In trying to get his team on the right track, Colorado head coach Karl Dorrell is focusing on the fact that the Buffaloes had chances to win each of the first two games.
The final scores in both were ugly, with TCU routing the Buffs 38-13 on Sept. 2 and Air Force rolling to a 41-10 victory on Saturday.
Common to both games, however, is that the Buffs (0-2) were very much in contention to win late in the third quarter before unraveling at the end.
Dorrell and the Buffs have a sense of urgency to produce different results as they embark on the difficult task of traveling to Minnesota (2-0) on Saturday (1:30 p.m., ESPN2).
“(The players) have been very upset, because in their minds, they feel they’re better,” Dorrell said Monday. “They’re on the same page with how the coaches feel.
“They’ll grow and emerge. They know that they have potential – I hate that word, by the way. But they have it; they do. It’s just that now they have to really force it out of themselves. I think the pressure as that leadership group, they’re pressing their thumbs on everybody else now about everybody being more detailed to be the best that they can be so that we’re able to get the product that we’re looking for.”
In the opener against TCU, the Buffs were down 17-6 late in the third quarter, but couldn’t complete a drive into TCU territory that might have pulled them within one score. That was followed by two TCU touchdowns that put the game away.
Saturday at Air Force, the Buffs fell behind 20-0 early, but pulled within 20-10 at halftime. A fumble at the goal line prevented CU from cutting the deficit to only three. That was followed by a failed fourth-and-2 opportunity at the AFA 32-yard line on the next drive.
The Falcons scored three touchdowns in the final 17:34 to put the game away. CU has been outscored 35-7 in the fourth quarter this season.
Struggles on offense have been the glaring weakness of the Buffs through two games, but Dorrell said his team needs to figure out to complement each other – stacking good moments together to create some momentum.
“I felt like our defense gave us chances in that game Saturday,” Dorrell said. “They gave us chances. Now offensively, we’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities. We’re just not playing the complementary football that we should…we’re not maximizing our opportunities. Those are the things that we’re really focusing in on is playing better with each other and understanding the significance about critical area play. We have to produce. We have to start playing at a level we’re capable of playing.”
While the final results of the first two games have been ugly, Dorrell remains confident that his team can shift momentum.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “We had that discussion with our team, they understand where we are. We’re in a hole, but we can get ourselves out of it. We can, if we play better football. We’ve had good practices. We’ve got to make sure what we’re practicing, we actually play that way (on game day).
“There’s still a lot of football to be played, which I’m excited about. We’ve got 10 games to really start to show some improvement and prove our mettle a little bit and get going before the conference race starts. … There’s still a lot of football for us to emerge and get involved with, but we need to really have a sense of urgency about fixing things in a hurry.”
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