Buffaloed! Why TCU was upset by Colorado, Coach Prime and Shedeur Sanders
It’s rare that the hype lives up to reality, but all the hype around Deion Sanders and Colorado proved to be well deserved as the Buffaloes shocked TCU 45-42 in Saturday’s season opener.
“You’ve got to give Colorado a ton of credit,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “I think they showed up, were more ready to play and more excited to play. I think they played harder and had more determination down the stretch.”
Coach Prime’s Buffaloes were the more disciplined team and came out with a near perfect offensive game plan to attack the Horned Frogs’ 3-3-5 defense. TCU’s defense had multiple chances to put the game away including forcing Colorado into a third-and-16 and fourth-and-2 late in the game.
The Buffaloes converted on both drives and turned those conversions into touchdowns including the final 46-yard touchdown to Dylan Edwards.
[More: See photos from TCU’s loss to Colorado]
The Horned Frogs had one chance to tie or retake the lead, but on the final drive Chandler Morris threw it behind Savion Williams for an incompletion on third down and then Jared Wiley came up short on fourth down to end the game.
“We’ve got 11 more (games),” Morris said. “We wanted this first one, but we’ve got 11 more opportunities and this moment isn’t going to define us as a football team. We’re going to make sure of that and this is going to define us. We’ve just got to move forward and learn from the mistakes. That wasn’t TCU football, that wasn’t our standard.”
Briles and Morris first impressions
It was the ultimate mixed bag in the first start for quarterback Chandler Morris and the debut of new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles. On paper, TCU’s raw numbers were more than adequate, but the stat sheet only tells a partial story. On three separate occasions, the Horned Frogs got to the red zone and here’s how it went: Interception, missed field goal, interception.
“The first interception I was late getting back (to Wiley), that’s on me,” Morris said. “The second one, (Travis Hunter) made a great play but then again I’ve got to protect the football.”
A lack of run plays was the common thread in those disaster situations and the Horned Frogs also had a number of procedural penalties before the snap that made it difficult for TCU to find a rhythm at times offensively. With that being said, there were also some moments of good including a breakout performance by Emani Bailey, who had 164 yards on 14 carries.
But the passing game was uneven all afternoon with Morris struggling with his ball placement, especially on vertical routes. Morris threw two backbreaking interceptions and completed only 57% of his 42 passes.
“Chandler hadn’t played a lot of football, so there were going to be some growing pains,” Dykes said. “We understand that, but I thought he did a pretty good job. The two red zone turnovers were big plays in the game and we’ve got do a (better) job of making routine throws and catches.”
Defense disappoints
After a strong spring and preseason training camp, the TCU defense had high expectations for itself, but Colorado showed that the unit still has a long way to go. Shedeur Sanders picked apart an experienced secondary with ease, simply dumping it down to his receivers and letting them work. Like on Colorado’s first drive of the second half when Sanders completed a screen to Dylan Edwards for a 75-yard touchdown that made it 24-14.
After TCU finally took its first lead of the game late in the third quarter, Sanders completed a 44-yard strike to Xavier Weaver on a streak to set up another Edwards touchdown that made it 31-28. Aside from Rick D’Abreu, there weren’t many bright spots as the unit struggled with missed tackles and there were penalties by defensive leaders like Jamoi Hodge and Josh Newton.
With a chance to seize control of the game after the offense retook a 35-31 lead, the defense allowed Colorado to convert a third-and-16. A few plays later the Buffaloes were back in front after a wide open touchdown pass from Sanders to Jimmy Horn Jr.
“I thought it was terrible,” Dykes said of TCU’s defense. “I thought our tackling was really bad defensively. We’ve got a lot of guys back, those guys have tackled. I’m not sure what happened today. It was a really bad defensive performance.”
Colorado’s stars outshine TCU
In close ball games, it often comes down to a few plays or in this instance a few players. The trio of Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and Dylan Edwards basically won the game by themselves with big play after big play. Let’s start with Sanders, who had an all-time performance 510 yards and four touchdowns. For the most part he was willing to take what TCU’s defense gave him and allow his receivers to do the work, but Sanders made a number of big time throws even with pressure in his face.
Edwards, a four star freshman that Prime flipped from Notre Dame, proved to be a massive pickup with three touchdown catches and 135 yards. The biggest star of them all was Travis Hunter. Hunter proved why he can be college football’s version of Shohei Ohtani with a two-way performance for the ages.
Hunter had 11 receptions for 119 yards, an interception in the red zone and only gave up one or two catches at the most in over 100 snaps in near 100-degree weather. Hunter was far and away the best player on the field and TCU had no answer for him.
“I thought what he did today was phenomenal,” Dykes said. “What he did today, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a college football game. To play as many snaps as he did with the heat like it was, it didn’t look like it affected him at all. You have to give those guys a ton of credit.”
Shaky first half
At the start of the game it was TCU that looked like the team that had over 60 new players on its roster instead of Colorado. The Horned Frogs were sloppy and undisciplined with seven penalties compared to just two for Colorado. There was a bad interception by Chandler Morris in the end zone and missed kick by Griffin Kell. All those plays contributed to TCU trailing for most of the first half in front of a shocked Amon G. Carter Stadium.
The other big thing that stood out was how clear Colorado’s identity was on offense. The Buffaloes knew they wouldn’t be able to run the ball much, so instead they used their passing game as an extension of the run game. Sanders was 22-of-28 for 182 yards in the first half, that’s better than some quarterbacks do in a full game.
TCU made things easy for him though as TCU constantly gave Buffaloes receivers a lot of cushion. Sanders fed the TCU defense a steady diet of stop routes and underneath swings. Simple plays, but the Horned Frogs’ struggles to tackle in the open field allowed Colorado to turn three yards into six-yard gains. Were it not for a forced fumble and a blocked kick by Namdi Obiazor, the first half margin could’ve been even worse.
This story was originally published September 2, 2023 at 2:51 PM.
