Woelk: Welcome To Colorado Football, Mel Tucker Style
November 24, 2019 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — That's Colorado football, Mel Tucker style.Â
Tough, relentless defense, an efficient offense that features a punishing run game, and outstanding special teams. It is a recipe that produces "complementary football" — one of Tucker's favorite terms — and for the last two games, the Buffaloes have conducted a clinic on how it's done.
Saturday night at a brisk Folsom Field, 44,618 Buff faithful showed up to see if Colorado could take care of a Pac-12 bully in CU's home finale and Senior Night.
They got what they came to see. Colorado pounded out a 20-14 win over a Washington program that has been among the Pac-12 elite for the last three years, keeping CU's bowl hopes alive — but perhaps more importantly, sending a signal that the Mel Tucker culture is taking hold.
In two straight games, the Buffs have beaten two conference standard bearers when it comes to physical football — Stanford and Washington — at their own game.
Saturday night, defensive coordinator Tyson Summer's defense throttled Washington, limiting the Huskies to 238 yards total offense. The Buffs tortured UW quarterback Jacob Eason from the get-go, finishing with five quarterback sacks, four more hurries, an interception and five more tackles for loss. They stifled Washington's run game, limiting the Huskies to just 32 yards rushing on 32 carries (yes, that's 1.0 yard per carry).
Most importantly, when the Buffs absolutely had to have a stop, they delivered. There was a red zone interception by Nate Landman in the first quarter. A three-and-out that led to a CU touchdown in the second quarter. Then, a fourth quarter stand after Washington had marched to the CU 32-yard line. Mark Perry's second sack of the night forced a UW punt, and from that point, the offense took over.
"I said it four or five games back, I'm seeing improvement in our defense," Tucker said. "It just wasn't showing up in the scoring. We're gaining confidence. Guys are able to stop the run and force them to third down. We know we're able to get to the quarterback and have solid coverage behind it."
Two weeks ago, the Buffs clinched a win over Stanford with a punishing six-minute drive to produce the game-winning field goal as the clock ran out.
Saturday, the offense took the ball at its own 1-yard line with 5:09 remaining and hammered out an 81-yard drive that ended with the Buffs kneeling in victory formation. UW coach Chris Petersen used all his timeouts available to stall the drive, but to no avail. The Buffs simply rammed it down the Huskies' throats and pounded them into submission.
"It's important to be able to run the ball on your terms, when you want to run it and when you need to run it," Tucker said. "When everyone in the stadium knows you are going to run it, you still have to slam it up in there. We were able to do that tonight."
Don't forget special teams. Punter Alex Kinney was outstanding, kicking four times for a 45.8-yard average that included a magnificent 62-yard coffin corner kick that pinned Washington at its 1-yard line. Redshirt freshman kicker Evan Price calmly booted two field goals and an extra point.Â
But the special teams play of the night went to defensive lineman Jalen Sami, whose first job on punt team is as a member of the "shield" for the punter. Sami, though, came up with a game-saving tackle on CU's last punt of the evening, corralling UW's Aaron Fuller after a 52-yard return to the Colorado 37-yard line.
That led to Colorado's final defensive stand, then the game-clinching offensive possession.
"We played complementary football again," Tucker said. "Offense, defense and special teams playing together. Everyone is playing hard and playing for each other and at the end of the game we were able to close it out."
There were CU standouts everywhere on the field.
Buffs quarterback Steven Montez delivered an efficient, effective and gutsy performance. Montez finished 17-for-28 for 223 yards and a touchdown, a 39-yard scoring strike to Laviska Shenault Jr. that gave Montez a CU career record 61 touchdown passes. He also ran six times for 56 yards. But he showed his grit when he left the game after taking a big hit in the fourth quarter and returned just three plays later to deliver an 18-yard pass that took the Buffs into Washington territory.
There was linebacker Landman, who had an interception and finished with seven tackles and two breakups. There was a defensive line that stepped up in the absence of starter Mustafa Johnson to shut down the Washington run game and harass Eason all night long. There were sacks from Perry (two), Terrance Lang, Davion Taylor and Carson Wells. There was a huge pass breakup in the end zone from Delrick Abrams Jr.
Meanwhile, running back Alex Fontenot hammered out 105 yards on 24 carries and Shenault had seven catches for 100 yards. Fontenot's night included 44 yards on eight carries on CU's game-clinching 82-yard touchdown drive late in the third quarter.
And, let's not forget CU's offensive line, which made all those yards possible. Line coach Chris Kapilovic's group gave up just one sack and dominated the Huskies up front in the run game from beginning to end.
It all added up to Colorado's second straight win over programs that have been annually among the Pac-12's most physical. Saturday night, the Buffs raised their hands and delivered the message: they want to be part of that group.
"The shift in the culture of how we play football and how we go about our business is taking hold," Tucker said. "We are starting to figure it out."
Indeed.
Welcome to Colorado football — Mel Tucker style.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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