Following a crushing blowout loss to Northwestern, Deion Sanders and his staff face mounting scrutiny.
The Colorado Buffaloes have taken on a bit of a roller-coaster journey through three weeks of the 2026 football season. A close win against Georgia Tech that marked the first time a Deion Sanders-led Buffs team dominated another Power 4 team on the line of scrimmage. That was followed by a lopsided win over Weber State, which somehow frustrated Sanders because it was not lopsided enough. Finally, a very discouraging 34-point loss to Northwestern on Saturday night
The Georgia Tech game felt like a coming out party for Colorado. After an offseason of speculation and questions, the Buffs did something they’ve never done under Sanders. They dominated and imposed their will on a quality opponent.
Georgia Tech did not dictate the tempo of the game. As the passing game struggled to find its rhythm, Colorado ran the ball 21 times over two consecutive possessions. All but daring the Yellow Jackets to stop it, which they couldn’t. In typical Sanders fashion, the Buffs mounted a good final drive and won that game on the final play.
Expectations can be both good and bad
A national perspective before Georgia Tech was to be bowl eligible. After that game, the national expectations became 9-plus wins and a challenge for the Big 12 conference title. Heading into the Weber State game, Colorado went from a seven-point underdog to a five-touchdown favorite. Yet the 31-point win felt underwhelming given the rise in expectations and the sub-Power 4 opponent. A sentiment Sanders echoed when he made it abundantly clear that he and his coaches were not satisfied with that result.
After Weber State, Coach Prime spoke of a lack of focus from some of the team when they got a sizable lead. Surprisingly, that same focus issue had to be addressed after the Northwestern game as well. Down 21-0 at halftime, we now know that halftime was not pleasant for the Buffaloes. CU offensive coordinator Brennan Marion had choice words for his team during the break.
“This is college football,” Marion yelled in the locker room. “We got a whole half to play. Stop shooting ourselves in the foot. No f------ penalties. Score every f------ down! Ju, go win the game.”
Colorado would score their lone touchdown shortly after the start of the second half with a 50-yard touchdown pass from Julian Lewis to Joseph Williams. The next run of possessions ended in turnover on downs, punt, interception, punt.
Expectations made this seem worse than it was
Colorado was not good against Northwestern. Lewis’ inexperience showed up, but there is no sense that he will cease being the starter any time soon. There will be growing pains and that just comes with the territory. However, there was plenty of blame to go around. In the first few seconds of Sanders’ post-game press conference, he acknowledged that he had to check some of his players who, for the second week in a row, struggled to remain focused on the task at hand. Which is something Sanders needs to fix.
The Northwestern game feels worse than it was because of elevated expectations. The lack of focus didn’t lose the game, but it did make coming back or challenging Northwestern much more difficult. That game was lost long before the 4th quarter. Two interceptions, two lost fumbles and three turnovers on downs are what put that game out of reach.
'One of the weakest performances': One CU media member took the loss harder than others
Some in the Colorado media took this loss harder than others.
“Unfortunately, I am contractually obligated to talk about this team,” DNVR podcaster Jake Schwanitz said in a post after the loss. “That was one of the weakest performances I’ve seen from Colorado going back to ‘22. I mean, just disgusting. It blows my mind that this team out-rushed Northwestern. JuJu’s got to grow up. Running backs need to stop putting the ball on the ground. (The) defense needs to know what’s going on.”
There is some truth to those comments, but it plays like the reaction of a fan.
Lewis does have inexperience to overcome. The fumbles were a problem. The lack of focus on the game is still a concern. However, calling this the worst performance since before Sanders arrived is a fan comment. There was half of the 2023 season and at least four games in 2025 that were all clearly worse than Northwestern.
In the previous bad performances, there was almost no productive running game, pass protection was dramatically worse and when it got bad, it got much worse than what we saw on Saturday. To say the Northwestern game was the worst performance under Sanders is not only an illogical reach, it’s also irresponsible.
Don't get me wrong. The Northwestern game was bad, and Sanders has every reason to be furious with the performance. The lack of focus is alarming, especially for a second week in a row. One more performance like that and Sanders might pull a Herb Brooks and run them until they get the memo. There are many Flatirons to run up and down in Boulder County.
Deion Sanders is built to turn this around
The good news is that most of the current issues are not talent or ability-related. They are all discipline and attention to detail. They couldn't have what equated to seven turnovers. The penalties against Northwestern were a significant problem. Several were operational or pre-snap, which is a huge red flag. For the second week in a row, huge plays got called back for holding.
If Sanders can get this rebuilt roster to remain focused, clean up penalties and protect the ball, there is no reason to believe the team couldn’t get back to playing like they did against Georgia Tech. However, if that doesn’t get cleaned up, we can start worrying about how bad it might get.
Colorado has another important road game at Baylor this week before they welcome No. 11 Texas Tech to Boulder. Buckle up, because it could get rocky.
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