Rams Miss Bowl Chance on Final Play

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HONOLULU – Most people consider the Hawaiian Islands to be paradise.

Instead, Colorado State found the anguish of an offseason lamenting what might have been.

With a 51-yard field goal on the final play of the game, Hawaii ended the Rams' hopes of the postseason with a 27-24 victory. The team needed a win on the final day of the regular season to reach a bowl game for the first time since 2017, but instead finish 5-7.

It was a contest the Rams feel shouldn't have come down to the final play, nor a regular-season finale they needed a victory to extend their season. It was a year where the Rams didn't always answer when opportunity knocked.

"I'm devastated about this right now," safety Henry Blackburn said. "There's so many times this season where it's just been come down to the wire, and we knew it was going to be like that for the season. We just needed to be better as a team finishing games and learning how to win.

"That's the one thing we haven't been good at. We can play with anybody, we can line up against anybody in the country, but we just need to learn how to win and learn how to finish games."

Down 24-10 early in the fourth quarter, the Rams tried to brush aside a night of below-par play with a flourish. It started with a 17-yard scoring pass from Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi to Louis Brown IV, and when they missed the 2-point attempt, they needed to do it again.

Which they did, on a fourth-down play where Hawaii flooded the pocket, Fowler-Nicolosi found Tory Horton for a 70-yard touchdown, then found Horton again for the 2-point conversion to tie the game with 54 seconds remaining. Horton finished with nine catches for 186 yards as Fowler-Nicolosi threw for 317 and the two scores.

In between, Chigozie Anusiem blocked a field goal to make it possible.

But as was the case on a night when Hawaii generated 497 yards of total offense – getting a surprising 151 on the ground – the Rainbow Warriors rushed down the field and with 7 seconds on the clock, rushed out kicker Matthew Shipley for another try. Replay showed the snap was released in time, and Shipley's attempt was clean.

Gut-wrenching yes, not the worst loss for CSU coach Jay Norvell.

"Not really, to be honest with you. I was disappointed with how we played. I thought we needed to play better," he said. "The fact we were in that position at the end of the game, still had a chance after doing some things pretty poorly for a couple of quarters, I'm proud of how our kids fought back. It's an example of how difficult it is to win and what you have to invest to win as a team."

Colorado State trailed at halftime, missing golden opportunities to take a lead into the break.

After scoring on their initial drive of the game on a 21-yard run off the right corner by Justin Marshall, the Rams came back on the next drive, thanks to a 46-yard connection to Horton on a third-down play. But the drive took a negative turn when Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi pulled the trigger late on a pass to Horton in the end zone, with Hawaii's Elijah Palmer intercepting the pass in the end zone.

Rubbing salt in the wound, the Rainbow Warriors made it a 14-point swing, with quarterback Brayden Schager capping the 80-yard drive with a 12-yard scoring pass to Steven McBride to tie the game.

The Rams would regain the lead early in the second quarter, but not as big as they would have hoped. With the help of a series of Hawaii penalties, Colorado State had first-and-goal from the 3 but would settle for a 22-yard field goal by Jordan Noyes.

From there, Hawaii gained momentum.

The Rainbow Warriors took the lead for the first time, pulling out a trick play as Schager lateraled to Chucky Hines who found a wide open Devon Tauaefa for a 26-yard touchdown for a 14-10 lead at the break, one which could have been extended but Hawaii missed a long field goal with mere seconds remaining in the opening half.

The Rainbow Warriors didn't miss a second chance at an extension when they capped a nine-play, 85-yard drive on an 8-yard scoring run by Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimala on a jet sweep. Shipley then made a 35-yard kick to make it a 24-10 game.

Schlager threw for 320 yards and a score, but it was Hawaii's season-best 151 yards on the ground which kept the Rams at bay. A Hawaii offensive line which had given up more than three sacks a game gave up just one.

"We had too many penalties, too much sloppy play," Norvell said. "We let a team that doesn't run the ball very well run the ball on us. We have to be better, it's just the bottom line and it starts with me. We've got to do a better job of not repeating some of the things that happened to us."

Then the rally came. Then the heartbreak. Also, the realization the game, nor the season, had to come down to the wire.

"We were right there. "We got the two wins," Blackburn said of the prior two weeks. "We needed three to go to a bowl. We just couldn't get it done tonight. There's so many games this season where we could have won them. We just need to learn how to win at CSU. As a team, we need to become winners."

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Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi

Players Mentioned

Chigozie Anusiem

Henry Blackburn

Louis Brown IV

Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi

Tory Horton

Justin Marshall

Jordan Noyes

Players Mentioned

Chigozie Anusiem

Henry Blackburn

Louis Brown IV

Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi

Tory Horton

Justin Marshall

Jordan Noyes

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