Saunders Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 2024 Game 2 “Expert” Picks: Colorado @ Nebraska ————— CollegeFootballNews.com If Colorado’s win over TCU last season made a splash, the 36-14 victory over Nebraska created a tidal wave. The sports world went Coach Prime crazy, and it’s all still going. The Buffaloes started the season with a win over North Dakota State, Nebraska roared past UTEP, and now this meeting means something more. This time around, both teams are expected to be good. Why Colorado Will Win The passing game continues to be amazing. Don’t let the 31-26 victory over an FCS team fool you - North Dakota State is good enough to win the FCS national title, and Shedeur Sanders ripped it apart. Okay, so there’s no running game, but that’s because the offense is put in the hands of 2. Sanders completed 26-of-34 passes for 445 yards and four scores with a pick, Travis Hunter played like the best all-around player in college football, and Nebraska has to be ready to handle all of it. It’s a better Husker team than the won that got rocked in Boulder, but the defense is still untested, and the offense has to prove it can keep up the pace without a slew of turnovers, and … Why Nebraska Will Win Colorado didn’t fix the glitches that turned last season so sour. How did it beat Nebraska last season? Yeah, Sanders was wonderful - he threw for almost 400 yards - but the Huskers gave the ball away four times. That’s still a concern with a freshman quarterback in his second game, but Dylan Raiola isn’t just an average newbie. Raiola was terrific and poised against UTEP last week, the running game was good, the team played with more confidence than it showed in years, and … Colorado vs Nebraska: Who Will Win Oh yeah, that whole Colorado not fixing the glitch thing. The defensive line was meh against North Dakota State, the offensive line continues to play like it’s designed to get Sanders hit as many times as humanly possible, and there’s going to be a HUGE time of possession disparity. Nebraska had the ball for almost 39 minutes against UTEP. Colorado had the ball for 23 minutes against NDSU. Sanders will come up with his yards and moments, but there won’t be enough of them to overcome the lack of any ground game and a porous defense. Nebraska 38 - Colorado 23 ————— ESPN FPI Nebraska - 60.4% Win ————— DRatings Nebraska 26 - Colorado 19 Nebraska - 73.2% Win ————— ESPN Bill Connelly SP+ Nebraska 30 - Colorado 20 Nebraska - 74% Win ————— Pat Forde - Sports Illustrated Realignment long ago took away this matchup of underrated vehemence between old conference rivals, but some juice has returned with the Buffaloes beating the Cornhuskers three straight times since 2018. Last season felt very much like the bitter old days, when Colorado fans stormed the field after a 36–14 win that helped turn September into the Month of Deion in the sport. Expect Nebraska fans to be extremely motivated to create a significant home-field advantage for their (perhaps) reviving program. The quarterback matchup here is enticing, with Shedeur Sanders the established commodity and freshman Dylan Raiola the emerging talent looking to prove himself. (Perhaps by boldly throwing at Colorado star defensive back Travis Hunter.) The Buffaloes defense was strafed in the first half of the opener against the North Dakota State Bison but tightened up thereafter. Colorado had two extra days to prepare after playing Thursday night. Colorado 31 - Nebraska 30 ————— 247 Sports - Chris Hummer & Brad Crawford Hummer - Colorado embarrassed Nebraska last year in Week 2 with a 22-point victory. But I'd expect things to look a lot different this season. Nebraska, thanks to a big upgrade at quarterback, is much improved and has some of the same advantages along the lines of scrimmage that North Dakota State had last week against the Buffaloes. The big question here is will Nebraska hold down what is a frankly elite group of Buffaloes wide receivers? The Huskers have the athletes in the secondary to keep up and one of the best coordinators in the country calling plays. Give me Nebraska to cover and home. Nebraska 24 - Colorado 16 Crawford — This Nebraska defense should be one of the best Colorado faces this season. That said, Travis Hunter can take the top off any secondary he comes in contact with, so the Buffaloes are going to score points. The middle of the defense is my worry with Colorado and the overall strength of this team in the trenches. Nebraska's a very different foe than North Dakota State when you compare the sheer bulk at the line of scrimmage. Give me Nebraska. Nebraska 31 - Colorado 20 ————— Athlon Sports Steven Lassan: Nebraska Dan Lyons: Nebraska Thomas Neumann: Colorado ————— AP - Ralph Russo Colorado-Nebraska was once a Big Eight rivalry that evolved into a Big 12 rivalry. The Buffaloes and Cornhuskers took a break when it would have been a Big 12-Big Ten game and then reconnected as a Pac-12-Big Ten matchup. Now, that the Buffs are back in the Big 12, the rivalry has circled back to check that Big 12-Big Ten box. Year 2 for both coach Deion Sanders at Colorado and Matt Rhule at Nebraska. These are two very different rebuilds, one portal-centric (Buffs led by transfer QB Shedeur Sanders), one more focused on high-school recruiting (five-star freshman QB Dylan Raiola leads the Huskers). This feels like a game that could launch the winner toward a good season and send the loser into questions about where they are heading. Nebraska 34 - Colorado 21 ————— 3 Quote Link to comment
teachercd Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Ugggg, I hate myself for clicking on that and watching the video game highlights. 1 4 Quote Link to comment
MyBloodIsRed16 Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 55 minutes ago, teachercd said: Ugggg, I hate myself for clicking on that and watching the video game highlights. someone got me on youtube when I was looking to see if someone posted the whole game against UTEP since I was out of town and my recording was just the 1st qrter and the rest of the PSU game. I might have been a little drunk and took me longer than it should have to realize I was watching a video game. 3 Quote Link to comment
Undone Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Have to win this damn game. 1 3 Quote Link to comment
Moiraine Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 1 hour ago, MyBloodIsRed16 said: someone got me on youtube when I was looking to see if someone posted the whole game against UTEP since I was out of town and my recording was just the 1st qrter and the rest of the PSU game. I might have been a little drunk and took me longer than it should have to realize I was watching a video game. I lol'd Quote Link to comment
Popular Post Moiraine Posted September 5 Popular Post Share Posted September 5 My overall thoughts here are: If you replaced Nebraska with any other team that looked like Nebraska, I would say Nebraska is going to win. But the fact is we have screwed the pooch in almost every game like this for the past 10-15 years. That is literally the only reason it's hard for me to assume we'll win. I think if it was another team and I was seeing it objectively, it would be easy to pick the not-Colorado team. 7 1 4 Quote Link to comment
soup Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 28 minutes ago, Moiraine said: My overall thoughts here are: If you replaced Nebraska with any other team that looked like Nebraska, I would say Nebraska is going to win. But the fact is we have screwed the pooch in almost every game like this for the past 10-15 years. That is literally the only reason it's hard for me to assume we'll win. I think if it was another team and I was seeing it objectively, it would be easy to pick the not-Colorado team. This is exactly where I am. It feels like this is a different team this year, but until they get punched in the face and respond we don't know for sure. 1 Quote Link to comment
teachercd Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 It doesn't help that this is a terrible match up for NU. NU is built to stop the run, eat clock and throw the ball to big tall WR's for 5-10 yards. CU doesn't care about running the ball CU doesn't care about eating clock If NU gets down in the game by two scores, it is over. The dam will break and NU will show again it is not ready for a big game. If NU gets up, well, CU can still come back, but if NU can get up and impose their will...This could be a beat down. 5 Quote Link to comment
Undone Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 32 minutes ago, teachercd said: NU is built to stop the run, eat clock and throw the ball to big tall WR's for 5-10 yards. CU doesn't care about running the ball CU doesn't care about eating clock If NU gets down in the game by two scores, it is over. We could maybe say that the bold is true because of the types of guys recruited under Chinander that are still here and their body types even, maybe. But Rhule is pretty bent on playing what I've heard him describe as "zero position football." So, the goal by White & Rhule is definitely to be so modular that you can flip from a 4-3 into a Dime set if you need to after one whistle. Are our corners good enough to stay with Hunter & Horn? No, but whose really are? I also don't think the kind of offense we play has anything to do with advantages or disadvantages in any given game. No matter what scheme either team plays, your defense either gets stops or they don't. If you get a ton of stops, you win the game regardless of any close dissection of the X's & O's. 2 Quote Link to comment
MyBloodIsRed16 Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Our safeties need to have big games. Corners will eventually get beat especially when Sanders starts running around. Safeties need to make sure they are there to clean up. Make Colorado drive the length of the field and not get 50 yard tds. after 2 plays in a series 1 Quote Link to comment
Undone Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Man...the college football analyst world really likes Rhule. You can see a lot of confidence that they're placing on him that this season will yield considerably more wins than in year one. If we were to somehow win 8 games this year, Matt Rhule's stock as a college football head coach is probably going to skyrocket. Anyway. I just want to see some dominant blocking on offense that puts us in a position to run for 75+ yards in the 4th. That would seriously be incredible. 2 1 Quote Link to comment
LumberJackSker Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Nebraska is going to slaughter Colorado so bad they're going to put the buffalo on the endangered species list. 4 Quote Link to comment
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