This is the Depth Dossier: the Colorado Buffaloes, Week 7.

Utah survived Colorado in a 27 to 24 final that almost didn't hold up, with the Buffaloes running only 47 total plays all night and still nearly stealing it.

Colorado looked dead in the water, down 13 to nothing at the half and completely out of sync. Then quarterback Isaac Wilson found wide receiver JaQuail Smith for a 68-yard touchdown to open the third quarter, and Colorado reeled off 17 unanswered points. Running back DeAndre Moore Junior's 2-yard touchdown capped an 83-yard drive and pulled them within a field goal. But Utah's offense just ground the clock out from there. Wilson's two interceptions and a pile of 10 penalties for 93 yards ended up being the difference between pulling the upset and falling just short.

So how did a team with only 47 plays almost win this thing? It's really two games stapled together. Colorado's offense did nothing in the first half, then piled up 324 of its 394 total yards after halftime. That's not a slow adjustment, that's a switch flipping.

The play count tells you how Utah controlled the game. Colorado ran just 47 plays total, which is an extreme number for a team that came within a field goal at the end. Utah strung together long, methodical drives, including a 17-play, 84-yard march, and that kept Wilson and the offense stuck on the bench for most of the first half. When Colorado did get the ball with room to work, it made it count, averaging better than seven yards a play for the game, mostly on chunk plays rather than long drives.

A few names stood out. Smith ran for 73 yards on 13 carries to go with that touchdown catch. Moore caught five passes for 70 yards and the game's final score. And linebacker Fontenette led the team with 10 tackles and forced a fumble against a Utah offense built around the run.

Those penalties were the other half of the story. Ten flags for 93 yards kept extending Utah's drives or wiping out Colorado's own momentum. In a three-point game, that's basically the margin right there. Head coach Deion Sanders was visibly frustrated with the discipline issues, and they were the difference between forcing overtime and coming up just short.

Now let's get into what's shifting on the depth chart.

Offensive lineman Jayven Richardson left the game hurt, and his status hasn't been reported yet. That lines up with a change already underway up front, where Larry Johnson the third is now officially ahead of Jayvon McFadden after climbing the snap count the past couple of weeks. He's the guy to watch on the line regardless of whether Richardson is available.

The defensive line keeps getting deeper and more trusted. Santana Hopper and Dylan Manuel are both now playing around three-quarters of the defensive line snaps, Toby Anene has climbed into a rotational role near two-thirds, and Immanuel Ezeogu has jumped to about a third of the reps. Lamont Lester Junior has dropped down to spot duty as that group takes on more of the load, which makes sense against a Utah team that wants to grind out plays.

Linebacker trimmed the other direction. Gage Goldberg is down to about a quarter of the snaps, and Carson Crawford is in spot duty now too. In the secondary, cornerback Cree Thomas, at about four-fifths of the snaps, defensive back RJ Johnson at around three-quarters, and Jason Stokes Junior in spot duty all saw their shares shrink. That suggests Utah's ground-heavy approach pulled more bodies into run support up front instead of keeping extra defensive backs on the field.

At receiver, Farrakhan Junior is getting an upgraded role, which is worth tracking as Colorado looks for more playmaking around Smith and Moore.

With Utah behind them now, the real question for Colorado is simple. Which version of that offense shows up next week, the one that did nothing in the first half, or the one that nearly stole a game in the third quarter?

This was the depth dossier. For everything college football, be it depth charts, data or dossiers, head over to C F B Depth dot com. We will be back next week. This was an AI-generated podcast from content developed by real human beings passionate about college football.