Border War Beatdown: The Boot Stays in Fort Collins

About an hour northwest of Fort Collins you will find a place called Laramie, Wyoming. On Saturday a football game took place in which was the annual Border War game. Colorado State made the hour and 15 minute trip to Laramie to keep what is theirs. The Bronze Boot, in which the Rams have held for the last two years. The Rams were coming off a very lackluster performance which put their bowl games chances in jeopardy when they lost 41-17 to SDSU. Coach Mike Bobo called the team out for playing soft. How did the team respond? They played probably their most complete game of the season, winning 26-7 which they dominated from the beginning.

The Rams ran a very methodical, ball control offense. Controlling the time of possession, and having the ball for over 37 minutes. Dalyn Dawkins ran the ball 25 times for 140 yards. He was the feature back with Jason Oden Jr. being out with a knee injury. Izzy Matthews added 55 yards on 16 carries and a pair of touchdowns. The Rams played old school line it up smash mouth football running 55 times for almost 230 yards on the ground. They didn't need to pass the ball, when they did they were able to get Rashard Higgins and Kivon Cartwright the ball.

The Rams defense returned to their early season form getting four turnovers. On Wyoming's first possession causing Brian Hill to fumble on the second play. The Rams held Hill in check only allowing him to rush for 65 yards on 21 touches. Most of those yards coming in garbage time including a 7 yard touchdown run with many second and third team players on the field. Also life in the pocket for Nick Smith was very uncomfortable he was only sacked a couple times but was hit a lot. This was just the confidence booster the Ram defense needed to get them through the rest of the season.

Did the Rams run up the score? No, but they accomplished what they were supposed to do. Keeping the boot in Fort Collins. The score was 23-0 at halftime and Coach Bobo took the foot off the pedal. He's not someone who wants to run up the score. Coach McElwain always said "When you run up the score, it comes back to bite you later on." So I was okay with them backing off and getting out of Laramie without any major injuries. The Rams have their home finale this week against UNLV needing to win 2 of 3 to make a bowl. The Cowboys will travel to San Diego to take on the Aztecs.