Keeler: Yo, CU Buffs! Pat Shurmur without Shedeur Sanders was painful to watch

BOULDER Is that Byron Leftwich warming up on the sideline Ralphie you didn t miss much Take away Shedeur Sanders from a Pat Shurmur offense and you are left with a CU attack that at times looked like a pencil with no lead Friday night s opener against Georgia Tech had a Baylor feel Minus the Baylor ending After two CU Hail Marys fell incomplete the Yellow Jackets escaped with a - win inside a packed Folsom Field New Buffs starting quarterback Kaidon Salter will take particular flak but this wasn t all his burden No was as advertised at least in that he isn t Shedeur Down - with left in the tilt the Buffs transfer QB stepped up in the pocket to elude pressure which was good spotted a wide-open Simeon Price near the front right pylon also good and overthrew him by a yard-and-a-half Yet he can do this too As the pocket collapsed again forcing another step-up Salter spotted a lane tucked the rock and pinballed his way yards into the end zone to pull the hosts to within an extra point As Buffs QB debuts go No s was fine if rough around the edges Salter sometimes sprinted into danger as often as he ran away from it Stretching out a play from east to west may buy time against Conference USA defenses The ones he s going to see in the Big close too fleetly Pick a lane and get north And the social media peanut gallery calling for -star super freshman Julian Lewis did you see how plenty of times Salter had to escape danger all by himself Lewis can move sure Not like that Even if Ju Ju has taken procedures forward this month it remains to be seen whether this offensive line s ready to keep him upright for minutes Delaware awaits on Sept If we haven t seen Lewis on the field by Week fire up the flares At the moment the Buffs have bigger problems Unfortunately CU s run defense was less what was advertised and more what was feared The elephant in the room still struggles to stop anybody between the hashmarks Yes the Buffs tightened up late and thank goodness Yes Tech is the Waffle House version of Iowa a Southern sledgehammer Yet Georgia Tech also converted on third-and- -or-less five times in the first three quarters They converted four of those on the ground and the other one was a willing surrender on a spiked Haynes King pass to stop the clock If Tech wasn t busy Nebrasking the heck outta that first half with three consecutive turnovers the Buffs would ve been hurting deep The Jackets were outrushing CU two minutes into the second quarter by a count of - Tech was getting yards per pop on its first carries And yet the hosts somehow still led - spitting in the face of the football gods and the pop-up showers In hindsight the Buffs couldn t have scripted the first five minutes any better could they Tech s Malik Rutherford got loose for a -yard gain on the first play of the evening On the second King butterfingered the ball to CU linebacker Martavious French at the Buffs Five plays and three Micah Welch runs later Salter revealed DeKalon Taylor in the end zone for an -yard total and a - CU lead Funny thing Those two plays were pretty much a harbinger for the rest of the Jackets first half The Ramblin Wreck alternated between gashing the Buffs on the ground or putting the ball on the turf Tech drove past midfield on five of its first six cracks on offense Tries No and ended on a fumble recovery by French at the Buffs and a pick by D J McKinney at the CU respectively The Jackets turned their last three possessions into points with kicker Aidin Birr s -yard field goal putting the visitors up - as the dying seconds of the second quarter expired Related Articles Keeler Farewell Ember the Karl Dorrell of Ralphies Unlike Coach Prime showbiz was never your thing Keeler Travis Hunter left CU Buffs Deion Sanders four very big shoes to fill Who s next Renck vs Keeler Did Broncos give up on Devaughn Vele too soon Keeler Avalanche-DU Pios alumni battle MVP Not Peter Forsberg Not Joe Sakic It was Denver hockey moms Keeler Deion Sanders CU Buffs are bigger than ever But are they better Georgia Tech will tell us plenty CU got the ball back to start the second half but the Buffs opening salvo fizzled out at midfield Two explosive Welch runs set up a second-and- at the Tech On third-and- Salter kept it on a bootleg and rolled into trouble again throwing the ball away With left tackle Jordan Seaton gesticulating madly at his teammates the Buffs sent the offense back out on fourth down only to set up a better punt with a delay-of-game call On that one your guess is as good as ours Heck at this point it might be a heck of a lot better than Shurmur s Want more sports news Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver s teams