It’s not as if Colorado suddenly discovered Kordell Stewart or Joel Klatt had eligibility remaining, received special dispensation from the NCAA and suited up one of the alumni quarterbacks against Colorado State on Saturday.
But the Buffaloes threw a changeup at the Rams, starting the mobile and scrambling Bernard Jackson at quarterback in the Rocky Mountain Showdown. And when CU drove 65 yards for a touchdown on its first possession and took a 7-0 lead, the Rams reassessed.
For the rest of what turned out to be the Rams’ 14-10 victory, the goal was to make Jackson beat CSU with his arm, not his feet. It worked, with the Buffaloes gaining only 81 yards the rest of the game, adding only a Mason Crosby field goal, and going scoreless in the second half.
CSU didn’t use a “spy” tactic against Jackson, but kept coming with blitz packages designed to contain him in the pocket and fill gaps, further taking away his opportunities to gain yardage when he did scramble. That also meant sending strong safety Mike Pagnotta after Jackson as well, and Pagnotta was credited with two sacks among his four tackles for losses.
And with the exception of a few plays when the Rams played a two-deep zone, they stuck with man-to-man coverage, often behind blitzes, challenging Jackson to beat that. Finally, the CU backs didn’t do a very good job of picking up the blitz, either, which would have bought time for Jackson to find either a receiver or a seam to scramble.
Jackson ended up 8-for-13 passing for 70 yards while running for 30 yards on 18 carries, with his total diminished by four sacks. The CSU tweaks worked.
When the Rams’ defense came off the field after that first series, which culminated in Jackson’s 3-yard touchdown run, CSU defensive coordinator Steve Stanard gathered his unit together.
“We had to adjust our calls, because we certainly couldn’t go with what we thought we were going to be calling, what we practiced all week,” Stanard said. “I think the kids did a good job of responding to the adjustments. We just felt Jackson wasn’t going to beat us throwing the football.
“We told the players, ‘Hey, we’re going to go after him. Secondary, do your job and don’t give up the big play. If you’re the deep third or in man, stay back, and we’re going to bring it after him all day.’ When I look at the call sheet, I’m going to be surprised at how many times we called certain blitzes. … They didn’t make a lot of major adjustments to expose those blitzes, so we just said, ‘Let’s not foul it up. The kids know what they’re doing, and they’re executing them, so let’s just keep coming.”‘
It kept working.
“We had planned on (James) Cox being the starter, and when Jackson came out, that kind of threw us for a loop at first,” said Pagnotta, a sophomore from Cave Junction, Ore. “Once we settled into the defense and everyone started playing their responsibilities, I think the defense played really well.
“If we could keep the contain on him, which is hard because he’s a great athlete, that was the key, and I think we did it fairly well today. I was in on a couple of blitzes, just containments where I didn’t want him to get outside me, and I wanted to keep him inside.”
CSU sophomore middle linebacker Jeff Horinek said, “On that first drive, we didn’t adjust very well. We knew (Jackson) was a gifted runner and probably wasn’t going to pass as much, so we tried to adjust to that. We stacked up against the run a little more than we were at the beginning of the game, and things kind of happened for us.
“He’s very, very athletic, so we knew we had to keep him in the pocket. He escaped a couple of times, but for the most part we contained him.”
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
