Grading Colorado’s 41-10 loss at Air Force

The Buffaloes have had a rough start to the season, and while I will always find myself as an optimist, we would be doing a disservice to our readers if we didn’t grade Colorado honestly after each game.

The Air Force game was a buzzsaw waiting to happen. The Buffaloes did have some moments in the middle two quarters that made it a game, but they were ultimately done in by the same woes that plagued CU last year — an offense that couldn’t consistently move the ball and an overworked defense that crumbled after being on the field for way too long.

Here’s our Week 2 report card for Colorado’s 41-10 loss at Air Force

Coaching: D-

Colorado coaches did make a switch at the quarterback position, identifying a weakness from Week 1 with the intention of trying to improve. Other than that, there weren’t a lot of positives.

Air Force was able to run a basic set of plays and no adjustments were made to those calls. A mixture of the fullback trap and the outside pitch was where Air Force got most of its yards.

Offensive coaches will need to come up with a game plan that allows the Buffs to move the ball consistently, or else this game will play on a loop for the rest of the season.

Offense: F

The offense was able to run the ball a bit in the second quarter and score 10 points to make it a game early in the second half but beyond that, little good can be said for the offense. Those 10 points were all the Buffs could muster, even though Air Force fumbled the ball three times and even set the Buffs up inside the red zone on a bad snap on a punt. The Buffs’ offense only turned those AF mishaps into three points.

Defense: D+

It feels wrong to have to keep downgrading the defense when they are not receiving the type of support they need from the offense. After a quick blitz to put the Falcons up 20-0, the defense held them in check from the second quarter…