in a 53-7 bludgeoning.
After the game, Sanders told his team that they had just provided future opponents with a "blueprint" on how to attack the Buffs.
"I was talking about the blitz," Sanders explained at his weekly media briefing on Tuesday. "If you recollect the game, you hit a couple big plays early on - that we had - and they stop the blitz. Because you had guys right there, we just gotta hit 'em. We just gotta get the ball to 'em, we just gotta protect, we gotta do some things that we're capable of doing to stop the onslaught. It's not like it was broken. We had an answer, we just didn't get to it.
"We just didn't do what needed to be done on those particular plays."
Utah freshman quarterback Byrd Ficklin, making his first start, diced up the Colorado defense for 291 yards of total offense. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. His TD run came on the game's second play and set the tone for the night. While the Utes were running up and down the field, their defense was stifling the Colorado attack, limiting the Buffaloes to 140 yards of total offense - all of which came in "garbage time" in the fourth quarter.
After returning to Boulder, Sanders has been pleased with his players response after the ugly night at Rice Eccles Stadium.
"Hats off to the young men, and to the staff, because we teach our young men to put things behind them," Sanders offered. "Especially plays...and go to the next play. Now you gotta put a whole game behind you and go to the next opportunity, and that's practice. Often times you practice a certain way and you play that same way. These young men have responded tremendously, and I'm proud of them that they're putting it aside and saying, you know, we're better than this. We gotta focus and we gotta lock in."
Now the focus shifts to Saturday evening's home game against a 4-3 Arizona team that's in a situation similar to Colorado's. They've lost two straight, both close losses to conference title contenders BYU and Houston and are coming off a bye week. The Wildcats need two more wins to become bowl eligible, while the 3-5 Buffs are running out of time to try to achieve the same goal. Arizona has not played good defense thus far, and have not won on the road...just like CU.
Something's gotta give. And quickly.
"There's a sense of urgency every day," Sanders concluded. "There was a sense of urgency at this point last year as well. We wanna win every game. We wanna win every play."