First thing: What a crazy Rocky Mt. Showdown! Over 9 million people tuned in to watch this game (peaked at 11 million) and it didn’t disappoint. Colorado found a way to get the win in double overtime, remaining unbeaten under Coach Prime. Unfortunately, most of the talk surrounding an epic football game was the late hit by Colorado State’s Henry Blackburn on Buffs two-way star player, Travis Hunter. Hunter will miss a few weeks with a lacerated liver, only adding more fuel to this media fire.
We can argue all day whether or not Blackburn should have been ejected after the hit, but what’s happening now is absolutely despicable. Blackburn and his family are receiving death threats after his phone number and home address somehow became public. He’s also being falsely accused of rape on the popular social media outlet, X. For those unfamiliar, there was a former player and high school teammate of Blackburn’s who was arrested for rape a few years ago but Henry’s name is clear.
It’s a mess of a deal but I really appreciate Hunter’s quote during a video chat with fans where he diffused some of this by saying, “It’s football at the end of the day. Stuff like that gon’ happen,” when talking about the hit he suffered on Saturday. I hope Coach Prime adds to that at some point this week, but for this young man, who is now out for a few weeks, to approach the situation with more of a “it happens” attitude, whether he truly feels that way or not, hopefully will go a long way in moving past the hateful nature surrounding this story.
Second thing: Colorado State was a 23.5 underdog against the Buffs headed into the Rocky Mt. Showdown and after Head Coach Jay Norvell’s “Sunglasses” comment, betters were convinced the Buffs would win by much more. Not the case. In fact, the Rams were up by 11 late in the 4th and had several opportunities to pull off the upset. At the end of the day, a loss is a loss and CSU is 0-2 to start the season. However, I think they took advantage of the stage set by Prime Time’s Buffs.
As mentioned, 9 million plus viewers enjoyed the RMS last weekend. The Rams proved they could hang with the most talked about sports story in the country but now, they MUST follow it up with wins. With a trip to Middle Tennessee and a home game against Utah Tech, Colorado State really needs to deliver, otherwise most folks will chalk up the Rams effort against the Buffs as nothing more than being over hyped up for a rival game. I think the Rams are more than that and we will find out this weekend against the Blue Raiders.
Third Thing: It was too soon to bring back a former coach that was ran out of Denver. Fans are quickly being reminded of why it just didn’t work out with Vance Joseph a few years ago and with a Broncos defense struggling to get stops, it’s looking like more of the same with VJ. He looks perplexed on the sidelines, as if he’s desperately searching for answers while teams like the Raiders and Commanders put together drive after drive.
Currently, the Broncos are in the bottom ten when it comes to points allowed and forcing turnovers. Sure, last season, Denver was not scoring many points so perhaps opposing offenses had more of a conservative approach, but we can’t deny what we’re seeing with VJ’s defense. It was a strange hire from the beginning as Joseph’s defense in Arizona wasn’t a top 10 unit. If you are going to bring back a coach that was fired less than 6 years ago to be a coordinator, one would think he would at least have a superior unit. The Cardinals were, for the most part, a middle of the road defense. The pressure is on Joseph and we’ve only seen 2 games…….
