Rams Fall to Fresno State in Season Opener

Calendar

Show:/

Oct 18

5:00 PM

Football

vs Hawai'i

Oct 25

5:30 PM

Football

at Wyoming

Nov 8

12-Days

Football

vs UNLV

Nov 15

1:00 PM

Football

at New Mexico

Nov 22

12-Days

Football

at Boise State

FRESNO, Calif. – A mere 335 days later, Colorado State returned to the field for a football game.

With a new head coach in Steve Addazio. Warren Jackson is now preparing for an NFL career. Dante Wright, sidelined, was in Fort Collins. A new quarterback, Todd Centeio was under center.

It wasn't the debut Addazio and Co., wanted as the Rams fell 38-17 on the road at Bulldoog Stadium behind an offense which failed to find a spark – especially in the red zone -- and a defense which was too forgiving on third down. For the 23^rd head coach in program history, it wasn't the result he wanted, but the team now has a starting point to grow.

"We've just got to get rid of the massive amount of mistakes that we had on both sides of the ball," Addazio said. "Blown coverages, misaligned on defense. And on offense, a glaring one sticks out to me. You have two double-team interiorly and we let a backer run through a gap unblocked there when we were trying to close that score in a winnable range.

"Not to single one play, you just can't make that large amount of mistakes. Then we had a couple of ridiculous mistakes that were drive killers. We have some momentum, we're going down the field. We can move the ball, we can move it pretty well. We did it today without some key personnel. That's the positive. We just need to be way, way more consistent."

Colorado State's defense struggled with containing Fresno State's running backs, but not as ground gainers. No, the majority of the damage done by Ronnie Rivers and Jordan Mims was done as receivers out of the backfield, as the two combined for eight catches, 117 yards and two scores by the break as the Bulldogs pulled out to a 24-10 advantage.

The Rams limited the Fresno State ground game, holding it to just 84 yards, but the Bulldogs had success through the air as Jake Haener threw for 311 yards and three scores, despite CSU recording four sacks in the game, 1.5 each from additions Scott Patchan and Brandon Hickerson-Rooks.

The real trouble for CSU was getting off the field as Fresno State converted 10-of-18 on third down, including two big gainers on third-and-long on the Bulldogs final scoring drive of the first half.

"It's extremely frustrating," Patchan said. "When you look at it, it's not so much of a blame on the back end. That's an opportunity to rush the passer. The D-line, myself mainly, I think we can do a better job in that regard to rush the passer and giving those guys an easier job in the back end."

Colorado State held a 10-7 advantage early in the second quarter after true freshman Robert Liss converted his first collegiate attempt from 24-yards out and Marcus McElroy hit the corner and snuck in the front corner of the end zone for a 15-yard scoring run.

Centeio, a transfer from Temple, made his first career start and brought a new element to the offense with his mobility, rushing for 89 yards in the game on 12 carries, including a rush of 35 yards in the first half. But the passing game failed to materialize as he hit just 10-of-23 passes for 141 yards, losing a fumble on a sack.

The coaching staff leaned to Centeio over Patrick O'Brien based largely on not having two of the top receivers in the game, Dante Wright and Ty McCullouch, both out due to contact tracing.

The Rams were just 3-of-5 on red zone chances, keeping them from closing the gap with the game still a contest.

"We were missing assignments, missing blocks. Easy stuff to fix, but we weren't getting enough done up front," tight end Trey McBride said. "We just weren't getting it done as an offense."

Colorado State's best chance of the second half came late in the third quarter as the Rams had a chance to make the final stanza interesting. But Centeio was long on a pass to McBride in the end zone on a fourth-and-3 play.

McBride led the team with eight catches for a career-best 130 yards and a touchdown. Patrick O'Brien relieved Centeio midway through the fourth quarter, completing 7-of-10 passes for 82 yards and connecting with McBride for a touchdown.

His first drive ended in the Fresno State red zone as he was dropped for a loss on a fourth-down play. His second drive finished on the 20-yard scoring strike to McBride with 41 seconds remaining.

"There's enough to go around, but let's be clear about something," Addazio said. "We're not playing clear enough on both sides of the ball, and there's only one person who needs to take the blame for that, and that's me. That's my responsibility.

"I promise you this. We'll clean that up, we'll get ready to have a great game, too. Nothing's as good as it seems, nothing is as bad as it seems. Somewhere in the middle reality falls. It's game one. I was concerned about this a little bit, and that concern became a reality. We'll learn from this first game. It will help us."

Colorado State will host Wyoming on Thursday night at Canvas Stadium in the 112^th meeting of the Border War.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results