Rams Fall to No. 19 Air Force

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In a season where sustaining has been an issue, Saturday evening was no different, save for the snow and the cold at Canvas Stadium.

And a flip of the script. It was the second half which doomed Colorado State's football team against No. 19 Air Force, a team it had played straight up for 30 minutes, eventually falling 30-13 as the Falcons remained unbeaten with 17 unanswered points.

"We gave up a couple of drives in the second half and we just couldn't respond offensively. I thought we had some opportunities, some open receivers," CSU head coach Jay Norvell said. "We hit some of them and fell short on some of them. Overall, I thought our kids played really hard."

The Rams (3-5, 1-3 Mountain West) outgained the Falcons (8-0, 5-0) in the first half 226-100, but it only led to a tie score. Defensively, Colorado State was up to the challenge against one of the most frustratingly effective run games in the country, limiting the Falcons to just 3.3 yards per carry on 25 attempts through two frames.

The offense generated just one explosive play in the game – the least in a contest all season – but a 61-yard strike to Justus Ross -Simmons streaking down the far sideline evened the score at 7 after Air Force opened the game with one of its patented 12-play marches capped by a 9-yard scoring pass.

It was a play Ross-Simmons saw coming.

"Definitely, especially when we came out of the huddle. We 100 percent knew I was getting the ball," he said. "He threw it up and let me do what I do."

For the first time this season, Colorado State's defense allowed fewer than 300 yards of offense (291), but it was also the first game the unit didn't force a turnover. The Falcons did, getting it deep in CSU territory when Bo Richter hit the ball out of Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi's hands while avoiding a rush, and Richter recovered the ball and set up the Falcons just outside the 10-yard line.

"Brayden had the turnover, and I thought that was hard one because you just can't give these guys anything easy," Norvell said. "It's very difficult to make up the possessions. We put our defense in a tough position there, but overall, I thought our defense played very, very well, especially the first half."

The Falcons cashed in the mistake with a 10-yard run by John Lee Eldridge III but missed the extra point for a 13-10 lead, but the Rams had a counter before the half ended.

A CSU drive came to an end at the 33-yard line, but Jordon Noyes was able to nail a 49-yarder after a timeout and some groundskeeping by the team to give him a good place to plant and follow through.

Those were Colorado State's final points of the game, and Air Force turned around and found footing coming out of the break.

The Falcons put together 10- and eight-play scoring drives to open the half as they started averaging better than seven yards per carry, the first ending on a 1-yard Zac Larrier scoring run, the second on a field goal for a 23-13 edge.

"We were really confident going into the game. We knew we had guys who could execute, and we were extremely confident going into the game," said CSU defensive end Nuer Gatkuoth, who led the team with a career-best 15 tackles. "I think they just started attacking the perimeter more, kept running outside. We just didn't do a good enough job of stopping them."

The offense couldn't counter. The Rams had the ball just four times in the second half, punting the first two times and missing on fourth-down plays the next two. The first gave the Falcons the ball in CSU territory, resulting in a 5-yard scoring run by Emmanuel Michel with just 8:51 remaining.

Colorado State couldn't sustain drives, finishing just 5-of-13 on third down, 0-of-3 on fourth, and there were no chunk plays to help, plays they expected to create.

"Especially with our receiver corps," said Ross-Simmons, who had eight catches for 128 yards. "We're pretty good. We should have had more explosive plays."

Norvell entered the game figuring he was going to have to take some chances, which the Rams did on the first drive by coming up on fourth-and-short near midfield on their first possession of the game. Later on, the situation dictated his decision making.

"I just think it's the qualities of this game. You have to understand there's very few possessions you get when you play Air Force, so you have to try to keep drives alive to keep their offense off the field and also give yourself a chance to score," he said. "Typically, when you play these guys, you get about two possessions a quarter. If you don't take advantage of that and score – and I think in the first half, we had six possessions and we scored on half of them. In the second half, we did not, and that's the difference in the game. You have to take calculated chances against this team or otherwise you're going to run out of time."

Or else Air Force will steal it, holding the ball for 35:58 of the game, 20:37 in a second half which sealed the contest.

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