Colorado's Three Biggest Weaknesses Shown in Blowout Loss to Northwestern

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Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Colorado Buffaloes in their 41-7 loss to the Northwestern Wildcats, as they were embarrassed in their Week 3 loss. The Buffaloes had three major weaknesses that stood above the rest.

Between the mentality the Buffaloes had coming into the game and their execution on the field, the Buffaloes were outplayed from start to finish. Here's a look at the three weaknesses from those areas that led to such a brutal loss.

Missed tackles

The Buffaloes struggled mightily with missed tackles, as they were what allowed the Wildcats' rushing attack to achieve the level of success it saw.

The Wildcats combined for 182 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground, with six running backs, a wide receiver and two quarterbacks recording carries. The variety of running styles may have thrown Colorado off, but more than likely, their struggles were rooted in a lack of integrity in their tackling.

Colorado's secondary was primarily at fault when it came to missed tackles, as the Wildcats found success when running the ball to the outside and shaking the first one or two defensive backs to make contact.

Even in the receiving game, Colorado struggled to wrap up against the Wildcats. Of Northwestern's 241 receiving yards, 123 of them came after the catch.

Overconfidence

The Buffaloes also clearly came into this game overconfident. Although they seemed to have bought into coach Deion Sanders' postgame message from their win over the Weber State Wildcats, they got way ahead of themselves before kickoff.

As Colorado was entering Martin Stadium, linebacker Tyler Martinez could be heard making fun of the Wildcats' makeshift. In the video from Kamran Nia on X that has since gone viral, Martinez says that the stadium "sucks" and "sounds like an (expletive) library."

Safe to say, the moment has received a lot of negative attention given the lopsided final score. Colorado will need a shift in mentality if it wants to get back on track, but that may be an easy change to make due to the game's humbling result.

Getting off blocks

But Colorado's defense also struggled in another aspect while trying to stop the run and prevent run-after-catch from the receivers. The Buffs had a hard time getting off blocks against the Wildcats from the top to the bottom of their defense.

This was another aspect that prevented the secondary from playing a role in stopping either, as Northwestern's screen passes and outside handoffs came with immediate running room. When they did get off of their blocks, they got thrown off balance enough for Northwestern's playmakers to run straight through them.

But even the defensive line struggled with this. Colorado's pass rush was a nonfactor, as Colorado recorded just one sack and three quarterback hurries. While Northwestern had similar stats in those categories, that was due to it not dialing up many blitzes given the substantial lead. Colorado was blitzing just as much as normal, but the Wildcats' offensive line stonewalled the Buffs time and again.

The Buffs' defensive tackles were frequently driven backwards, opening up running lanes on the interior. If Colorado hopes to slow down the powerful rushing attacks of the Big 12, it will need to incorporate far better technique to prevent such dominant blocking.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/colorado as Colorado's Three Biggest Weaknesses Shown in Blowout Loss to Northwestern.

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