Four takeaways from the Buffs’ 52-31 win over Colorado State

The Colorado Buffaloes beat the Colorado State Rams 52-31 Friday Night at Broncos Stadium. While the Buffs won by three touchdowns, the game wasn’t always pretty.

Here’s what you need to know:

Somebody needs to do something about this defense

Let’s get this out of the way.

Yikes.

I want to just cut this section off there, but that’d be lazy. If you don’t want to keep reading about the ugly stuff, I won’t blame you if you skip to the next section.

But if you want to dig into it with me, let’s start here: The pass rush needs to improve.

Two sacks. Two hurries. That’s it.

One of the sacks was a missed tackle by defensive end Terrance Lang, but Rams quarterback Collin Hill ran out of bounds.

The Rams ran a lot of play action, which allowed Hill to leave the pocket and run away from Buffs defenders. That’s one reason the Buffs’ pass rush looked dissapointing.

But even when Hill stayed in the pocket, Colorado couldn’t penetrate.

The Buffs’ defensive backs blew coverages consistently and left receivers wide open all over the field. Some on deep routes, some at the sticks in the middle of the field, some in the flat. The communication errors and the lack of knowledge of the scheme were expected.

“I wasn’t necessarily surprised by anything I saw on either side of the ball or special teams,” head coach Mel Tucker said after the game. “Now we know exactly where we are.”

Now the question is how much can be fixed by next Saturday, when Colorado hosts Nebraska in Boulder. If this defense gave up 505 yards to the Rams, how much will they give up to the Huskers?

Where is Laviska Shenault?

Last year, wide receiver Laviska Shenault broke out in the Rocky Mountain Showdown. He contributed 211 yards and a touchdown on 11 catches.

This year, he wasn’t relied upon nearly as heavily. Shenault only fit 48 yards and a touchdown into the stat sheet.

The Rams sent extra defenders Shenault’s way and dared the Buffs to go to somebody else.

“We’re not leaving it up to one guy,” head coach Mel Tucker said after the game. “We want to have balance on offense, not just run-pass, but also with how we distribute the ball with carries and touches. Tonight was a starting point.”

The game almost seemed like a setup for Nebraska; Colorado showed they were versatile enough to make defenses pay if they commit too much attention to Shenault. Now, the Huskers will spend less time on Shenault. That opens up Colorado’s best player in what could be the team’s most important game of the season.

At least, that might be the plan. Maybe it was just an off night.

It’s worth noting that, although he didn’t make a catch until the second quarter, Shenault drew two pass interference calls before then. One of them kept a scoring drive alive.

Steven Montez is up-and-down

Senior Buffs quarterback Steven Montez’s statline isn’t ugly.

He completed 13 of 20 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers. He also ran the ball five times for 39 yards. It’s not bad but it also isn’t what you expect out of a probable NFL draft pick.

The surprise is where those numbers came from.

Montez made the easy throws look difficult and the difficult throws look easy.

He dropped a dime into the outstretched arms of Tony Brown, setting up a five-yard touchdown run. The ball floated 38 yards. The coverage wasn’t bad. The ball had to be placed perfectly and it was. It was an NFL throw.

But the previous Buffs possession ended when Montez couldn’t throw a catchable ball to a wide open Alex Fontenot in the flat on 3rd-and-4.

Colorado has a running back

Alex Fontenot is from another planet.

In a good way.

He doesn’t deserve to be the last takeaway from this game but I wanted to end on a high note and there is no note higher than writing about the sophomore running back out of Richmond, Texas.

He ran for a touchdown to open the third quarter. Two possessions later, he took a shot to the knees, planted his hand in the ground to catch his balance and finished off the last five yards of a touchdown run.

Then he really showed his stuff with a 22-yarder that I’m not even going to try to describe, other than to say it was absurd.

The Buffs have a running back.

Fontenot finished with 127 yards and three touchdowns on 19 rushes. That’s good for 6.6 yards per carry.

While it’s obvious Fontenot is the type of well-rounded back who has the speed, agility and balance to carry a bellcow load, he’ll still have some help.

True freshman Jaren Mangham earned 55 yards and had a touchdown on 11 carries. Redshirt freshman Deion Smith broke a 55-yarder.