BOULDER — Colorado’s defense thought it had the Eastern Washington offense pegged. It took a quarter and a half for players and coaches to realize they were wrong and some real adjustments needed to be made.
Problem No. 1: Routes. The Buffs were ready to take away the deep ball. But Eastern Washington began hitting CU with shorter routes that helped sustain drives early. Eastern Washington scored on its first drive and then again on its fourth.
“But after that, I thought our guys did a great job of keeping the passes in front of them, rallying up and making tackles,” defensive coordinator Ron Collins said. “We just felt like as long as we could do that and maybe create some turnovers, we felt good about the outcome.”
Problem No. 2: No huddle. Colorado’s defense sees it at practice, but EWU’s was faster-paced, and that caused confusion.
“A lot of teams do a no-huddle where they just wait at the line, and that doesn’t hurt anybody,” safety Ryan Walters said. “But the first time they went: play, play, play, play. A couple times we had miscommunication, and it was difficult to get the call in because they were going so fast. We had to adjust to that, and I think Coach Collins did a great job of doing that in the second half.”
Problem No. 3: Tackling. It was sketchy early.
“Missed a few tackles here and there, and those led to 8-yard gains instead of 3-yard gains,” Walters said.
None of those, however, hurt Colorado in the second half. Eastern Washington had 206 total yards, nine first downs and 14 offensive points in the first half. In the second, the Eagles managed 144 total yards and three points.
Both of Colorado’s interceptions came in the second half, and both were critical. Cha’pelle Brown picked off a pass and ran it back 27 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 1:44 left. Then D.J. Dykes made Brown’s stand up with one of his own as time ran down.
“In the first quarter, we were really bad, like a (grade of) D,” cornerback Gardner McKay said. “But as the game went on, we progressed: C, B, A. So when that fourth quarter came, we knew it was like us or nothing. And we got it done.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
