Take a look below of what players and coaches had to say following Colorado's 52-31 victory over Colorado State in the 2019 Rocky Mountain Showdown.

Mel Tucker: "Obviously (CSU's) yardage and some of the plays we gave up I'm not happy about, but we'll get those mistakes corrected. I wanted to make sure we came in here and got the win, because now we know exactly where we are. We have a really good idea of where we are as a football team and where we need to go. If we're going to play great defense, we're going to have to play better."

Thoughts-- There's nothing wrong or invalid about HCMT saying this. He's right — now he knows where his team is at and namely, where his secondary is at (not the best spot right now if we're being honest).

That said, I think overall defensively, the Buffs looked better in the second half, which is important. 10 second half points allowed to CSU ain't too bad. Blown assignments throughout the night, Mekhi Blackmon getting picked on a lot, the 374 pass yards the Rams amassed, yes, all concerning in their own right, but at the end of the day, Colorado's D improved in the final half of the game while Mikial Onu proved to (and hopefully continues to) be a vital asset back there.I also think that this was the most impressive game plan / attack that Mike Bobo has conjured up against Colorado in his five tries thus far to beat the Buffs.

The Rams ran some impressive plays/schemes and in the season opener, caught CU off guard, especially with their use of TEs and FBs in the flats. Marked improvement needs to happen this week in practice — the Buffs can't have such a lackadaisical start vs. Nebraska and hope to win. But at the end of the day, at least the defensive trajectory from start to finish vs CSU was upward.

K.D. Nixon on the offense also looking more fluid in the second half: "It's not about how you start, it's how you finish. [CSU] tried to give us their best game in the first half. {Tucker] told us there's going to be some bumps and bruises, ups and downs so you just have to be able to prepare and that's what we did....

Continue reading the story here for more postgame material here.

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