Covering University of Colorado sports, mostly basketball, since 2010

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Quick Post: 200 points, 2000 yards

The next month of CU football will be cataclysmically bad.  Arizona St, @USC, @Oregon, Stanford... the upper echelon of Pac-12 football.  Two powers from the north, two from the south  They will surely kick the crap out CU for 240 minutes of combined football, and there will be little left for BuffNation to cheer.  There is no hope - absolutely no hope - of victory these next four gamedays, and each of them will probably be significant blowouts.

So what can we possibly take out of these upcoming games?  Well, I've come up with a little game; can the Buffs keep the four teams from crossing a few landmark statistical measurements?  Can the Buffs keep the combined might of ASU, USC, Oregon and Stanford from cracking 200 combined points, and 2,000 combined yards?

Last year they managed to beat the 200 point barrier (barely), holding the fearsome foursome to 183 combined points.  You could rightly argue that at least three of those teams (ASU, Stanford, and Oregon) took their foot off the gas extremely early, but, none-the-less, the team was spared the sight of 50+ points going on the board in each contest.

The 2,000 yards barrier, however, was well broken, with all four teams cracking off over 500 yards per contest.  The total in 2011 was 2,163, with, again, each team taking the foot off the pedal well before the final whistle blew.

Add it up, and CU was outscored by this quartet 183-40, and out-gained 2,163-1,299.  I would expect a similar gap this season, but maybe, just maybe, they can keep the 200 point and 2,000 yard barriers intact.

To-date averages seem to give the Buffs a shot.  The four are well below 200 points per game (about 150 per) and a little shy of 2,000 yards (about 1,754).  However, I have no doubt that playing against the CU defense will give each team ample opportunity to buck their season averages (for the record, CU has given up 39.4 points and 474.4 yards per game this season).

Regardless of if the team can accomplish this meager feat or not, getting through these four games will get us all to basketball season.  For Buff Nation to have survived that far would be its own accomplishment.

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