What We Saw: Rams Out to Clean Up Play

Steve Addazio pulled no punches, and a couple of haymakers he directed right at his own jaw line.

The first-year Colorado State head coach didn't expect a perfect debut, but he did anticipate better than what he witnessed in a 38-17 loss to Fresno State on the road. The coaching adage is you play like you practice, but that wasn't the case from his vantage point.

"I don't think we were clean enough on both sides of the ball, and that's my job," Addazio said. "I take responsibility for that. I really feel like we did not play to the level that we practiced. I thought we practiced really good execution this week, and we didn't show that in this game. That's something I've got to get fixed."

He didn't see it on defense, which he said surprised him. Blown assignments in man coverage led to big plays by the Fresno State running backs in the first half to the tune of eight catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns. Offensively, he felt they started to press as the Bulldogs continued to have success moving the ball.

Much was made about the decision to start Temple transfer Todd Centeio over Patrick O'Brien, who started the final nine games of the 2019 season. With Dante Wright and Ty McCullouch sidelined due to contract tracing – a pair who can blow the top off a defense – Addazio felt the running ability of Centeio would give the Rams a lift.

With good reason, because Fresno State struggled stopping the quarterback run in a loss to Hawaii a week earlier. Centeio had early success, even busting off a 35-yard run early as he finished the game with 89 rushing yards. But it didn't help open up the traditional run game for the running backs as the Rams rushed for 158 yards. It's was better than the average outing in 2019, but still not good enough.

Centeio struggled throwing the ball, hitting on just 10 of his 23 tosses for 141 yards, and he was hampered by a pair of drops on one drive, a big on a perfectly placed deep ball to E.J. Scott down the sideline. He also missed some targets he should have hit.

O'Brien played the final two drives, both ending in the red zone, only the final one producing a touchdown on a 20-yard strike to tight end Trey McBride.

To McBride, the quarterback doesn't matter, the execution does.

"We're just going to go out there and do our job," the All-Mountain West player said. "Whoever is back there is back there. It's out of our control, we just have to go out and make plays for whoever is back there."

Who will be next week? Addazio said he'd look at the situation again.

"I don't make any decision for the season. I make a decision for the game," Addazio said. "I don't know what's going to happen the next week, the week after that or anything else. I've got to look and watch the tape. Toddy had a great camp, and Pat competed hard. In this game, we clearly felt we were going to need his legs. As we move forward, we'll make that decision, we'll make that as we go."

Situational Football

Two areas coaches always stress heading into a game are third down and red zone, and the Rams didn't succeed in either spot on either side of the ball.

Fresno State was 10-of-18 on third down, Colorado State just 4-of-15. The Bulldogs converted two long third-down plays on the drive that put them ahead 24-10 at the half, which changed the complexion of the game for both teams heading into halftime.

That hurt, as did missed tackles.

"We've done a lot of tackling in practice, but obviously we're going to have to do more," Addazio said. "I thought we missed some big tackles. I thought we were a little soft in the coverage, and we had some real blown assignments in man coverage. That just leads to big plays. Football is not all that complicated now. Third-down conversion rate, I would say offensively we were poor, and I thought defensively we were extremely poor. We gave up at least three of them, third-and-12, third-and-16, and third-and-17. You have to keep field positon to their side of the ball, and we didn't do it."

The red zone was just as problematic. Fresno State converted all five chances, four resulting in touchdowns. The Rams were there five times, too, but just three scores and two touchdowns.

"On offense, we did a great job. We got to the red zone, three times inside the 10 and we came up with three points," McBride said. "That's just absolutely unacceptable. When you get the red zone, you're there to score points. That's plain and simple. You're there to score points, and we didn't get it done tonight."

McBride is Still a Handful

The junior tight end closed 2019 with the first 100-yard game of his career, 101 on a nine-catch effort against Boise State. Thursday night, he topped that, going for 130 in the loss. That is the fourth-best outing nationally by a tight end this season.

He's on the John Mackey Award watch list for a reason, and with eight catches, he's absolutely on pace to surpass the 45 catches he had a season ago. And if you weren't watching, he's still a devastatingly effective blocker.

Before last season, the Rams had not had a tight end with 100 yards receiving in a game since Kory Sperry in 2008. Before him, Justin Shull in 1994, and before him, Keli McGregor in 1983. Sperry had a trio of 100-yard games, Shull and McGregor two each.

McGregor holds the gold standard at the position with 69 catches in a year and 153 for his career and 12 in one game. Sperry (with 145 catches), leads with 1,763 career yards, 20 career touchdowns and three in a game. Shull has the best average per catch at 17.1 on 37 receptions.

CSU Tight End Comparison
Career Yardage

Sperry 1,763
McGregor 1,604
Crockett Gillmore 1,308
Joel Dreessen 1,295
McBride 779

Career Catches

McGregor 153
Sperry 145
Dreessen 123
Gillmore 111
McBride 60

Career Touchdowns

Sperry 20
Dreessen 10
Gillmore 8
McGregor 8
Shull 7
McBride 6

Career Average Per Catch

Shull 17.1
McBride 13.0
Sperry 12.5
Gillmore 11.8
Dreessen 10.5
McGregor 10.5

Season Catches

McGregor 69
McGregor 47
Gillmore 47
McBride 45
Gillmore 45
Dreessen 43
Sperry 42

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Players Mentioned

Todd Centeio

Trey McBride

Ty McCullouch

Patrick O'Brien

E.J. Scott

Dante Wright

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