The Buffs fell to the Missouri Tigers 13 – 28 on Saturday in what started out as a pretty decent battle. Mizzou’s offense came out in high gear and took the Buff’s defense to task with two flawless and unstoppable drives on their first two possessions. The Buffs managed to make a few adjustments on D and slow Chase Daniel and Tony Temple down but a Mizzou touchdown in the waning minutes of the 2nd quarter put CU down 6 – 21 at half.
On the first possession of the second half the Buffs took the ball straight down the field for 6 points in just 2 plays: a 63 yard Jackson to Dusty Sprague bomb and a 1 yard dive by Jackson for the score. That was when the CU faithful started to think the Buffs had finally found their stride on offense. Watching the passing game come to life after 4 games of ugly was exciting. The good news is the passing game did continue to develop the bad news is the Buffs failed to make anything happen despite having a working, albeit clunky, passing game as well as a fired up Hugh Charles running game. The Buffs failed to convert all but one 3rd down in the second half and failed on both 4th down attempts. The defense tried to step it up but the Mizzou offense was on fire and despite a couple of turnovers the Tigers managed to sneak another 7 on the board at the end of the 3rd quarter which sealed the game.
Once again the Buffs continue to improve offensively. Hugh Charles fell just shy of another 100 yard game with 87 net yards. Bernard Jackson actually topped Charles with 93 net rushing yards on 15 carries. Most importantly Jackson started to show that he is indeed a double threat at QB. While his passing numbers aren’t impressive by most standards going only 13 for 27 for 190 yards I think it’s fair to say it was his best game of the season and a vast improvement over the previous 4 outings. After the game Coach Hawk commented on just how important an improved passing game is, “guys are starting to feel we can throw the football, we can make some plays. It’s just a case of keeping it coming.”
What Coach didn’t mention was 3rd down conversions. Passing is fun. A running game is great. But we’re going to have to get a little better at both if we plan on continuing to only convert 25% of our 3rd downs. I can appreciate the “Go For It!!” attitude Hawkins displayed when he chose to go for it on what felt like every 4th down we faced (0 for 5 according to official stats). However, truth be told I’d much rather just convert a few 3rd downs and, more importantly, convert a few drives into 6 points.
Looking forward I think Hawk hit it on the head when he said, “at some point, you’ve got to play to win and not play to lose.” It’s hard to imagine we need to be even hungrier but CU crossed the 50 yard line 8 times in this game and only scored 13 points. The Buffs took the ball away from the opposition 2 times and only managed 13 points. Maybe it’s too many personnel changes preventing a rhythm. Maybe it’s poor play calling. It could be penalties (6 for 56 yards). All of those things contribute to our inability to finish but the biggest problem is execution. The offense is clicking a little more each game but they still have a fair bit more “clicking” to do. Luckily I think we have great talent on both sides of the ball and a coach that is just/still learning how to take advantage of it all. Hopefully we use Baylor as our breakout confidence builder this week. At this point I’ve been humbled enough to say a win is a big win no matter who we play.
I know I left the Defense out of this post-game review but they played solid as always. Big games for T-Wheat and “Dave” Cha’pelle Brown. Dizon, Sims, Hippo and Abraham Wright continue to be big players making big plays at big times. Keep it up defense; eventually the offense will help themselves and give y’all a break.

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