BOULDER – That is the quietest career day that Steven Montez will ever have. He threw for a career-high 357 yards and four touchdowns but there were still Colorado Buffaloes fans calling for his backup, Sam Noyer.
“I thought Steven [Montez] made a step forward,” head coach Mike MacIntyre said about his quarterback after the game. “We were throwing and catching the ball. The quarterback made some better reads even on the run today.”
Going into this game, a lot of the talk was about Montez staying in the pocket more in order to make it easier on his offensive line. That’s something Montez made a huge step forward in during just one week.
“He sat in the pocket good,” MacIntyre said. “You know the play he made, he gets out of the pocket and has the sixth sense to stay behind the line of scrimmage and then just throws that ball, pops it over to Shay [Fields], that was a big-time play. I thought he played well, he ran the ball well today and I thought he played much better.”
That play was a 28-yard pass to Fields where Montez was able to make something out of nothing and made Jay MacIntyre compare his quarterback to Johnny Manziel.
“He’s getting more comfortable staying in the pocket, trusting our O-line and just being comfortable being himself,” Jay MacIntyre said. “That’s what makes him great, he’s kind of like that it factor type thing. Kind of Johnny Manziel type, he wants to be Johnny Manziel but that’s him. He’s just a great player.”
The offense wasn’t firing on all cylinders on Saturday, but it’s obvious how close they are. They finished with 569 yards of total offense and were able to get production out of all of their impact players.
“I think we’re continually getting better, I think that’s what’s going on,” Montez said about his offense after the game. “I think we’re starting to gel a little more, I think the o-line is coming together, the receivers and quarterback are starting to get on the same page. I think our best is still out there. Hopefully, we just keep building these blocks and get better and better. Hopefully, our finished product will look really, really, really good.”
One of the reasons the CU offense was able to take a huge leap today was because of the run game. Last week, Texas State held Lindsay to a measly 3.3 yards per carry (26 carries for 87 yards). This week, CU’s offensive line was able to get to the second level more often and Lindsay exploded for 152 yards on the ground on 26 carries.
But it wasn’t just Lindsay that was running well. Montez also looked really good running the football, especially in the read option, racking up 76 yards on the ground on ten carries. It was also the way that Montez finished his runs that put a little attitude into the offense.
“I know Coach Mac and Coach Lindgren don’t like me to finish runs like the way I did today a little bit,” Montez explained. “I know they lean towards more of a sliding type of thing. But I mean it’s football, dudes are talking, are talking a whole bunch of trash out there and things are getting a little hot. It gets on me too and I get a little fired up, a little fired up, and I mean I like to hit people too. I think the run game makes us a little more dynamic.”
Another area where Montez excelled was in spreading the ball around. All four primary receiving targets finished with at least 53 yards and all were able to get into the end zone. The last time the Buffs had four different receivers with a touchdown in the same game was back in 2014 against California.
“I don’t really try intentionally to kind of spread the ball around,” Montez said. “It kind of just happens, I just go through my progressions how I would usually go through my progressions. So whether Devin [Ross] catches four touchdowns or each receiver catches one touchdown, either way as long as we win that’s what’s important.”
The CU offense took a step in the right direction against Northern Colorado. Was it enough to ready themselves for the Washington Huskies? Probably not. Last year, the Buffs offense peaked too early, so if this offense can peak at the right time, it should make them even more lethal as they head into Pac-12 play.
