I'm going to make this short because I don't want to relive this game...
First of all, I don't think you can find a silver lining from this game. Yeah, the defense was better (14 points, 353 yards), but Colorado does have the worst offense in the conference. While K-State held them under their season averages for yards and points allowed, CU outperformed their season averages for yards, and they more than doubled their average for rushing yards (114 ypg, 247 in the game). If Colorado didn't spend the majority of the game with a true freshman under center, we probably would have seen a much more potent offensive attack as well, but that's just me postulating with the power of hindsight.
While there were certain things to be happy about from a defensive standpoint, the offense was simply awful. They were outgained by Colorado, 353-349. Even worse, they only tried running the ball twenty-three times all night. Now, if the ‘Cats had trouble running the ball, it would have been understandable, but they were averaging 4.9 yards a carry. Freeman, who only carried the ball seven times, averaged 6.0 yards a carry and this included a seventeen yard touchdown run in the third quarter. This, coincidentally, happened to be the only touchdown of the night for K-State.
If you want a stat that will really blow your mind, how about this...
After the first quarter, where KSU rushed the ball ten times, they rushed the ball thirteen times through the next three quarters.
Let that sink in. In the first quarter, when KSU rushed the ball ten times against fourteen pass plays, they accumulated 133 yards of offense, and they kicked two field goals for scores. Of course, knowing this philosophy was working, they decided to go against it because our coach wanted to confuse the other team by doing exactly the opposite of WHAT WAS WORKING. That's smart (not scared) coaching right there.
I'm not even going to comment on the fact that with over a minute left to play in the first half, Prince elected to kneel on the ball...again. Now, I want to comment on this, but better judgment is preventing me from doing so. It would make this a rated "R" forum instead of the "PG-13" we currently employ. If I could repeat the profanity laced string of insults that I hurled at my television, or the text messages I exchanged with TB, it would probably make a sailor blush.
Let's just say that I wasn't pleased and leave it at that.
So, instead of rehashing all of the gory details of yesterday's game, I think the previous Fan Shot of Jim Mora's tirade summed it up nicely.
All credit to Colorado. You put a quarterback on the field that could run the football, and you confused the Hell out of our defensive players and took advantage of their ability to ignore containment. While this strategy didn't score a ton of points, it was still effective enough to win the game. Kudos.
The next several days here at BOTC will probably be pretty interesting. I haven't had a chance to talk to TB yet about what we want to do outside of our normal content, but I think he and I are both in agreement about what we'd like to see happen with the program going forward. I haven't had a discussion with EMAW about it, but I think he's probably on board too. We'll probably have a pow-wow and figure out how we want to vent our frustrations going forward without alienating those of you that stop by. I'm definitely feeling immensely pessimistic about this team going forward, and that's never fun to read, so I may tone down my frustrations. However, I think you'll continue to see some pretty harsh criticism thrown Prince's way. Maybe Krause and Wefald's way as well. Who knows?
Okay, I'm done rambling now. I haven't been able to put a coherent thought out about KSU in the last couple of days because what we're seeing on the field is anything but coherent at this point. I'm really struggling with what to think going forward, but all I can truly say for sure is that this program (and season) is a complete mess, and how we're going to get out of it remains a complete mystery.
Well, I'm calling it a night. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.