Colorado didn’t rack up a lot of penalties on Friday night.
Five flags for 30 yards is a manageable number. It was the timeliness of those penalties that hurt the most in the 38-13 loss to TCU at Folsom Field.
A delay of game penalty on CU’s second possession turned a third-and-5 into a third-and-10 from the TCU 17-yard line and CU settled for a field goal.
An illegal formation penalty on the next possession turned second-and-5 into second-and-10. CU punted two plays later, and the punt was returned by TCU for at touchdown.
Two penalties – a false start and delay of game – impacted the next possession, which led to another CU field goal.
And on the last possession of the first half, the Buffs had a holding penalty that wiped out a 14-yard pass from JT Shrout to Maurice Bell. Instead of first-and-10 at the TCU 31-yard line with 24 seconds to play in the half – and possibly taking the lead into intermission – the Buffs had second-and-20 from their 45-yard line and came up empty handed.
While the Buffs avoided penalties in the second half, the flags had a significant impact on the final result.
“In order to for us to win, we have to prevent ourselves from losing,” guard Casey Roddick said. “It’s tough when you have momentum-building plays that are killed by flags and things like that. Definitely that’s just down to execution and focus.”
Adjustments
In the first half, CU held TCU to 67 yards of offense on 18 plays (3.72 yards per play). The Horned Frogs’ only points came on a punt return for touchdown. In the second half, however, TCU racked up 346 yards on 35 plays (9.89 per play) and scored 31 points.
“I think it’s something that we were not doing and something they were doing that we didn’t have the right adjustment to,” head coach Karl Dorrell said. “We didn’t have the answers. They had better adjustments in the second half. We felt like we made adjustments, but apparently, they were not as good as they should have been.”
Homecoming
Former CU safety Mark Perry played against his old team for the first time. A starter for the Horned Frogs, he had four tackles on the night.
“Man, it was weird. I’ve never been in here (the visitor’s locker room),” he said. “I just tried to not really think about it. It’s just another game. Same game of football I’ve been playing.
“I talked to all of my teammates and some of my former coaches. It’s still all love with those guys. It felt weird, for sure. I shook probably about 45 hands after the game.”
Notable
From 2017-21, walk-ons accounted for a total of three catches (all by CJ Schmanski in 2020). On Friday, walk-on receiver Jack Hestera caught three passes for 17 yards. He’s the first CU walk-on to catch three passes in a game since Jason Espinoza against Wyoming on Sept. 19, 2009. … JT Shrout’s 157 passing yards were the most in a CU debut since Sefo Liufau came off the bench and threw for 169 yards at Arizona State on Oct. 12, 2013. … Senior linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo, had six tackles and a tackle for loss in his CU debut after transferring from West Virginia.
