Season Closes with Loss to No. 20 Boise State

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Just like the rest of his teammates, he exited the bus for the final time this season and headed south on Meridian Ave., for the pregame Ram Walk.

Unlike the majority of his teammates, Toby McBride was doing it for the final time. The fact he was wearing a boot to protect his injured ankle suggested he had already played his final game a few weeks back against Air Force.

That's where he picked up the high ankle sprain. He still has a year of eligibility remaining, but the accumulation of back, knee and now ankle injuries had shown him the light. It was time to leave the game he loved.

But he was going to give it one more go, which he did in the 31-24 loss to No. 20 Boise State at Canvas Stadium on Friday.

A day after Thanksgiving, the trainers gave him one more reason to be grateful.

"I really wanted to play the Wyoming game, but the trainers weren't going to clear me," McBride said. "Really, I had to beg them and plead and beg the coaches to get Tony Hill to clear me this week. That was the fight all week – please let me play.

"I'll stay in the boot all week to let it heal right, but when it comes down to play, let me play. That's what I had to show (Thursday) in practice, that I could actually go."

Which he did, resulting in three solo tackles, one for loss, giving him 15.5 in a 23-game career.

As it was for the Rams all season, it just wasn't enough. A mistake here, a turnover there and they were coming up short in a 4-8 campaign, the second in a row to end with no postseason hopes.

In all, 13 Rams walked out for the final time, and in the locker room afterward, they took hug after hug and accepted the gratitude from their head coach, Mike Bobo. These were among the first players he brought to the program, and in their last game, he applauded their effort one more time.

"It was a disappointing loss for our football team," Bobo said. "Obviously we played hard, very, very proud of the team, how they played. It was in the first half, but you can't rough a punter and have two turnovers -- basically three possessions lost right there -- against a good football team and win the ball game."

Boise State came in ranked, looking for a perfect ending to their Mountain West run, which the Broncos delivered. It didn't come without some tense moments, however.

The Rams scored a touchdown on the first drive, the ninth time they've done so. After two games of faltering, the offense started to produce a bit.

"We found our identity again. It was lost, we found it, went back to the drawing board, watched a lot of film and just really worked hard on it," receiver Warren Jackson said. "We studied, not too many physical things. It's week 12, so it wasn't needed. We were able to draw stuff out, talk to each other. I think we learned and got used to a lot of coverages they threw at us, and I think we reacted pretty well."

But turnovers and penalties play a part in the game, and those often carried negative effects for the Rams. The lone sack allowed forced a punt on fourth-and-14 at the Boise State 45, leading to a punt with 2:02 remaining.

A running into the punter flag extended Boise State's first drive of the game, one which resulted in a touchdown. The Broncos intercepted Patrick O'Brien twice in the game, and those led to 10 points.

"A couple of turnovers in there and a couple of dumb penalties that we got is what kind of held us back from where we are," Trey McBride said. "For the most part, I think the offense executed really well tonight, the defense played great and we came up a little short."

The defense finished the year with a seven-game stretch of limiting the opposition to less than 400 yards. The second sudden change, the defense kept the Broncos to a field goal and a 31-21 lead. They only rushed for 91 yards (2.7 a carry), but quarterback Jaylen Henderson threw for 253 yards and two scores, and he rushed for another. Garrett Collingham not only caught a short scoring pass, he rushed for a touchdown, too.

And when Boise State's only sack led CSU to punt on fourth-and-14 from the Boise State 45 with 2:02 remaining, the defense had a chance to hold. But on third-and-6, Henderson hit his final completion, and the Broncos ran out the clock.

"We knew coming into this game, they were going to do a lot of shifts and motions to try to get us out of order but we trusted our eyes and our teaching, and we did make some plays," safety Logan Stewart said. "As a defense, we pride ourselves in knowing we're going to be put in difficult situations, overcoming that and getting off the field. That hurts."

While Toby McBride was giving his all in his final game, younger brother Trey was making life tough on the Boise State defense. The sophomore tight end finished with a career-best nine catches to produce his first 100-yard game (101, to be exact) with a 28-yard scoring catch where he did most of the work.

For one, a final game. The other, it appears, is just starting to heat up with 20 catches in the final three games.

"He's a tough, tough guy," Trey said of his brother. "He said there was nothing that was going to hold him out from playing tonight. I'm very grateful he was able to play and I was able to play one more game with him, because that was very special."

Once again, it was just short of being an ending the Rams wanted in 2019.

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