Rams’ defense vows improvement
FORT COLLINS» The fact Colorado does not operate the run-andshoot offense is a positive.
To a point. See, Colorado State’s defense will still see Colorado use some of the elements Hawaii used to such great effect in the season opener. Using four wideouts is part of CU’s normal package. So are designed quarterback runs and run/pass option plays.
Hawaii used it all and more over the course of 12 drives against the Rams last weekend that produced 617 yards of total offense.
Yep, the Rams are going to see it again.
“People are going to take components of their offense that they do and try to match them with what’s been successful against the defense they’re playing,” CSU head coach Mike Bobo said. “Most of the time they’re going to try to fit something in their offense that has worked against a certain defense. It’s matchups and getting the best matchup.”
In the opener, Bobo said the Rams lost a lot of one-on-one matchups. Players were in place to make plays, they just didn’t do so. The natural progression of a football season is for a defense to make corrections immediately in practice.
In that manner, defensive end Richard King sees a benefit for the Rams.
“That definitely helps a little bit, just because we did make a lot of mistakes,” he said. “It’s kinda good for us in a way, because we see it and we have a chance to correct it so that we don’t make the same mistakes next game. A lot of the mistakes we made last week, we ran over them in practice. We did a whole period of correcting our mistakes.”
In Steven Montez, the Buffs have a quarterback entering his second full season as a starter. The 546 yards he has rushing sug- gest it isn’t his primary function, but if given the right read, he will create a positive play. Bobo knows he can do that during a busted play, using his mobility to move outside the pocket and find a target, which he did a year ago against the Rams.
Many of his weapons are gone. Phillip Lindsey is now with the Denver Broncos, and only Jay McIntyre returns among his top receiving targets. Doesn’t matter, because they will have replacements looking to exploit the same gaps Hawaii found.
Because of that, CSU safety Jamal Hicks said the week of practice had to be focused on the attention to details.
“Including myself,” Hicks said. “I was in situations where I should have made the play and I didn’t, let my team down. You’ve got to bounce back and play better technique.”
Needless to say, it wasn’t the performance the Rams expected to put on tape. That made it more painful to watch the replay, then come back to practice with the confidence the corrections could be made.
“I haven’t lost any confidence in our defense,” King said. “It’s knowing what you’re doing and fixing the mistakes. We have all the talent in the world to make the plays, we just have to know what we’re doing and be ready when the time comes.”