Grading Colorado football’s performance at Oregon State

The play calling on the offensive side didn’t look too bad to me. The Buffaloes tried a nice mix of run and pass but were ultimately let down by poor execution.

Defensive coaches tried to commit extra bodies to the line of scrimmage to stop the run, but this exposed them to the play-action game. Linebackers and defensive backs were too often peaking into the backfield and let up too much space in the intermediate passing game.

It just looked to me like the Oregon State coaches were a step ahead all night. When the Buffs were looking to pass, the Beavers ran. When the Buffs were looking to stop the run, the Beavers passed. I think that comes down to oversimplification at this point. The Beavers coaches knew exactly what CU was doing all night and coaches couldn’t make the changes to confuse anyone.