Rams Fall to Falcons at Home

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FORT COLLINS, Colo. – They came up with a response. What Colorado State couldn't find Saturday evening at Canvas Stadium was consistency.

Falling behind Air Force is never an ideal tactic, and on three different occasions, the Rams faced a 14-point deficit and cut in half. Just never closer.

Either they didn't get a stop on defense, or they couldn't convert in the red zone on offense. When the Falcons took the ball for the final time, they took the final 8:08 off the clock and walked away with a 35-21 victory, the fifth win in a row in the series to keep control of the Ram-Falcon trophy.

The Rams have shown spurts, but they know that's not enough.

"We've got to be more consistent in everything we do," Toby McBride said.

The Rams really haven't been much of the year, and that showed again Saturday.

The start could not have been more of a nightmare for Colorado State. After the offense went three-and-out on the first possession, Air Force answered with a touchdown drive, highlighted by a 56-yard run by Deandre Hughes, setting up a 16-yard scoring run by John Lee Eldridge III, his first carry of the season.

Making matters worse, Todd Centeio was intercepted on the next drive, setting up Air Force with a short field. The Falcons capitalized with a run-centric, eight-play drive which finished with a 6-yard scoring run by fullback Brad Roberts, who entered the game as the Mountain West's leading rusher.

Credit to CSU, the offense responded. With a blend of the pass and run – and a different approach at running the ball – the Rams came back with a seven-play, 71-yard drive ending with a 15-yard scoring run by Centeio. It was effective, and it had to be, because Air Force went back to a 14-point advantage by hitting a big play, which in the past three weeks has become a bugaboo for the Rams' defense. On first-and-27 – exactly the situation the Rams wanted to put the Falcons in – they lost track of Brandon Lewis, and Haaziq Daniels found him for a 92-yard yard scoring play.

They had the Falcons where they wanted and let them break out.

"When you get Air Force or any of the academies or any style of that offense to first-and-27, you kind of think you have a chance," Addazio said. "You know what I mean? For that to get converted …"

The Rams responded again with a very Falcon-like drive, using 14 plays to eat 5:01 off the clock on a determined touchdown drive. Determined, because after David Bailey was stopped on a third-down run from inside the 1, but he pushed through initial contact on fourth down to find the end zone.

Down a 21-14 at the break wasn't ideal, but the Rams were still in position. All they needed was a stop to open the third quarter, and they did get the Falcons in a fourth-and-5 spot near midfield. It was just what they needed up until the point the Falcons hit them with a fake punt, with Dane Kinamon rushing for 16 yards to pick up the first down. The result was a 14-play, 75-yard drive and a 28-14 lead after Daniels' second touchdown pass of the game, 20 yards to Kinamon.

"We played base defense. I call it punt safe," Addazio said. "I was afraid they'd fake the punt. We were in base defense; you can't do anything more than that."

Again, the Rams responded. Air Force tried an onside kick, and not a good one, as it flew out of bounds and let the Rams up at the Air Force 44. Five plays later, Bailey broke around the left end for a 14-yard scoring run to cut the lead down to a touchdown again.

"When you have a team that answers, that's everything you can ask for," Centeio said. "You don't want anybody on your team who is going to lay down when things get hard, so, I like the fight we had on our team today on offense and on defense. We're just going to keep building, keep building and laying these bricks down."

But the Rams would never get closer. They never got the ball back in the third quarter, as the Falcons drove 75 yards in 10 plays and a Brad Roberts touchdown.

The net result was 388 yards rushing for the Falcons on 69 running plays and 509 yards total, the first team to hit 500 against the Rams since Toledo two years ago.

The Rams had the ball twice in the red zone in the fourth quarter and came away with nothing. The first time, Centeio was intercepted in the end zone, but the defense produced a turnover on Robert Floyd's second interception of the season. Four plays later, the Falcons had the ball again and never gave it back, finishing with 38:36 of possession time.

Air Force was traditional in every way, picking up all four fourth-down conversions and taking chances when the Rams were off kilter. In each situation, it kept the Rams from gaining the one thing Addazio said his team needed – a chance to gain some momentum.

"It's definitely not what you want to see, but playing a team like Air Force, they like the time of possession, they like keeping the ball in their hands and controlling the game," McBride said. "We expect them to go for it on fourth down, even with a fake punt. You saw them bring out all the stops to beat us. They had the fake knee, they had the fake punt, they were really bringing out all the stops – the onside kick as well. It was kind of what you would expect playing a team like this."

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