Rocky Mountain Throw-down, indeed

Oh, Rammies, I can’t stay mad at you. I just admire the heck out of how those kids play against the Buffs. They came out Saturday and gave us everything they had. The Buffs did likewise and the result was a college football classic. Truly one of the most fun games I’ve attended. Both crowds were enthusiastic and on their feet nearly the entire game. The score remained close throughout and there was plenty of gutsy play calling. Hamid, not always known as the most gracious of winners, said it best, “It’s a shame that somebody had to lose that game”. Indeed.

But the Buffs came out on top of this one and in thrilling manner. Here’s my review…

Offense:

OK, I just bought a ticket on the Cody/Scotty bandwagon. Cody’s height did come into play as 3 balls got tipped at the line of scrimmage. But otherwise, the kid impressed the hell out of me. That was one high pressure situation and Cody never flinched. He typically delivered the ball on the money and he was clearly a very effective leader. Considering this was his first snap in college, he hasn’t played an actual game in 1.5 years, the team is digging out of a big hole and he’s under the microscope for being the coach’s kid… he really was fantastic. Meanwhile Scotty McKnight got open and caught everything thrown his way. The redshirt freshman walk-on was the leading receiver in the game on either side of the ball. Hugh got injured in the first drive but another redshirt freshman, Demitrius Sumler, filled in admirably. Also, the TEs made strong contributions, as expected. And then there was the play calling. Certainly the most creative and sometimes cooky game plan we’ve seen in these parts in a long, long time. That kind of stuff will win us some games and it will lose us some games but we will never be predictable again…

One more note. The very effective, well balanced offense that we saw Saturday was missing arguably its 3 best players in Hugh Charles, Josh Smith and Bernard Jackson. When those guys are on the field, we are going to be quite dangerous.


Defense:

The defense mightily struggled for the first 2 and a half quarters. CSU was moving the ball very effectively, particularly on 3rd down. Considering that this unit was the strength of last year’s team, their failures were shocking and disheartening. But down by 11 in the middle of the 3rd, the D stepped up and shut down CSU’s scoring allowing the offense to punch it’s way back into it and tie up the score to go into overtime. In overtime the D created it’s most pivotal play when T-Wheat intercepted a pass in the end zone to set the stage for the Buff victory. Let’s hope that the D thatfinished the game Saturday is the one we’ll see the rest of the season.

Also, my huge man crush of the week goes out to Jordan Dizon who tallied 20 tackes, 15 unassisted. Day-um!

Special teams:

Other than place kicking, this unit was pretty bad last year. Well, fear not, special teams should be a strength once again for the Buffs. The punting was solid, the place kicking was accurate and the returns were very good.


Overall grade:

Considering the importance of this game, the number of underclassmen starting and the venue, I give the Buffs an A.