Colorado Snowflakes: The Defense

Heat-seeking missiles. I would like a full armament of them, please.

I give credit to Lucy Liu's relative but Mr. Brown definitely needs to sit down and think hard. 

Peppers was amazing. Our DL played well. Our safeties got burned several times, which scares me for more talented teams we will play. At first glance it seemed like Dymonte was pretty bad on several (including a dropped TD pass in Endzone on that trick play).

To clean up for sure, and plenty of time in the season to do so. Keep in mind high scoring is pretty much the norm of college football now.

Safety coverage is yuck! I want boring safeties back

Best performance but good enough. Peppers outstanding. The DL got better as the game wore on. But still gave up too many big plays

Safeties were terrible. Linebackers are what they are at this point. We are terribly weak on the edge. Dline and Peppers saved the day. Hopefully we can get a Mone, Taco and JL make it back healthy. We need everyone at this point

GARY is getting really good. We so need JD.

I am not an expert, but it feels like we need a safety to cover big plays, until we can figure out how to get the pressure consistently. Man coverage is not working for us so far and I sure hope it is something we can fix soon. If we do, I think this Defense is going to play  as expected.

PEPPERS is the heart and soul of this D. No doubt. With him there, I believe we have a chance against spread teams. The dude is awesome.

Amazingly, they concern me. Need Lewis...

Growing pains with Brown's defensive schematics...the guys still have some confusion and are learning as they go.  FWIW Michigan is ramping up faster than any team Brown has coached.  Normally Brown defenses aren't prolific until year 3.

Worried about our secondary. They were exposed early and often. If their QB doesn't go down. This game goes down to the wire. Missing Mr. Lewis for sure.

Got punched in the mouth early giving up 14 to a pretty good team on offense. Then shut it down for the next three quarters, even before the QB went out the defense bucked up. The safety's in man coverage is kind of worrying. They are playing with Dead feet.

We really need Lewis back , like bad

Slants and posts. Posts and slants. Slants and posts. Posts and slants. Slants and posts. Posts and slants. Slants and posts. Posts and slants. Slants and posts. Posts and slants. Slants and posts. Posts and slants. Slants and posts. Posts and slants. Slants and posts. Posts and slants.
And tackling.

A) We need our All-American CB back. B) We need our DLine 90-100% healthy. C) Open tryouts for SS and FS -- if no one steps up then our All-American LB/PR/KR/RB/QB/SAFETY needs to return to the secondary. Otherwise we'll continue to get torched on slants, deep balls, and scrambles.

With Liufau they are a decent enough team although he went out because Michigan kept hitting him. It's nice to have a defense that can break quarterbacks.

Missed Mone & Charlton. 

Boring safeties would be cool. 

Despite these issues outscored Colorado 38-7 after the first quarter. 

If Mr. Allen hits is field goals Michigan goes 3 for 50. (see what I did there)

Safety play is concerning as everyone says.  Need better zone drops on the slants from our LBs.  And I never want to see McCray lined up across from a WR ever again.

Peppers is a god damn beast, Glasgow was very very good again, Hurst is getting healthy, and Gary is developing pretty rapidly.  His athleticism is sometimes jaw dropping.

We give up too many big plays between last week and this one. Our safeties were one on one against much faster wrs and were too close to be playing deep coverage.  Maybe Brown needs to dial back on blitzes and leave more players in coverage.

One word: A-D-J-U-S-T-M-E-N-T-S. #IBelieveinBrown

I'd say we're still a year or two away, but everyone freaking out about the big plays being given up: this is part of the Don Brown process.

His first year of implementing his schemes usually involve quite a few big plays being given up. By year two, and especially by year three, those guys are in maximum overdrive. It's going to take time for the guys to adjust to the scheme.

after first quarter.  Encouraging that some adjustments were effectively before half time.

Pepper laid the wood and Gary looking really good and better each week.

First quarter was gut wrenching until they settled in. Still Safety play was for the most part not good. Corners were ok. All those slant patterns in the hole killed us. They never really changed their coverage either. It's just they let the line go for it more. I was seeing a line not going max pressure because I'm sure it was to fix the running lane issue. But once they let it rip, pressure lead to a lot of misses. Still have to stop the big play. The 70 yarder sucked.

Safeties... more like... UNsafeties

I think Brown needs to trust in his DL a little more. Feels like he leaves the safeties out to dry way to much. 

We dont have the fastest safeties nor do they have great range either. Trust in DL more and at least keep another LB back and take away some of that middle stuff that was killing you.

Rashan Gary should start. Jabrill is a man. Recruiting matters lol

Rashan Gary should start. Jabrill is a man. Recruiting matters lol

OSU would have dropped 50 today.  Have to get better.

It seems like Brown has a little too much faith in the safeties and linebackers in coverage.  

JP, Wormley, Rashan, Clark, Stribling stepped up. Delano had a double mistake in 1 play, LB play was weak in pass coverage. DC Brown had a horrible 1st half and then got things settled. Hopefully the guys learned today. JD, Taco, Furbush and Mone could also help ...

The safeties were not given a fair shake. After a couple of times getting beat early it wasn't fair to keep having them matched up on quick inside slots without giving much help underneath over the middle. I don't know. That game didn't make me think that don brown makes a lot of money for a reason. It made me think he didn't adjust as quickly as he will need to against the best teams.

I thought after the initial storm our D line owned them. Proof would be the killing of their QB's. Not too bad with Mone and Charlton still out.

The secondary was exposed here, especially the safeties. We really need Lewis. Stribling seemed fine. As amazing as Peppers is, his coverage seems to be the weak part of his game. It seemed like Brown made some adjustments after that first quarter, but even so, we got lucky that Liufau got hurt.

Rashan Gary seems to really be getting adjusted to the college game. He was everywhere today, it seemed. Peppers.

1) I think too many people in this thread are underestimating Colorado's offense. That is a top-20 offense, at least, with Liufau in there. He made a couple throws that were approaching Trevor Siemian Unstoppable Throw God level today.

2) The adjustments were fantastic. From giving up 14 in the first quarter (7 were on the turnover), and then only giving up one score the rest of the way, something got changed for the better. Yes, Liufau went out, but M was still holding the Buffs in check before that. After decades of M being outcoached, I don't even know how to deal with this.

3) Really hope JD comes back soon. Obviously he would help in coverage.

4) Haven't seen anyone, including the UFRs or game columns here, talk about how our D now sometimes changes its call from the sideline when the offense is at the line and gets a new call from their own sideline. We did far too little of that before this year. I like it.

5) Peppers was far better utilized today. I think last week vs UCF was just us declining to put Peppers deployment on film. Makes me wonder what we're saving for the big two* games at the end of the year.

6) Love that Winovich is legit. Godin also had some very strong plays. Hurst looked better than last week and was a beast on a few plays. Those three, Gary, Glasgow, Wormley - plus Charlton and Mone when they get back, it's crazy how good this DL is (when healthy! I am not tempting you, AMDLHGs!).

until Gary was in there.