Joel Klatt reveals a major problem facing Colorado entering Oregon, USC games

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt identified the biggest problem Colorado faces when the team plays Oregon and USC over the next two weeks.

Deion Sanders and crew are 3-0 and created a lot of buzz, but there were glaring defenses issues against Colorado State. And teams like Oregon and USC could really make the Buffaloes pay.

“Colorado did not adjust very well, let me give you a couple of examples of that,” Klatt said on his podcast. “When Colorado State was on offense, they threw, I mean, it felt like no less than 20 crossing routes and it wasn’t just crossing routes, because crossing routes can happen at any level of the defense. These were shallow cross routes or drive routes. 

“And Colorado had no answer for these shallow cross routes. And I knew it was about to happen. I’m sure most of you knew it was about to happen and they could not defend it. They couldn’t defend it and they had no answer. That was a problem. That’s a problem when you have no answer.”

As you might have guessed, Colorado is likely to see more of the same from Oregon when the Buffaloes head to Eugene this weekend.

“Guess what they’re about to see from Oregon, a bunch of crossing routes, shallow cross routes, why? You had no answer. And quite frankly, like some other teams are going to do it in a more creative fashion and get even faster players the ball in those spaces and it could be dangerous moving forward. 

“You think Oregon’s not going to have a plan for the shallow cross? You think Lincoln Riley and USC’s not going to have a plan for those shallow cross routes? My goodness, watch out and guess what when it comes to USC, guess who’s going to be catching that shallow cross? Zachariah Branch. Good luck tackling him.” 

Oh yeah, Colorado has USC to worry about right after that. That’s not to say Colorado couldn’t potentially keep up on offense.

But the Buffaloes’ defense got burnt repeatedly by the same concept against Colorado State over the weekend.

“Colorado State schemed something up and Colorado had no answer,” Klatt said. “So that’s at one point being out-coached. Colorado tried to play soft and just say let’s rally up and make the tackle, that wasn’t working. They went to man coverage, that wasn’t working. They had no answer. Part of that was personnel based. I don’t know if Colorado could do much because Travis Hunter was out of the game. If Travis Hunter’s in the game, then you put him on what would be considered the tight wide receiver, the nasty split wide receiver, who in these cases was running the shallow cross. 

“You lock him up man, you can play zone behind it. You can do a lot of creative things right there you can bracket, but without Hunter your hands are a little bit tied. Having said that they didn’t have an answer and they let it go on for far too long.”