Colorado vs Oregon Preview: There’s Always A Bigger Fish

Colorado vs Oregon Preview: There’s Always A Bigger Fish

By College Football Analyst Gabriel Rauch for Wannamakeabet.com

This coming Saturday afternoon at 3:30 EDT the Oregon Ducks will be visited by the most talked about team in college football, the Colorado Buffaloes. Spearheaded by NFL Hall of famer Deion Sanders who is in his 2nd year coaching, Colorado have made a staggering 51! transfers into this season. Along with this, Deion has talked the talk and walked the walk and as a result, Colorado are 3-0! Colorado faces their biggest test yet playing at Oregon in their first conference game of the season. So is Colorado as good as advertised? Let’s take a look at their wins. 

Colorado vs TCU 

“They beat a team who was in the national championship game last year,” is what many people will refer to when discussing Colorado’s greatness this year and justifying the hype. It is technically a true statement, TCU was in the national championship last year where they were decimated by Georgia 65-7. TCU also lost their quarterback from last year Max Duggan who turned a mediocre team into a 13-1 title contender through his continuous last second heroics in close games. Additionally TCU had no tape on Colorado to prepare against the aforementioned completely new roster. Now was the win impressive? Of course it was, and so was Deion’s son Shadeur Sanders putting up 500+ yards, but it needs context. 

Nebraska vs Colorado 

Not much to say about this one, Nebraska is the college football team every year who cannot seem to ever get out of their own way (sorry Nebraska fans). 

Colorado St vs Colorado

This game is the big one of them all to cement the legend of Deion. The game with all the celebrities, the game that kept America up until past 2am on the east coast, and the game with the shit talking. Colorado State coach Jay Norvell made a rookie mistake in college, which is to never give your opponent bulletin board material. Norvell commented on Deion’s shade wearing and that was all Coach Prime needed to hype up the team, turning into a storyline. In the actual game, Colorado State was very close to putting the game away, yet Norvell made a weak late game coaching decision to not go for it on 4th down to seal the game. They let Colorado back into the game and gave them the opportunity to complete the comeback. 

What about Oregon?

Now that Colorado doesn’t have the element of surprise or the extra motivation, what will happen in the Oregon game. The Oregon Ducks may be the 10th ranked team in the country who is playing at home, but they aren’t perfect. They had to have a come from behind win vs Texas Tech (an average Big 12 team) and while their quarterback Bo Nix might be in the Heisman running right below Shadeur Sanders, he will make a few erratic decisions in a game that will give the opponents defense life. Despite all of Oregon’s potential falters, they should win this game comfortably for two reasons. 

 

1. Oregon is a much more talented team and simply better on both sides of the ball. Colorado gave up over 250 yards rushing to TCU and over 300 yards passing to Colorado State. Bo Nix is a dual threat quarterback who is known to spread and run the ball all over the teams he plays. And remember how he usually makes a couple mistakes a game? The opposing team still needs a player to take advantage of those mistakes and because Colorado’s best player on defense and biggest playmaker Travis Hunter is out of the game, it is less likely Nix blunders will have consequences. On defense, Oregon was a dominant force last year and is just as good this year, picking off Texas Tech quarterback Tyler Slaugh three times. Shadeur Sanders is phenomenal and deserves praise, but Oregon’s defense is a class above what he’s played against. 

 

1. The extra motivation factor. Earlier this week, Colorado was blasting Oregon’s fight song while practicing, which is exactly the motivation one team does not want to give their opponent. On the surface, this sounds harmless and maybe even good for Colorado to have fun. As ridiculous as it sounds, in college football simple things like this are enough for a coach to give moldable teenagers who otherwise might not care about their school, an extra reason to give their best effort. We saw this work as recently as last week when Deion used Norvell’s comments as extra motivation. 

Colorado is a great story and it has been great for college football that Deion and company are bringing more eyeballs to the sport. It is just inevitable that they will hit a wall, and this weekend that wall is in Eugene, Oregon. 

Pick: Oregon -21