This post was updated Oct. 27 at 12:20 a.m.

No. 23 UCLA football (5-2, 2-2 Pac-12) will battle Colorado (4-3, 1-3) on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins are fresh off their first road conference win of the season against Stanford, while the Buffaloes return to the gridiron after their bye week following an overtime loss to the Cardinal. Here is this week’s scouting report from senior staff writer Jack Nelson – who hopes this doesn’t distract you from the beautiful revelation that college basketball returns next week.

Colorado’s offense
Scheme: Multiple
Run-pass percentage: 57.3% pass, 42.7% run
Strength: QB-WR chemistry
Weakness: Running the ball
X-Factor: QB Shedeur Sanders

The week has finally come when coach Deion Sanders will walk the sidelines at the Rose Bowl, and the spotlight is sure to follow.

But beneath Coach Prime’s famed golden sunglasses is a breakout coach with a truly fiery offense on his hands.

Leading the attack is none other than his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who stands among the Pac-12’s most talented signal callers. He has completed 72.3% of his passes en route to 21 touchdowns against three interceptions, and his accuracy makes an immediate impression. Placing No. 8 nationally, Shedeur Sanders is one of just 14 quarterbacks with a completion percentage over 70%.

His potency through the air doesn’t stop him from making moves on the ground, but the porous offensive line in front of him – and a tendency to hold the ball too long – prevents that versatility from showing up on the stat sheets. The 34 sacks Shedeur Sanders has taken cast a shadow on the several 20-plus yard scrambles he’s put together.

Even considering sacks, that lack of production makes a whole lot of sense considering how strongly Deion Sanders dislikes running the football.

The Buffaloes rank as the nation’s fifth-worst rushing offense with a measly 86.3 yards per contest, and that dimension of their scheme might just become nonexistent facing the Bruins’ top-ranked rushing defense.

But this offense doesn’t need legs to stay dangerous – a close rapport with the weapons around him has made all the difference for Shedeur Sanders and the country’s No. 3 passing offense.

When Deion Sanders made the move from Jackson State to Colorado, he brought in a pair of South Florida wide receivers – Xavier Weaver and Jimmy Horn Jr. – in addition to his golden goose Travis Hunter, the first five-star recruit to sign with a historically Black college or university.

Shedeur Sanders was already close with the cornerback/wide receiver, having conquered the Southwestern Athletic Conference side-by-side at Jackson State. And the signal caller has quickly made use of the pair of former Bulls, with each touting over 430 receiving yards. The trio of pass catchers each average at least 62 receiving yards per game and nearly 10 yards per catch.

It will be no doubt the toughest test yet for the historically shaky UCLA secondary, but one that did well to limit Washington State’s then-No. 5 offense the last time around at home.

If Shedeur Sanders, Hunter and company are left free to stretch the field, though, the Bruins might not be able to keep pace.

Colorado’s defense
Scheme: Multiple
Strengths: Red zone defense
Weaknesses: Everything else
X-Factor: WR/CB Travis Hunter

It’s hard to imagine a worse defense than one on which the backup-quarterback-led Bruins dropped 42 points last week.

Except there’s no need for imagination. All it takes is a glance at the Buffaloes’ lack of highlights to realize a more inferior defensive unit is alive and unwell – and it resides in Boulder.

Colorado’s defense allows 473.7 yards per game and 316.3 through the air, both qualifying as dead last in the country. For perspective, UCLA racked up 503 yards of offense – its third-highest total of the season – against Stanford last week. The Buffaloes allow nearly that much on a regular basis.

Teams with a bend-not-break identity can work those numbers into a winning formula. This is not one of those teams.

Not only does this unit break – it crashes and burns.

The heaping pile of yardage has turned into an average of 35.9 points allowed per contest – including four instances of opponents scoring 40 or more – for the Buffaloes. That’s not the worst mark nationally, but it also isn’t far off, coming in at No. 124 among 130 FBS programs.

Colorado’s red zone defense is the only reason why. Opponents have scored 23 times out of 31 attempts in that area of the field – a comfortable majority, but a rate that ranks 24th in the country.

Offenses have looked so explosive against the Buffaloes, though, that rarely have they needed to reach the red zone. Hunter is the only real force in the secondary to be reckoned with, and even he hasn’t been himself since returning from a lacerated liver injury two weeks ago.

It also can’t be understated how flawed a defense must be to hand over a 29-0 halftime lead to any team – especially if that team happens to be Stanford.

Quarterback controversy aside, it doesn’t matter who UCLA throws into the ring on Saturday. It could be freshman Dante Moore, redshirt junior Ethan Garbers or even the on-track-to-be-available redshirt junior Collin Schlee.

Each of them will have no problem ripping this Colorado defense to shreds.