And the ‘Block Bully’ is out again. Deion Sanders and the Buffs have had some really big ups and downs for the 2024 season run. NDSU gave them a major challenge as the offensive line was pushed to the edge. Still, Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, and Jimmy Horn Jr. managed to turn things around. However, against the Huskers, Deion Sanders wasn’t that lucky. Coach Prime’s “revamped” O-line was obliterated, and the Buffs were done for.

The team did manage to get an amazing recovery during the Rocky Mountain showdown. However, Deion is going to miss out on someone when his boys go up against Baylor. Buffs DL Chidozie Nwankwo had a minor forearm injury against the Huskers. However, Scott Procter took to X on September 22nd to let us all know that Nwankwo won’t be there against the Bears. “Colorado DL Chidozie Nwankwo is out for the second straight week,” Procter mentioned in his post.

This would be a big hit for Deion’s defensive line. Nwankwo has been a key player on Coach Prime’s enchanted defense and has managed to create a lot of pressure for the Buffs. This entire thing, paired with Shilo Sanders missing out on the game as well, would make it hard for Deion to keep up against the Bears. however, the good thing is that on the other side, Baylor has been a big mess.

The D-line and the O-line have been all over the place and the team is yet to do anything significant during their 2024 run. Deion has a one-up on that team solely because of his WR (Hunter) and QB (Shedeur). Against the Rams we saw how both Shedeur and Hunter managed to dominate, so it is expected that we might see the same happening again and it should be an easy game.

Still, it is someone else who is making things much easier for Deion Sanders. Last season, the Buffs gave up around 34 points on their defense for the first 4 games of their season. This marked them as having one of the worst defensive lines on the FBS ranking. And it was the NFL energy that turned the tide this year.

Deion Sanders’ gamble could save the team from the injury loss

With the 4-8 season done, Sean Kelly, Buffs’ defensive coordinator, left for Auburn and Coach Prime had to reach into the NFL coach list to pull someone out. That someone is Robert Livingstone from the Cincinnati Bengals.

And boy oh boy, did it pay off. If we look at just the 3 2024 season games that the Buffs have played, the team has not even allowed any of its opponents to reach 30 points. Not only that, the Buffs have only given 13 of 40 3rd downs. This is around 32% and that is similar to what Huskers and their defense have managed to pull till now.

“Coach Prime had a big decision to make, and he took a massive risk trusting the defense to a first-time play-caller,” DNVR had noted during one of their episodes back on September 20th. So, despite Nwankwo and Shilo being out, we still have BJ Green, Samuel Okunlola, and Dayon Hayes on the depth chart and they can pull some punches. Let’s wait and watch what Deion Sanders manages to get done.

Till then, why not check out this amazing interview with Doug Sanders on EssentiallySports Think Tank?