What We Saw: A Solid Effort Comes Up Short

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Jay Norvell isn't happy with the losses. Nor the inconsistent play on offense.

The effort he has no qualms with at all.

"I haven't seen any quit in our team. We haven't always played as consistently as we'd like, but I haven't seen any quit in our guys," Norvell said after Saturday's loss to Air Force. "Walking out of that locker room and hearing our captains talk, I'm feeling confident we're going to come back and be ready to work tomorrow. I'm excited about the opportunity we have; we still can accomplish an awful lot. We're just looking at it one game at a time. We've got another rivalry game. I think we've played a pretty exciting schedule in the fact every game is very important, and this week will be no different."

Colorado State has four games remaining, and at 3-5 on the year and 1-3 in Mountain West play, all are significant in reaching some goals. One is learning to finish a season strong, and the opportunity still remains.

The Rams are upfront about what ails them, mainly a lack of consistency from week to week in every aspect of the game. The offense has struggled to sustain drives and score points, and a defense which has created turnovers with regularity has trouble playing for four quarters.

Giving up hope isn't on the table.

"I think we're a team that win, lose or draw, we're together no matter what," Nuer Gatkuoth said. "We just have to ride together and get ready for next week."

Which will be a short week, with the Border War being played Friday night in Laramie. It will alter their schedule, Norvell said, but not the outlook.

Prepare, heal up and get ready to go. Especially heal up, as the Rams had a few players leave the game, among them Cam Bariteau, Chigozie Anusiem and Tory Horton.

"We have a plan for the short week. We basically eliminate a day of practice, and we accelerate our game plan," Norvell said. "The most important thing on a short week is to be ready mentally and let your guys get physically ready to play. We won't bang them a lot this week, try to get their bodies fresh and ready to hit Friday night."

Learning experience

Coming from warm weather, Saturday was the first time Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi played in the snow. As the game wore on, he learned keeping a feel for the ball became tougher.

"I think in the second half when it got a little bit colder, I had a little less feeling," he said. "For the most part, I just should have performed better. There were some missed opportunities again, and I need to learn and grow from it and learn to capitalize on this."

He finished 28-of-45 passing for 297 yards, throwing a 61-yard touchdown pass to Justus Ross-Simmons. Even as he had trouble with the feel for the ball in the second half, it was the second consecutive week he did not throw an interception.

He did have one fumble, knocked out of his hand while trying to avoid a rush, which led to an Air Force touchdown.

"I'm really glad I got the chance to finally play in (a snow game) and experience it firsthand and understand what I can do differently and help myself out and get the ball out effectively," he said.

Most Impressive

Considering the circumstances, Jordon Noyes felt his 49-yard field goal at the end of the first half was the most impressive kick of his career.

He's kicked in snow (against Colorado while at Utah), so he understood the variables. On the kick, Colorado State called a timeout, but he went through with his motion anyway and his kick came up well short. But during the break, the team cleared a spot for his landing foot which made a difference as his attempt had room to spare.

"That helped a lot," he said. "We were kind of scrambling a bit before the timeout trying to get the spot, because you couldn't see any hashes at all. That helped a lot."

He's now 9-of-11 on the season with both of his field goals good from 40 or better. He's made his past six attempts, including a 55-yarder last week.

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