3 takeaways from CSU's "total team victory" over UNLV

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Colorado State football (4-5) is officially on a winning streak. After recently beating New Mexico and Fresno State, the Rams topped UNLV 37-17 at Canvas Stadium Saturday afternoon to make it three in a row.

In his five seasons, head Mike Bobo is now 3-0 against the team from Sin City. More importantly, though, the victory keeps CSU’s postseason hopes alive and makes the final three games of the season much more important.

With that in mind, here are three takeaways from CSU’s 17th victory over UNLV in program history (17-6-1).

Offense continues to strike early

It’s been an up and down year for this team as a whole — the one thing that has been consistent is CSU’s ability to come out swinging. Through nine games, CSU has only trailed after the first quarter once. When the Rams faced the Razorbacks in Fayetteville, Ark., they trailed 24-14 after 15 minutes, but in every other game this season, CSU has either gone into the second quarter with a lead or the game tied.

While the offense hasn’t had any issues keeping the team in the game early, they have struggled to keep their foot on the pedal. That wasn’t the case on Saturday — when the starters were in the game, the Rams were consistently able to move the football at will.

In a winning effort, CSU did not record a single turnover, they won time of possession and only had to punt twice. They also were significantly better on third down, converted on fourth and long to keep an important drive alive in the first quarter and scored on five-of-six opportunities in the red zone.

What really stood out about the offense Saturday, though, was their killer instinct. Unlike the week before, CSU did not give UNLV a chance to get back in the game. When the Rebels were on the ropes, CSU kept coming — had this been a boxing match, the referee would have had to call the fight in the first round.

“We’ve started fast all year,” Bobo said. “We’ve been very fortunate to score on the first drive — today we had a kickoff return — and I really like how the guys settled in and continued to play. They weren’t taking anything for granted. They kept the pressure on, on both sides of the ball, which was good to see.”

Moving forward, CSU needs to keep up this approach. If the Rams get a lead against any of their final three opponents, they need to go for the throat. There’s always going to be some risk with playing aggressively but this is a team that’s playing smart football and gaining confidence by the week.

Defense holds steady

Along with a really consistent outing from the offense, the defense once again came up big for CSU as well. For the first time since 2006, CSU has held their opponents to less than 400 total yards in four consecutive games. Obviously, the Ram faithful would have liked to see this unit come together earlier in the season, regardless, they deserve a ton of credit for what they’ve been able to do over the last month.

Following the game, senior safety Jamal Hicks raved about how physical the defense has been playing lately and said that when everyone on this group does their jobs, there’s no reason for them not to dominate — especially if the offense is playing well.

“We get confident — knowing like, shoot, we ain’t gonna lose,” Hicks said, referencing how the offense gave them the early lead.

According to Hicks, the biggest key to the defenses’ recent success has been their bond, though. When they were getting embarrassed early in the year, the group did not fold. Instead, Hicks said they grew tighter and it allowed them to keep getting better each week — now, they’re starting to reap the rewards.

“We were losing but we were never down on each other,” Hicks said. “We stayed together, we stayed confident and we still believed. And once we started executing, people started saying, ‘man we are good’. Each week we started executing a little bit more and this was the first time where we really went out and executed the whole game.”

Much like the offense over the last month, CSU’s turnaround on defense is worth noting. As we all know, though, the next three games are what will truly define the season. If the defense can match what they did for much of the Fresno State game and all of the UNLV game against superior opponents like Air Force, Boise State and Wyoming, then this group will be forever revered. But if they crumble like some of the CSU teams have done in the past, this most recent stretch of success will be quickly forgotten.

After losing to these three teams a combined nine times in his career, Hicks wants his teammates to know just how important it is to come out on top this season.

“I feel like we need to build more of a hatred for our opponents, especially these three rivalry games,” Hicks said.

“I feel like we need go in there like, ‘what’s up’. We need to go in there with a warrior mentality. They’re down the street and we ain’t nobody’s little brothers so we want to go out there and beat all three of them.”

Patrick O’Brien & Warren Jackson are on fire

It was another stellar day for quarterback Patrick O’Brien and wide receiver Warren Jackson.

With 133 receiving yards on Saturday, Jackson set a school record for production by a CSU wide receiver over a four-game span (657). Jackson, a junior, continues to look unstoppable since returning from injury.

After the game, Jackson displayed his leadership, talking about how there are a lot of things that he can still do better to help this team. He referenced that he can get back on special teams, improve as a blocker and generally just do anything that he can to remove any doubt that they will win the game.

In the second half, Jackson got chippy with a UNLV defensive back and went and forth with him throughout the final two quarters. Jackson owned that he needs to keep focus and not let his opponents get him out of character. A little bit of trash talk is fine but he doesn’t want to ever hurt the team for selfish reasons.

“I got out of character,” Jackson said. “I’m a captain, I’m wearing a ‘C’ on my jersey so I have to make sure that my body language and everything that I do is right because people are watching me. I just think it’s fun to talk a little bit of trash, it’s part of the game.”

O’Brien finished 17-of-27 for 234 yards — a fairly modest showing compared to his last two weeks. However, O’Brien did not play the entire game and the Rams primarily relied on the run once they had a big lead so the numbers are somewhat skewed.

Regardless, O’Brien was sharp in the victory and consistently made big throws to keep drives alive. When the play wasn’t there, he made smart decisions and valued possessions by not trying to force anything.

“We left some points on the board today but a win is a win,” O’Brien said postgame. “We made some plays when we needed to and we just need to build off of that. We’ve got a week off and we gotta get ready for Air Force.”

The season has not gone to plan. But with these two leading the offense, the Rams have come to life over the last month. If CSU is going to have any chance of going at least 2-1 in the final three games, Bobo needs his one-two punch of O’Brien and Jackson to continue terrorizing opposing defenses.

“I never would have expected a lot of the things that happened but I think we’ve handled it really well,” Jackson said. “I think that just started in the offseason, nothing has phased us. Going 1-5, that’s bad, but it didn’t phase us. Every time we come out, we try and compete to win.”