Fort Collins – Colorado State produced two defensive plays of the year Saturday, but only one counted in the 39-31 victory over Wyoming.
Cornerback Darryl Williams returned a Corey Bramlet pass 27 yards for CSU’s first touchdown to tie the game at 10 with 9:19 left in the first quarter.
Later, defensive tackle Blake Smith picked off Bramlet and returned it 38 yards, taking a belly flop into the end zone. Replays showed he was out of bounds at the 15 and CSU ended up with a missed 36-yard field-goal attempt.
“For the longest time I said I’d dive if I ever scored a touchdown,” Smith said. “It looked good.”
The entire defensive effort meant more than the interception return.
“The whole defense answered the questions from last week,” he said of criticism when BYU ran at will on the Rams. “The defensive line got blamed for everything, and I felt like we had a great first five games and we were worst in the league all of a sudden.”
Special tribute
Director of football operations Tom Ehlers received a game ball and was presented with the Bronze Boot in the locker room. The one-time CSU player and assistant coach missed the pregame week to attend the funeral of his father, Bob.
“Coach Lubick welled up this week and coach (Dan) Hammerschmidt welled up talking about it,” quarterback Justin Holland said. “Coach Ehlers got to hold the boot and that was pretty emotional for our team.”
Cowboys’ defense shows holes
With starting cornerback Terrance Butler nursing an ankle sprain, Cowboys backup Brandon Bell got his first start and was an obvious target for the Rams’ passing game, getting beat on three touchdown passes, including the game-clincher.
But the bigger problem was on the other side where cornerback Derrick Martin was left one-on-one against CSU’s ace receiver, David Anderson. Anderson had six catches for 169 yards, including an 82-yard touchdown that gave the Rams a 33-24 lead.
“We put too much pressure on Derrick,” Wyoming coach Joe Glenn said.
Footnotes
Holland threw a career-best 419 yards on 20-of-37 passing. He had his first four-TD passing day and also two career-best 5-yard runs. … CSU defensive end Wade Landers of Durango became the third freshman to lose his redshirt.
