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The Colorado football team lost a heartbreaking conference matchup to 18th-ranked Kansas State on Saturday, falling 31-28. This week in practice, head coach Deion Sanders called a few of his position groups out.
Included in the criticism were the secondary, running backs, and offensive line. He says that all three were inconsistent in the Buffs‘ most recent loss.
That criticism was warranted in many cases.
Play on the backend of the defense was subpar, with the coach’s son, Shilo, shouldering a heavy brunt of poor performance. On more than one occasion, he was sent falling to his knees while trying to tackle Wildcats rusher DJ Giddens, resulting in explosive plays on the ground.
Meanwhile, Colorado running backs mustered just 21 yards on 10 carries.
Both areas must improve should the Buffaloes look to continue their success in 2024.
That said, many have called out his shade thrown at the offensive line. While the offense did allow Kansas State to rack up six sacks, much of the blame lay on quarterback Shedeur Sanders, according to Pro Football Focus.
Pass blocking grade for Colorado in their Week 7 loss to K-State per @PFF
Jordan Seaton 87.7
Hank Zilinskas 72.9
Kareem Harden 72.5
Tyler Brown 72.5
Phillip Houston 67.1Only Brown and Houston were credited with sacks. Shedeur Sanders was credited with 4/6 of the sacks
— LockedOnBuffs (@LockedOnBuffs) October 13, 2024
Of those six sacks, the site noted that Sanders’ habit of holding onto the football resulted in four.
Despite evidence of the issue, Deion Sanders refused to single out his son during this session.
While Coach Prime wouldn’t place blame on Shedeur Sanders for his role in the offensive struggles, he says that poor effort will be “rewarded” with extra practice time throughout the week.
Those responsible for giving up explosive plays on defense will practice on Sundays. The same is true for sacks surrendered by the offensive line.
It will be interesting to see if he evaluates those quarterback takedowns on a case-by-case basis to determine what players are truly to blame as he implements his new rule.