Deion Sanders and the Case of the Vanishing Offensive Line
Three days after a humbling 28-10 loss to Nebraska, Colorado coach Deion Sanders, also known as “Prime Time,” decided it was time to address the elephant in the room: his offensive line. Or, as some fans have started calling it, the “offensive sieve.”
“I feel like we got the right guys,” Sanders said, with the kind of confidence usually reserved for magicians about to pull a rabbit out of a hat. “You may see us shake something up a little bit. Phil Loadholt is a wonderful offensive line coach. [Offensive coordinator] Pat [Shurmur] does a tremendous job in calling plays as he did in the first game [against North Dakota State].”
Ah yes, the first game. The one where the Buffaloes racked up over 500 yards of offense against an FCS opponent, with 445 of those yards coming through the air. It was a performance so dazzling that it made everyone forget they managed just 2.6 yards per carry and finished with a grand total of 59 yards rushing. But hey, who’s counting?
Fast forward to the Nebraska game, and things took a turn for the worse. The Buffaloes managed a whopping 16 rushing yards on 0.7 yards per carry. That’s right, 0.7 yards. You could almost hear the collective groan of the offensive line as they realized they were being outperformed by a group of toddlers playing flag football.
And then there was the matter of protecting quarterback Shedeur Sanders. The poor guy was sacked five times and threw a crucial pick-six early in the game. It was like watching a horror movie where you know the jump scare is coming, but you still scream when it happens.
“Protections were a problem,” Deion Sanders said after the game, in what might be the understatement of the century. “You know, I’m trying to be polite and say it, because you know I can say the same thing you’re thinking, but if I say it, you’d say I’m throwing my guys up under the bus. I’m not doing that whatsoever. Protections were a problem. We got to figure out a way to prevent that and do a better job with that.”
Translation: “My offensive line couldn’t block a spam email.”
When asked what it would take to get the run game going, Sanders said, “We try to run the football. It’s an attitude. It’s a straight attitude. You got to whoop your guy on that particular play. And I think we’ve committed to it on certain plays. We just got to do a better job in getting the first down.”
In other words, “We need to channel our inner Hulk and smash.”
As if things couldn’t get any worse, Colorado’s 71 rushing yards rank last in FBS among teams that have played at least two games this season. And to add insult to injury, they’ll be without leading rusher Dallan Hayden for the upcoming game against in-state rival Colorado State.
So, what’s the plan moving forward? Sanders remains optimistic. “We got to do a better job running the football. That takes a lot of pressure off your quarterback and makes things easier for Pat.”
Let’s hope the Buffaloes find their inner beast soon, or else they might need to start recruiting from the local sumo wrestling club.