The Oregon State Beavers are traveling to Colorado this Saturday, to face the Buffalos in their Pac-12 opener.  The Beavers have had to reassess their defense this week, after giving up 435 yards in the first half of their game against Boise State.  Colorado, on the other hand, is coming off of a 41-38 win over University of Oregon.

Defensive Coordinator for OSU, Kevin Clune, says the team has yet to put together a full sixty-minute game; but this has to happen in order to see successful defensive plays on Saturday.

“There was a period where we didn’t play well (against Boise),” Clune said.  “Then, we came out after halftime, and we played good football. I think our team can do that on a consistent basis, but we have yet to put together a full 60-minute game. We need to be more consistent.”

In addition to consistency, the defense needs every player to step up and cover all of the bases.

“Xavier (Crawford) and I, we’re just freshman,” said cornerback Jay Irvine. “But we go out there, and we do the best we can to help the team win.  Everyone has to do their part.”

“We have to tackle better and everyone has to cover their base,” said Clune. “Simple as that. Colorado does a great job with the running game, and the perimeter game, so we just have to really pay attention and cover all of our bases.”

Colorado’s offense performs at a very high level.  They are a team that will spread you out, and execute fast.  They have two quarterbacks that know how to run their offense, and they have extremely dominant receivers.

“Liufau and Montez, (the two quarterbacks for the Buffs), do a wonderful job running the offense,” said Clune.  “We saw that last week in their game against University of Oregon.  They know how to throw, and they’re quick with their feet.  We have to be able to match that.”

Despite the obvious playmakers, Colorado is known to successfully execute as a team.

“Yes, it’s easy to just point out the wide receivers and some of the fantastic catches we saw in their game against Oregon,” said Coach Andersen.  “But the biggest thing is that they work as a unit.”

Arriving to the game on Saturday mentally prepared, and ready to work for the entire game, are the two biggest things that need to happen to ensure some defensive victory against Colorado.

“We have to play start to finish. We need to come out, ready for a sixty-minute ball game,” said Coach Clune in his last comments at practice on Wednesday.