Kicking it into high gear
The Stanford Cardinal absolutely dominated the Buffaloes’ offense. After running a school-record 114 plays against UCLA the week before, the Buffs only totaled 53 offensive snaps against the stout Cardinal defense. Not only is that the fewest snaps the Buffs have run since 2012, when Stanford held CU to just 44, but the game-to-game drop off (61) was the largest in program history.
Safe to say, that’s not how the Buffs want to run their offense.
Through nine games, Mike MacIntyre’s team was fifth in the nation averaging 82.9 plays per game. If they want to compete with USC, they’ll have to get back to that style of play.
When the Buffs score, they score quickly
As detailed before, the Buffs love to run as many offensive plays as possible, using tempo and quick passes to move up and down the field. But when the Buffs are most successful, they’re moving towards the end zone in chunks.
Of the Buffs 32 touchdown drives this season, 51.6 percent of them have taken two minutes or less (12th highest in the nation). And on those drives, the Buffs averaged an outstanding 9.1 yards per play.
So when this offense gets into a groove, they’re virtually unstoppable. The issue, though, is finding and keeping that groove.
