Defense knows challenge: eliminating the big plays

FORT COLLINS» One of John Jancek’s goals as the new Colorado State defensive coordinator was to eliminate the explosive nature of opposing offenses. It’s still very much a work in progress.

In four games this season, Colorado State has allowed 20 touchdowns, 11 of them have been on plays of 20 yards or longer. An imperfect 10 have been 30 yards or longer, five of them covering at least half of the field. It’s not ideal.

“That’s been our Achilles’ heel since I’ve been here,” CSU coach Mike Bobo said, the next test coming Saturday against an Illinois State offense averaging 47 points per game.

Through the first four games, the Rams have allowed 23 explosive plays, runs or passes of 20 yards or longer. Hawaii had one long score, but its drives were fueled by seven chunk gains, six in the passing game. Colorado had four explosive touchdowns, as did Florida.

“We’ve just got to make sure everybody is tied in to the call, getting a call and executing the call,” linebacker Josh Watson said. “Each week is an opportunity to get better. Watch film and limit how many explosive plays we have is going to be a plus for us. Being able to eliminate all of them would be a superplus for us. Really take coaching, knowing your assignment, executing the call, that’s what we really strive for.”

If not, there will be changes. Bobo said the emphasis this week was if guys continued to make the same mistakes, they would be replaced on the field, and it happened Tuesday.

He said every defense will get beat occasionally by a better athlete. Getting beat making a mistake, then doing it again and again, is the frustrating part. Getting beat deep will happen; giving up containment on the edge should not.

“They’ve happened in games all year,” Bobo said. “Some things that I’ve pointed out in my team meetings, things that Coach Jancek has. You’re going to make mistakes, but if you repeatedly make the mistake, what are we doing as coaches? Let’s get somebody else in here.”

The explosive plays have less ened the past two weeks, but they’ve still been a big part of what has ailed a CSU defense that otherwise has showed signs of rebounding from the first two losses.

A continual build is what the Rams are after as September comes to a close.

“We need to focus on building each week, trying to minimize them,” cornerback Anthony Hawkins said. “We focus on our attack plays, and explosive plays are what make big games. You can have consistently 30 good plays, then that one bad one that can turn the game around. We’re just focusing more on that, keeping everything in front of us and tackling the ball.”

“Our job is to get a threeandout so they won’t be driving the field,” Watson said.