Deion Sanders’ CU Buffs couldn’t escape hard truth at Houston

HOUSTON — Staub in the dark, here, but maybe the Buffs are just … soft?

If the Big 12 gave out scholarships for pillow-fighting, CU would be preseason favorites. The Buffs’ offensive line lacks surge. The defensive line lacks continuity. And Deion Sanders looked stumped for answers after a 36-20 loss at Houston that wasn’t as close as the final score.

“No one could have told me that this game was going to turn out like this,” Coach Prime said after his Buffs slipped to 1-2 (0-1 Big 12). “With the week of preparation that we had, with the meetings that we had, with the film study and the preparation that we had, no one could have told me that it was going to turn out like this.”

Short version: It turned into the mother of all arm-tackling clinics. The Buffs couldn’t wrap up if you’d handed them a bucket full of Amazon.com gift cards. The Cougars ran for a season-high 209 yards. Houston quarterback Conner Weigman posted a new collegiate-best in rushing (83 yards).

And he got there by halftime.

After the opening 15 minutes, the Buffs trailed 10-0 and were losing the run count by a margin of 92-3. Houston’s first-quarter rushing average: 8.4 per tote. CU’s: 0.6. The Cougars had done more damage on the ground after a quarter than Delaware had managed for all of the previous week at Folsom Field (84).

“Normally, when you give up 200 yards rushing, that’s not in the winning cause,” Sanders noted. “We’ve got to do much better on stopping the opposing team from running the football. But we’ve (also) got to do much better in keeping control of the ball, so the opposing team doesn’t have that type of time of possession.”

Sanders’ Buffs, at their apex, played complimentary football last fall. Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, the best two players on the field, would power CU ahead, allowing the defense to pin its ears back and have fun.

This? This isn’t fun. For anybody. Houston (3-0, 1-0) is better, and tougher up close than the preseason mags would have you believe. Yet two of the first three weekends on CU’s fight card have resembled the Kansas and Kansas State losses of 2024.

To paraphrase the late, great Dennis Green, the Buffs are who we hoped they weren’t.

If Georgia Tech was a sign, then Houston showed a pattern. With seven minutes left, the hosts had run for 200 yards while killing the clock and salting away a 19-point lead.

Is Robert Livingston’s defense destined to make every QB1 with legs look like the second coming of Haynes King, the Georgia Tech signal-caller who ran wild in CU’s opener?

There will be rage. There will be spin. True, Houston drove to at least the CU 35 on five of the Cougars’ first six drives. True, in those trips, they settled for a field goal four times and only reached the end zone once.

On the other hand, Houston drove to the CU 35 five times in the first quarter and change. These Buffs aren’t renting dangerously anymore. They’re living there.

Shedeur-to-Travis papered quite a few cracks the last two seasons. Take that away, and the foundation leaks. CU’s first four offensive drives amassed 32 net yards. Its last two, led largely by QB Ryan Staub at tempo, piled up 181 late in the second quarter.

Staub remains a fascinating, mixed bag of tricks. He isn’t going to wow you in NFL Combine drills. Then again, nobody’s come up with a perfect metric for vision or for gut feel.

No. 16 looks like a walk-on when the defense stacks the box, or the pace is pedestrian. But the 2-minute drill is to Staub what spinach is to Popeye the Sailor.

Staub finally opened up a can with 1:02 left in the first half. On third-and-2 at the CU 20, the Buffs QB hurried left with seemingly the entire Houston defense in pursuit, spotted Omarion Miller just past the line of scrimmage, and shoveled him the ball before the red jerseys closed in. Miller did the rest, turning the improvisation into a 36-yard gain to the Houston 44.

On the next play, Staub sent the outside guys deep and dumped it again, this time to running back Micah Welch for 25. Two plays later, an Elway-esque drive finished with a Bronco-ish exclamation point. Staub saw his receivers covered, tucked and ran from the CU 19 almost untouched to the end zone. From there, he dove with the ball, got flipped as he crossed the plane, and lost possession for what the Big 12 ruled as an 18-yard gain and fumble. Tight end Zach Atkins, head on a swivel, astutely smothered the rock to preserve the score and push CU to within 16-13 before the extra point.

But once Houston established both sides of the line of scrimmage again, the rest of the tilt became academic. And, for CU fans, downright anemic.

“We were feeling good coming out of half, but again, (going) three-and-out first drive in the third quarter, and they had the ball the whole quarter,” reflected Staub, who completed 19 passes for 204 yards with a score and two picks. “So I can’t do that to the defense. It’s tough to win that way.”

Sure is. When mortals play behind this Buffs’ offensive line, they sure do look mortal.

CU ran it three times to lead off its first four drives. Welch lost two yards twice, with DeKalon Taylor for nada sandwiched in between. Three carries, minus-4 net. The Buffs’ average second-down distance through three quarters was 10.4 yards to go.

Too much hole.

Not enough talent.

After the Buffs’ opening drive stalled at midfield, leading to a nifty Damon Graves punt that pinned Houston to its own 3, the hosts got out the cleavers and went to work.