Colorado walked out of Atlanta with a win, but it was hardly the kind of performance that erased every concern surrounding Deion Sanders’ team. The Buffaloes trailed Georgia Tech for most of the night and struggled to get anything going offensively. Julian Lewis looked uncomfortable early. That has left plenty to talk about after the 14-13 win.
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“Hey, defense looks good,” 6-time Pro Bowler Chad Johnson said on the September 3 Nightcap podcast with Shannon Sharpe. “We just got to work on offense. We got to get our quarterback to settle down, make some throws, get our receivers to catch some balls.”
Three-time Super Bowl champion Shannon Sharpe, however, had a different idea for getting the young quarterback into a rhythm. “If you notice, look at when they went hurry-up. You might need to put some hurry-up in your base offense to let him get comfortable,” Sharpe said.
Colorado’s offense looked out of sync for much of the first half. Lewis had trouble finding a rhythm, and the Buffaloes repeatedly failed to turn opportunities into points. Johnson summed it up bluntly. “Sloppy, missed throws,” he said.
The criticism did not come out of nowhere. Lewis finished the night 14-of-27 passing for 124 yards and one touchdown, but his night included several ugly moments. He lost the ball multiple times and took plenty of heat online before eventually putting together the drive Colorado desperately needed. And that drive was something else.
With Colorado trailing 13-7 late in the fourth quarter, Lewis finally looked like the quarterback Coach Prime believed could lead the team. He moved the offense down the field and found tight end Charlie Williams for a 20-yard touchdown with 42 seconds remaining. Just like that, Colorado had the lead.
The Buffs then blocked Georgia Tech’s 45-yard field-goal attempt as time expired to escape with the victory. That last possession probably saved Lewis from having an entirely different conversation surrounding his debut. Before it, there were real questions about Colorado’s offense.
Sanders brought in Brennan Marion as offensive coordinator during the offseason, and Marion installed his fast-paced Go-Go offense. The idea was to create an offense built around tempo, movement, and pressure on the defense. Against Georgia Tech, it took a while to show up.
Colorado entered the game as a 6.5-point underdog. That matters because Georgia Tech was expected to win, especially after Colorado’s 3-9 season in 2025. The Buffaloes were picked 15th in the 16-team Big 12 during the preseason, so a road win over the Yellow Jackets was never going to be insignificant. Still, Sanders cannot ignore what happened before the final drive.
The first drive actually started well. Lewis completed passes to Danny Scudero for eight and two yards before finding Charlie Williams for eight more. Colorado moved into Georgia Tech territory, but the drive stalled after a two-yard run by Micah Welch and a third-down incompletion. The bigger issue was what followed.
The pressure was a problem because Colorado’s offense never found a steady rhythm. Then came the red-zone opportunity that got away. Colorado reached the Georgia Tech 13-yard line but could not finish the possession. The Buffaloes eventually faced fourth-and-goal, and Welch was stopped short. Instead of coming away with points, Colorado handed the ball back to the Yellow Jackets.
Lewis also had receivers fail to make plays for him. The second quarter ended with three straight drops by Colorado receivers. So Lewis was hardly responsible for everything that went wrong. Still, the offense spent too much time looking disjointed. Now, the more pressing question is whether Colorado can get that fourth-quarter version of Lewis to show up much earlier throughout the season?