What We Saw: Flags Erase Some Progress

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Playing better was a start Saturday night, and that encouraged Colorado State head coach Steve Addazio.

Yet it still wasn't enough, as the Rams have not yet reached the level of consistency they need, nor are they playing as clean as required to pull out a victory.

"I thought our kids got better, I thought we improved, I thought we came out strong, I thought we competed hard," Addazio said. "I saw some real positives in there. Losing the game is by no means positive, and it's hard on the kids, because we had a great week last week. They put their heart and soul into that game. It was evident the way they played passionately, but we have to play cleaner. We still make far and away too many mistakes, and they're costly."

The Rams had 445 yards of total offense, the second week they've eclipsed the 400 mark. Defensively, they limited Vanderbilt to 342, better than the week prior against South Dakota State. But a pair of numbers in the game totals really stood out and erased some of what was good offensively and defensively.

The first was 11, the number of penalties the Rams had in the 24-21 loss. The second was the 115 yards as a result of those flags.

Among them were a handful of pass interference calls which helped extend Vandy drives, and a pair of targeting infractions, which will cost safety Logan Stewart and linebacker Tavian Brown to miss the first half of next week's game at Toledo. As the Commodores drove to the game-winning field goal, it was a drive which was aided on the first play by pass interference and later by the second targeting call.

Offensively, an offside flag took a made field goal off the board, with the next attempt missed from 5 yards further back.

Football is an aggressive game, so some penalties will be excused under the umbrella. The others, not so much.

"You're not going to win any games like that," quarterback Todd Centeio said. "If it's aggressive plays, it's football. At the end of the day, it happens. There's a bunch of targeting calls all throughout football. I watched college football earlier today and there was a bunch of targeting. It's the name of the sport, but the dumb ones are the ones we have to hone in on and get corrected."

Vanderbilt was flagged nine times, but for 62 yards.

The first field goal the Rams missed was their only failed attempt to score points in the red zone. They faced a third-and-9 at the Vandy 16 into third-and-14 from the 21, resulting in a 12-play excursion leading to no points. In the third quarter, another instance of jumping the gun turned the tide on what would have been a third-and-1 play call for a run game churning out yardage.

The Rams only had three penalties in the first half, when they built a 14-7 lead. And those seven points came on a drive that was aided by an unsportsmanlike penalty call, pushing the Commodores into the red zone.

Kicking Woes

Cayden Camper won the placekicking job in camp, but it has been a rough going for him this season.

After making his first attempt of the year, he has now missed three consecutive attempts, two in Saturday's game with Vanderbilt. He missed from 39- and 46-yards, both in the first half – and both sailing wide right -- with Colorado State already leading 14-0. On the second attempt, he made the kick from 41 yards, but the Rams were flagged for encroachment, wiping out the kick. Moved back five yards, it was missed.

"We lost three off the board off that. How do you go offside on a field goal," Addazio said. "It's hard for me to look you in the eye and tell you I have a great answer for that.

"We've missed a field goal, came back made one and had the points taken off. That's a six-point swing right there. We had an opportunity to put a knockout punch; they were stunned. We got in that red zone and just kind of discombobulate ourselves at times with foolish penalties."

The other aspects of the kicking game, namely Ryan Stonehouse, remained solid, save for the breakdown in protection which led to one of his punts being partially blocked. He punted six times in the game, averaging 49.7 yards with a career-long effort of 81 in the second half. He put three of those attempts inside the 20 yard line, and the Rams had another chance to down one inside the 5. Three of his kicks surpassed 50 yards, giving him 80 such punts in his career and accounting for 40.8 percent of his attempts.

It doesn't go unnoticed by the defense.

"We flip the field. Punt is the most yards exchanged throughout the game," linebacker Dequan Jackson said. "That's the most important special team to us. I thank Ryan for being the guy who he is and taking his job seriously. I love what he does, and I feel like it helps the defense out. It's the first play of the defensive drive for us."

Not to be lost

There were some strong individual efforts in the game, which Addazio will not lose sight of. They are an important part of the process for a team he says is still learning how to win.

After struggling to establish a run game a week ago, the Rams produced 207 yards on the ground, averaging 6.3 yards per carry. David Bailey led the way, rushing for 80 yards on 15 carries. There were explosive plays in the ground game – which were absent last week – with Bailey breaking off a 20-yard touchdown run, A'Jon Vivens producing a carry of 36 yards and quarterback Todd Centeio going for 36 on one carry.

Bailey has now scored two touchdowns in each of the first two games, one rushing and one receiving each week. He is exactly the player Addazio remembered him to be from their days at Boston College.

"He's got great hands. Today, you could see he had more of his legs under him today than he had last week," Addazio said. "He's a strong, big back; he's going to keep getting better and better and better. That's the way that will be. We have other good backs we can play."

Toby McBride returned to the lineup after missing last week and matched a career best with six tackles, one of them a sack, adding a quarterback hurry. Scott Patchan had a career-best eight stops and Trey McBride continues to shine, leading the team with eight receptions and 114 yards. It was the second consecutive 100-yard game for the tight end, and his 10^th touchdown reception of his career tied him with Hall of Fame inductee Joel Dreessen – also of Fort Morgan – for the second most by a player at the position. He is up to 1,209 receiving yards, leaving him 86 shy of Dreessen's career total and fourth place among tight ends at CSU for a career.

Manny Jones had a half tackle for loss, giving him 28.5 for his and all alone in ninth place in school history, breaking the tie he held with Joey Porter.

"I thought we came out playing really hard. I think you can see the foundation for where our program is going to head," Addazio said. "My heart breaks we're not bearing fruit in terms of wins."

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