Late Sunday night, long after Colorado’s 38-17 victory over Colorado State, a man dragged his wheeled duffel bag as he walked up the sidewalk north of Invesco Field at Mile High and tried to convince the postgame stragglers to buy one of his many remaining “Rocky Mountain Showdown” T-shirts.
The shirts were marked down, to $5, just as hawkers of Democratic National Convention souvenirs in the Highland and adjacent neighborhoods cut their prices after Thursday night.
He also repeatedly emphasized the shirts might become historic.
“Last game at Invesco!” he said.
The Sunday night game drew an announced crowd of 69,619, or about 6,500 short of capacity, but there appeared to be far fewer fans in the seats than the official figure.
With the 2009 and 2010 rivalry games ticketed for Boulder and Fort Collins, respectively, and with a one-month negotiating window remaining to reach agreement on an extension of the series, it indeed is possible that the CU-CSU football matchup won’t return to Denver in the foreseeable future — or be played at all beyond two years from now.
As that drama plays out over the next month, with athletic directors Mike Bohn of CU and Paul Kowalczyk of CSU as the point men in the discussions, the Buffaloes and Rams will move on, beginning with home games Saturday afternoon against Big Sky Conference opponents. CU will face Eastern Washington, and CSU will meet Sacramento State.
If CSU is able to shake off the Sunday night loss and start its recovery this season under new coach Steve Fairchild, it probably will require the Rams being able to spread the field more than they did against CU.
Other than Billy Farris’ 21-yard touchdown pass to Dion Morton in the back of the end zone in the second quarter and a 28-yard completion to wide receiver Rashaun Greer in the third, the Rams primarily threw short.
Farris, a fifth-year senior who made his first collegiate start Sunday, cited a combination of reasons for that. His view was that CU relied on a two-deep zone, with cornerbacks playing aggressively and safeties responsible for deep halves.
But the Achilles’ heel of that defensive approach can be sending the tight end deep down the middle, and although the Rams have one of the best tight ends in the country, senior Kory Sperry, he caught only two passes for a total of 11 yards.
There were times the Rams ran Sperry or fellow tight end Eric Peitz straight down the seam, but Farris looked short at the receivers dragging behind them. So Farris’ completions averaged less than 7 yards, and he also was sacked five times, illustrating that at times he didn’t have the opportunity to wait for something to develop deep.
“They weren’t letting us go down the field when we wanted to,” said Farris, who went 27-for-37 for 187 yards.
Sperry said he often had to contend with outside linebacker Brad Jones or free safety Ryan Walters, rather than strong safety D.J. Dykes.
“It seemed like every time I looked up, there was Jones over me and Walters,” Sperry said. “And then it was 29 (cornerback Cha’pelle Brown) and the safety. It seemed like everywhere I was going, I was running into two people. I don’t know if that’s what they were doing, doubling me, but that’s what it seemed I was running into.”
However CU discouraged the Rams from going down the field more often, Farris said he “would like to” open up the offense, but he added, “We have to get our running game going first.”
The Rams officially had only 71 yards on the ground, but that was a bit misleading, since Farris’ sacks accounted for 27 yards and a bad punt snap took another 20 off the rushing total. Actually, tailback Gartrell Johnson needed only 12 carries for his 95 yards of rushing, but CSU virtually abandoned the running game in an attempt to come from behind in the fourth quarter.
“It allowed them to stay back, with the two high-safety coverages,” Farris said. “It’s tough to get a lot of good throws into that.”
Despite the loss, Farris said he gained valuable experience as the Rams move on, with home games against Sacramento State on Saturday and Houston on Sept. 20.
“First start,” Farris said. “A lot of questions going on. I didn’t know how I was going to do with nerves, but I wasn’t nervous. . . . I feel as the game went along, I was more and more comfortable. I started getting a rhythm.”
And it also will help the rest of the Rams, he said.
“I hope we can learn fast and get things going,” he said.
On Monday, when the CU and CSU players all had days off from practice and organized team activities, Farris had another and more important non-football concern. His hometown, Baton Rouge, La., was taking a pounding from Hurricane Gustav.
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
