Beware the Triple option: Colorado State vs New Mexico Preview

Oh homecoming what a wonderful time of the year! Alumni return home with their families to show off campus, lots of fun events going on, and parents come up as well as it’s also parents weekend. For Colorado State this is a weekend where regardless of record they get to play in front of a sellout crowd and hopefully build on last week’s win. It’s been an interesting season so far for Colorado State but this is the time where they can turn it on and start to get some positive momentum. The season hasn’t been easy they’ve had a tough schedule, and they’ve had to deal with a lot of negative noise coming from overly dramatic fans. Those type of fans who can’t be patient dealing with a young team. This is the time, to win but it won’t be an easy one. The Rams will be facing the uniqueness and unpredictability of the triple option.

Date: Saturday October 13th, 2018 at 2 PM MDT

TV/Radio: AT&T Sportsnet KARS 102.9 (Northern Colorado)

Line: Pick em

For Colorado State last week was a wild win as they blew a 28-point lead in the third quarter getting up 30 unanswered to San Jose State. However, they rebounded to score the final 14 points to win the game 42 to 30. You saw flashes of greatness and you also saw flashes of what is a young team that still learning how to handle leads. With this game you would hope for the young Rams to learn from their mistakes. This is a teen it’s growing and there are still some things that very much need to be fixed. Here are 3 things that Colorado State needs to do to win this game.

1. Have consistent and effective offensive drives. The Rams are dealing with the team that can score often and quickly when it comes to the triple option. It’s important for the Rams to have solid drives and to score touchdowns not field goals. You must drive the ball down the field and you some clock at times to give your defense some rest. KJ Carta-Samuels must play a good game that is almost turnover free. Healthy dosage of Izzy Matthews and Marvin Kinsey Jr. to keep the Lobos defense honest and not playing the pass.

2. The defense needs to stay disciplined. New Mexico runs a unique triple option because a lot of it is ran out of the shotgun formation. So you’re doing a lot of zone reads and jet sweeps so it’s important to stay disciplined especially with the defensive ends and the linebackers. Sheriron Jones is a solid duel threat QB that will run whenever and will throw over the top if you’re not disciplined. Tyrone Owens is a solid back that can take one to the house if he gets space. So it’s going to be important for the Rams to remain disciplined on the defensive end and not give up too many big plays.

3. No quarterback rotations. KJ needs to be the starter and stick with it. Colin Hill is still getting his legs under him and bringing him in last week you can say started to flip momentum. KJ played a decent game aside from two turnovers. He’s got to play a turnover free game today because you don’t want to give your defense a short field to defend. If it’s garbage time then I say bring it back up but until then play Carta-Samuels and allow this offense get some flow to it.

Prediction time: This game will be a high scoring highly entertaining game. Whoever wins the turnover battle will win this game. I believe Colorado State will play a great game offensively and win a wild one! Colorado State 42 – New Mexico 34