What We Saw: Defense Rises to Challenge

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – All they needed was a bit of focus.

The first half wasn't bad for Colorado State's defense on Saturday, but Hawaii was trending in a direction of 400 yards of total offense in the game, and the Rainbow Warriors had 13 points to show for their work on four drives.

Then the Rams' unit pulled a 180 on them, limiting the guest to just 38 yards of total offense in the second half of what became a 17-13 win for Colorado State.

"Guys were just locked in, more focused," CSU linebacker Dequan Jackson said after a 10-tackle performance. "The attitude wasn't bad in the first half, we just didn't execute the way we were supposed to, so we just got more focused. That's the standard. That's what we're supposed to do, so I'm proud of the guys. We played a great second half."

Hawaii had five drives in the second half. The first four all ended in punts, three of those drives three-and-outs. The final drive ended with an Ayden Hector interception to seal the victory.

In the end, Hawaii netted just 257 yards of total offense, the best performance of the season and the first time this year the Rams have allowed less than 300 yards of offense.

They did it very workmanlike. There were not a bevy of big plays, just three tackles for loss and no sacks. They were able to get off the field on third down, as Hawaii converted just four of 12 attempts.

"I'm really proud of the discipline we're playing with on defense," CSU coach Jay Norvell said. "Discipline comes in a lot of different ways. You have to have discipline to practice a certain way, the discipline to prepare a certain way and that's where you start to see the performance start to rise. Now were starting to have some confidence about ourselves, and that's really fun when you have that, playing with one another, playing complementary football. The fourth quarter, or the second half, when the offense can do their job and the defense is doing their job, we complement one another, and we really play well."

Nice Moves Kid

Louis Brown finished with four catches for 24 yards in the contest, targeted five times. The true freshman wideout also rushed once for 6 yards, and while it doesn't seem like a ton of production, he made a big impact in the game.

One of his catches came on the game-winning drive. He grabbed a short pass, and in a one-on-one situation, cut hard to make a defender miss and pick up a key first down. His rush came on the same drive, a reverse, and it looked destined for a loss of yardage.

Brown had other ideas.

"He's a really athletic guy. He's very confident and he's doing a great job on special teams for us too," Norvell said. "He pulled one out of his hat on the reverse there. We just had that play, and sometimes you just have to have faith in a play and kid to make a play, and even when it's not there he can make it look good and he certainly did on that one."

Quarterback Clay Millen joked the result was never in question.

"Yeah, no doubt," he said with a smile.

A New Face

Colorado State has had to play three quarterbacks this year, though Millen returned to the starting lineup after a two-week absence. Two different running backs have started, there are youngsters now in the starting lineup at wide receiver and the secondary has had to shuffle because of injury.

But the position hit hardest has been center, and on the game-winning drive, it was true freshman walk-on Keegan Hamilton snapping the ball. He is the fourth Ram to play center this year.

Needless to say, he and Millen haven't worked together a lot.

"I think really, oh boy, not a lot of reps. Very minimal reps, so he did a great job of coming in and handling it really well," Millen said. "He's a really young guy and he was composed, and I was really proud of him the way he finished out that drive and helped us get a touchdown at the end."

By "not a lot" Millen figures he means less than a handful in practice.

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Keegan Hamilton

Ayden Hector

Dequan Jackson

Clay Millen

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