Behind Enemy Lines: 5 Questions With Colorado Expert

With the Oregon State football team (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) set to face Colorado (2-6, 1-4) on Saturday afternoon, BeaversEdge.com caught up with CU Sports Nation PublisherJustin Guerriero to learn more about the Bears.

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1. What's been the biggest issue(s) for Colorado's offense this season?

JG: "Colorado offense has largely been pitiful this season for a multitude of reasons. For starters, second-year freshman quarterback Brendon Lewis has for the most part not looked very good; for even the most casual observers of football, it is obvious how long he holds on to the ball at times, doesn't seem to go through reads or progressions at the line of scrimmage and suffers from a bad habit of staring down wide receivers before throwing to them.

That being said, the offensive problems haven't all been on Lewis' shoulder. I personally don't think offensive coordinator Darrin Chiaverini and head coach Karl Dorrell have done the greatest job of chalking up gameplans best suited to what Lewis does well — extending plays with his legs and moving the ball downfield incrementally, with some deep looks here and there.

A quick segway on that note: Chiaverini has, without doubt, received his fair share of venom from Buff Nation for the offense's struggles this year, but ultimately, I do wonder how much of CU's offense is the product of Dorrell. In other words, it's hard to get a real feel for who the actual architect of the offense is in terms of its design.

The final component here has been the regression of Colorado's offensive line. Poor play up front has been a major factor in why Jarek Broussard and Alex Fontenot, the Buffs' two talented tailbacks who were expected to play major roles on offense this year, especially in alleviating some pressure off a young quarterback, haven't been able to get much going.

The Buffs' o-line was so bad at Cal two weekends ago (season-high six sacks allowed in CU's 26-3 loss) that it prompted Dorrell to fire line coach Mitch Rodrigue, who had never coached at the P5 level before joining Colorado's staff last spring.

Already, tapping former quality control coach William Vlachos as interim o-line coach has borne fruit. Colorado's offensive line performed admirably against a talented Oregon Ducks defensive front last Saturday and on the whole, Lewis and the offense looked quite frankly the best that they have all season long.

How CU managed to shed its offensive incompetence against the best team in the Pac-12 I simply don't know. But for all the issues I have laid out above, the Buffs do enter this weekend's game vs. the Beavs having put together a pretty respectable day at the office offensively vs. a top 10-ranked team."

2. How would you attack Colorado's defense?

JG: "First and foremost, run the ball down Colorado's throat and make the Buffs prove that they have the ability to stop it.

The Buffs, in all likelihood, are going to be without star senior linebacker Nate Landman against the Beavers, and given how effectively Oregon State runs the ball, that might lead to trouble.

Landman went down last season with a torn Achilles in the Buffs' regular-season finale against Utah, and he was unable to play in the Valero Alamo Bowl vs. Texas. He bounced back nicely and was a full go for the start of the 2021 season, looking like his dominant old self as the year has gone on, but Landman got banged up against California two weeks ago and missed CU's game at then-No.7 Oregon.

In two games without Landman, last year's Alamo Bowl and last weekend at Oregon, CU's defense has looked lost out there. Coaches talk often about Landman's abilities as a communicator and how much his presence elevates the play of the defense in general, and watching two games without him out there, it is obvious how right they are.

Texas and Oregon together averaged just over 600 yards of total offense against the Buffaloes without Landman. Now, obviously, we're talking about two very good teams here and Landman at the end of the day is only one guy. Yet, the Buffs simply have not proven that they can be a good or great unit without him.

Oregon ran the ball with impunity last weekend, despite the best efforts of LBs Quinn Perry, Marvin Ham, Jack Lamb and Robert Barnes, all of whom saw heavier snaps in Landman's absence.

CU's secondary has performed pretty well this year, with cornerbacks Christain Gonzalez and Mekhi Blackmon looking good for the most part on the year.

I don't think Colorado's defensive line is getting as much push as it would like, which could end up being problematic against a good run team in OSU.

So, overall, I'd definitely suggest to Brian Lindgren that he set the tone early with the run game. See how allowance (I assume a lot) will be there and evaluate accordingly. CU's secondary I think overall is good, but certainly not impervious to allowing chunky plays through the air, too."

3. Jerrick Brousard is one of the more talented running backs in the conference... what makes him so special and how do you expect him to fare against the Beavs?

JG: "For reasons mentioned above, Broussard has been unable to replicate the dominance he displayed last season, as he went on to win Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year honors.

A lot of that has been due to the lackluster play of the offensive line to date this year.

But Broussard without question is a talented back with solid strength for his modest frame. As you might expect, he's also insanely fast and displays good vision (when there are holes for him to exploit).

Broussard also has been used in the pass game a lot more in recent weeks; in CU's last two games, he's caught seven passes, compared to the four he hauled in through Colorado's first six games of the year.

I think that's been done in part to give Brendon Lewis some more short field/check down options but at any rate, that'll be something Oregon State's defense will need to keep a tab on come Saturday."

4. Who are a couple of players on both sides that Oregon State fans should be aware of and why?

JG: "Offensively, second-year freshman wideout Brenden Rice has emerged as the big-play machine for the Buffaloes. He had five catches for 102 yards and a touchdown last week against Oregon and has become a favorite target of Lewis'. Rice also returns kicks for CU and has been very impressive in that regard to date.

Junior tight end Brady Russell is another guy that gets open often when he's not on blocking assignments; in yards and receptions, he is second only to Rice on the team.

Defensively, second-year freshman Christian Gonzalez has continued to build off a very solid 2020 campaign and in all honesty, is probably CU's top NFL prospect right now, on both sides of the ball. He earned a starting cornerback gig last season coming out of fall camp as a true freshman and has only gotten better since.

Finally, junior defensive end Carson Wells is another guy the Beavs' offensive line will need to be aware of. He led the nation last year in TFLs and has a team-high seven this season in addition to 10 quarterback pressures, which also leads the Buffaloes.

Wells more often than not finds his way into opposing teams' backfields and causes trouble one way or another."

5. What's your score prediction and why?

JG: "As I mentioned earlier, for all the Buffs' struggles on offense, they enter this game against OSU coming off a pretty solid performance against Oregon. Undoubtedly, the offense has been the weak link on the chain for CU this season while broadly speaking, the defense has performed admirably.

However, with Landman out, this defense truly is different; specifically, it's not as good. So, I almost see a bit of a reversal of this season's trend, in that against the Beavers, I expect the offense to keep clicking while the real worry is the defense's ability to stop the run and stop drives in general.

Who knows, perhaps Colorado's offense will regress this weekend — it's certainly not a foregone conclusion that it will perform well again in a similar fashion to what we saw in Eugene last Saturday, but I personally envision a decent-to-good offensive showing that's undermined by a shaky defensive performance.