Colorado State University Athletics
Saturday, September 14
Fayetteville, Ark.
2 PM MT
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Arkansas
Photo by: Cris Tiller
Arkansas Run Game a Focus for Defense
9/11/2019 6:00:00 PM | Football
Rams showed improvement from opening week
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – All night long, they pounded away.
Arkansas entered Canvas Stadium and ran the ball 53 times (out of 74 offensive plays) for good reason. The Razorbacks generated 5.6 yards per carry, finishing a yard shy of 300 on the ground.
Somehow, a furious fourth-quarter, 17-point comeback erased it all as Colorado State posted a 34-27 victory. A year later, the Rams fully understand that is not a solid path to victory.
"We definitely can't," defensive tackle Ellison Hubbard said. "It's going to kill us if we let them run over us. This year we took a different approach and make sure we stop the run. We're going to be ready for that run."
Arkansas' Rakeem Boyd is averaging 90.5 yards per game thus far at 5.2 yards per clip. He played a role in the Razorbacks gaining 299 a year ago, though it was Devwah Whaley who did most of the heavy lifting, generating 165 yards on 26 carries. Both of them are back, spearheading a run game producing 132.5 yards per contest.
Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo said the Rams will see a similar approach when they head to Razorback Stadium on Saturday (2 p.m. MT; SEC Network), and much of it they've already seen this season.
"There will be certain things that will show that hurt us, the things we've got to correct," he said. "We didn't do a very good job of the split zone, the divide zone of 11 personnel against them, and sometimes when they had their fly sweeps. I think we're more prepared for that this year having faced the team we face last week, and Colorado ran a lot of split zone, which we didn't stop the way the way we needed to.
"We didn't get in our gaps a couple of times, so we're going to see that play. They're going to run the motions and stuff, the naked bootlegs of that stuff to try to get you off phase."
After allowing Colorado to rush for 243 yards, the Rams bounced back and limited Western Illinois to 64, doing a better job of playing assignment sound and covering gaps. WIU has posted a negative number the category in the second half before a fourth-quarter surge led to the final total.
A happy medium between the two figures will benefit the Rams this time around, and they'll enter the game a confident bunch.
"It's just the scheme that coach John Jancek has developed. We're practicing it, and practice makes perfect," CSU linebacker Tron Folsom said. "The more we rep it, the more we get better at it, the more confidence we have in the defense. That's what it's like right now.
"We have a lot of guys on the defense who have a lot of experience. I know talking to a lot of guys that played last year, a lot of guys played for themselves last year. This is a team that plays for each other. Everybody fits down in gaps, everybody communicates, and communication is the key to winning. Defense is hard. If you don't communicate, you have no chance at success, and everybody is doing a good job of communicating."
CSU's defense took giant steps toward one fix last week in picking up seven sacks against the Leathernecks. Hubbard, who collected half of the sacks himself, knows one solution can lead directly to the other.
They were aggressive on passing downs, leading to constant pressure on the quarterback, but it also allowed the rush to stymie any rushing attack as the Rams finished with 10 tackle for loss.
"It does, really. The way you go about pass, it translates into the run," Hubbard said. "If you run off the ball, if it's a run, you're holding that dude up in the backfield, ready to make a stop. The way you run off the ball and make a move and get the sack, it's just like when you run off the ball, you hit that dude in the backfield and the run is dead."
Arkansas entered Canvas Stadium and ran the ball 53 times (out of 74 offensive plays) for good reason. The Razorbacks generated 5.6 yards per carry, finishing a yard shy of 300 on the ground.
Somehow, a furious fourth-quarter, 17-point comeback erased it all as Colorado State posted a 34-27 victory. A year later, the Rams fully understand that is not a solid path to victory.
"We definitely can't," defensive tackle Ellison Hubbard said. "It's going to kill us if we let them run over us. This year we took a different approach and make sure we stop the run. We're going to be ready for that run."
Arkansas' Rakeem Boyd is averaging 90.5 yards per game thus far at 5.2 yards per clip. He played a role in the Razorbacks gaining 299 a year ago, though it was Devwah Whaley who did most of the heavy lifting, generating 165 yards on 26 carries. Both of them are back, spearheading a run game producing 132.5 yards per contest.
Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo said the Rams will see a similar approach when they head to Razorback Stadium on Saturday (2 p.m. MT; SEC Network), and much of it they've already seen this season.
"There will be certain things that will show that hurt us, the things we've got to correct," he said. "We didn't do a very good job of the split zone, the divide zone of 11 personnel against them, and sometimes when they had their fly sweeps. I think we're more prepared for that this year having faced the team we face last week, and Colorado ran a lot of split zone, which we didn't stop the way the way we needed to.
"We didn't get in our gaps a couple of times, so we're going to see that play. They're going to run the motions and stuff, the naked bootlegs of that stuff to try to get you off phase."
After allowing Colorado to rush for 243 yards, the Rams bounced back and limited Western Illinois to 64, doing a better job of playing assignment sound and covering gaps. WIU has posted a negative number the category in the second half before a fourth-quarter surge led to the final total.
A happy medium between the two figures will benefit the Rams this time around, and they'll enter the game a confident bunch.
"It's just the scheme that coach John Jancek has developed. We're practicing it, and practice makes perfect," CSU linebacker Tron Folsom said. "The more we rep it, the more we get better at it, the more confidence we have in the defense. That's what it's like right now.
"We have a lot of guys on the defense who have a lot of experience. I know talking to a lot of guys that played last year, a lot of guys played for themselves last year. This is a team that plays for each other. Everybody fits down in gaps, everybody communicates, and communication is the key to winning. Defense is hard. If you don't communicate, you have no chance at success, and everybody is doing a good job of communicating."
CSU's defense took giant steps toward one fix last week in picking up seven sacks against the Leathernecks. Hubbard, who collected half of the sacks himself, knows one solution can lead directly to the other.
They were aggressive on passing downs, leading to constant pressure on the quarterback, but it also allowed the rush to stymie any rushing attack as the Rams finished with 10 tackle for loss.
"It does, really. The way you go about pass, it translates into the run," Hubbard said. "If you run off the ball, if it's a run, you're holding that dude up in the backfield, ready to make a stop. The way you run off the ball and make a move and get the sack, it's just like when you run off the ball, you hit that dude in the backfield and the run is dead."
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