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The Colorado Buffaloes wrapped up the first practice of their second game week on Monday, following a shaky, yet satisfying win against the Colorado State Rams in the annual Rocky Mountain Showdown on Friday.

The Buffs won their season opener by two touchdowns, but head coach Mike MacIntyre still felt the defense was sloppy in some areas, and that there’s a lot they can do to improve and get better as a unit.

“There’s a lot of different things we can do to get better," MacIntyre said. “A couple of the bubbles weren’t tight enough, and the bubble turned into a 10 yard play, we can’t have that, we didn’t play those quite right. Two runs they hit on us, if we just do what we’re supposed to do - go under the block, instead of outside the block, it’s a no brainer. Things like that, everyone says why do you stop the run, but the it’s the run first, we did that well most of the night, a couple of times we didn’t and the kids see and understand that.”

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One of the biggest stories in college football this past weekend was UCLA’s remarkable comeback win against the Texas A&M Aggies. Down 41-10 late in the third quarter, quarterback sensation, and early season quarterback Josh Rosen led the Bruins all the way back to win the game 45-41, on a Dan Marino-esque fake spike touchdown pass with less than a minute to go in regulation.

Although coach MacIntyre was hard at work preparing for Texas State for the majority of the Bruins-Aggies game, once he and his fellow coaches got together to watch the historic finish unfold, he said they used it is a learnable moment, that allowed them to practice their own play calling.

“We sat in there as a staff, and we took out our timesheets and tried to manage the game," MacIntyre said. "We talked through it - how would we manage this situation, how would me manage that situation, and that was an amazing finish and I’m happy for Jim Mora.”

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For the Buffs, a big storyline heading to the season was the return of defensive back Evan Worthington. Worthington, who was suspended from the team for all of last season, and recently underwent a last name change, had some butterflies heading into his first game back, but feels confident about the player he’s become after a year away.

“When I first got there, I was pretty nervous," Worthington said. "Once I got a couple plays in, I got more comfortable with everything. I feel like now, this year, I feel more comfortable with everything and knowing my assignments 100 percent of the time, and knowing where I’m supposed to be on the field.”

Following a 2016 season in which the Buffaloes finished at 14th overall in the country, they were left off the 2017 top-25 preseason ranking to start the season. While a lot of teams may take this as a disrespectful move, Worthington says the underdog aspect is something that both forces other team’s to underestimate the Buffs ability, and helped the Buffs play in the long run.

“We like it [being unranked]," Worthington said. “We like being unranked because we like being off the radar and playing teams that think we aren’t as good as we were last year, and they just come out here not ready for us, and we come full speed and then just take the W.”

The Buffs will definitely have the opportunity this season to prove they belong in the top 25. After non-conference games the next two weeks, the Washington Huskies, who are ranked inside the top ten, come to Boulder, for what could be a game between two undefeated teams.

Notes

-Coach MacIntyre said he’s unsure if he’ll have suspended players defensive lineman Frank Umu and offensive tackle Jeromy Irwin back for this week or not.

-A decision has still not been made on whether or not the team will redshirt senior receiver Kabion Ento. Coach MacIntyre said although he was hurt briefly last week, he could’ve played in the Rocky Mountain Showdown, but they want to keep all the options open.

-Coach Mac feels the Buffs were “a little sharp around the edges” during their first game. This is to be expected, as it was the first game of the season, but he still feels there were small, fundamental things that could straighten out/improve on.