STANFORD, Calif. — Hoping to perhaps bend a bit but never break, Colorado’s defensive secondary played mostly in a zone for the first time this season against Stanford and its primo quarterback Andrew Luck.
It was a tough day.
“His timing was perfect,” CU cornerback Jason Espinoza said Saturday night following the 48-7 loss to the seventh-ranked Cardinal at Stanford Stadium.
The Buffaloes played mostly a man defense a week earlier against Washington State. This was an adjustment. Luck burned the Buffs by hitting receivers in full stride in gaps and seams.
“You have to play better technique and know where the help is,” Espinoza said of the zone. “Against Luck, you have to be on top of your game, technique-wise. You have to be on top of it.”
Luck attempted 33 passes and completed all but seven of them. Colorado’s Terrel Smith intercepted a pass in the second quarter, but even that one also was on target and went off the hands of a Stanford receiver.
Espinoza and other Colorado players said Luck, undoubtedly the overall No. 1 pick in next spring’s NFL draft, looks even more talented in person than he does on film. That’s saying something.
CU coach Jon Embree said Luck can go through three or more options in his progressions. Many college quarterbacks struggle to find even one secondary receiver.
“His ball placement is perfect every time,” Espinoza said. “There’s not much room at all for error. When we’re running zone, he’s obviously very good at reading coverage. But we could have done a better job of getting a hand in the receivers’ faces.
“If you don’t do that, everything he does is perfect.”
Espinoza played both cornerback and in the nickel, rotating with Smith. Espinoza played well but did get beat on Stanford’s lone touchdown of the fourth quarter — a 30-yard pass from Luck to Griff Whalen with 11:02 to go.
Stanford methodically amassed 553 yards of offense. CU senior linebacker Josh Hartigan said the Cardinal didn’t do anything different than what they had seen on game films.
“We were killing ourselves,” Hartigan said, “not filling in the right gap, not doing the right things. (But) they’re a good football team. I’m not going to take anything away from them. They obviously did what they did today.”
Junior safety Ray Polk said the challenge against Luck is his ability to check off receivers.
“And when he does that, he still throws the ball on a line,” Polk said. “He does that on every throw.”
Luck seemingly can go anywhere and everywhere with the ball. He threw three touchdown passes, two to his fullback — former Mullen standout Ryan Hewitt. Three tight ends combined for eight catches.
“The secondary did a pretty decent job making sure no deep passes were going down the field,” Polk said. “But we have to tighten up. We have a lot of work to do.”
The season is only at about the halfway mark. But Polk said it wouldn’t surprise him if Stanford remains in the conversation among the handful of teams challenging for a spot in the BCS national championship game.
“They’re a great team,” Polk said. “They have a great system working for them. They have a great coaching staff and the players know exactly what to do. It was a great opportunity playing those guys.”
Tom Kensler: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com
