Three Phases: Better Performance Falls Short

Opportunities created. Opportunities missed.

Create four turnovers but yield just as many. Down 10 at half, then tied. Down 10 again, then back in the game. Colorado State has not often found a way to win, but the players haven't given up hope. And with two games remaining in the season, the Rams say their set to give it another go next week against a Boise State team trying to find a way into the Mountain West championship game.

They'll do it for the most basic reasons.

"Speaking for everybody, I mean, we all love this game of football," defensive lineman Andrew Laurich said. "It's not something that we're forced to come here and do, and so I think that's the easiest way to put it is we all love this game so damn much.

"And we want to go out there and play our best game and put our best on film and go out there and come out with a win because we practice so hard during the week. And we prepare each other very well. And obviously our record hasn't shown that, but we still want to, we still love this game."

Offense

The group once again struggled for most of the game. For the fourth time this season, the Rams produced less than 400 yards of total offense, finishing with just 200, and 124 of it came in the fourth quarter.

The offense had extra chances, thanks to a defense which forced four turnovers, all fumble recoveries. Yet only once did it lead to points, when Laurich found a ball at the New Mexico 7. It still took four plays for the Rams to score, coming on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Darius Curry to Rocky Beers.

Starting quarterback Jackson Brousseau was dinged early in the game, but the plan heading in was to play both he and Curry. Brousseau was 8-of-12, but only for 38 yards. Curry did become the first CSU quarterback this season to throw for more than 200 yards in a game, finishing at 248 while hitting 26-of-34. He threw two touchdowns, but also three interceptions, though the last two were both off tipped balls – one at the line of scrimmage, the other going through the hands of receiver Tommy Maher.

"I thought DC did really well. And, again, at the end of the day, the ball bounces our way one way or the other," CSU interim coach Tyson Summers said. "We caused a fumble the last series as well and had another ball sitting on the ground. Like I said, I think it showed a lot of poise for DC. He had two balls batted that went for interceptions, and he kept stepping up, being able to make plays. And I think that you saw those guys kind of rally around him, and I thought he did incredibly well."

The Lobos turned those picks into 10 points.

The Rams had to throw because of an absent running game, limited to just 13 yards thanks to four sacks, but the backs only generated 41 yards on 20 carries. Lloyd Avant made an impact as a receiver, turning a swing pass into a 41-yard touchdown which made it a 20-17 game with just more than five minutes on the clock. It was also the final score.

"Knowing that I made the play and my teammates were blocking downfield and just knowing that we had a little excitement after the play, we're still in the game and we're still fighting each other," Avant said. "Knowing that we're together and we're still grouping together, even through the record that we have and through the game. Knowing that we're still together and fighting together, it's a great thing to see."

Beers had a career game with seven catches for 67 yards but took a big hit which took him out of the game on his final catch.

Defense

Laurich became the first Ram to recover three fumbles in a game, with Owen Long collecting the other in a game where he recorded 12 tackles. It helped the unit keep the Lobos at bay most of the game, holding them to less than 400 yards, the fourth time this season the defense has done so to an opponent, but the first time in Mountain West play.

"He's been playing with two different major injuries over the course of the last two months," Summers said of Laurich. "Again, another guy who could have decided to take his season in one direction or another, but he continues to work hard, do the right thing. And I think it's just really cool."

The Rams did surrender five explosives through the air, but none of them produced points.

The Rams only have 13 sacks on the season, but when they get them, they come in droves. They posted four against the Lobos, the most since having five against Fresno State after opening the season with three against Washington. CSU has one other sack all year, that coming against Washington State.

"We're live, you know. We're going and we're hitting people and knocking the ball out, stripping the ball out," Laurich said. "I think we were flying around playing as hard as the defense, playing together, having our gaps filled and having our guys be free hitters, knocking the ball loose. We're flying around, we're ready to play. I mean, the scoreboard showed, and numbers show and everything like that. And like I said, yeah, get the ball back to the offense."

After the Rams scored late, Summers was confident the defense could get another stop. It didn't come soon enough as the Lobos hit a big play on third-and-3 for 23 yards, followed by an 11-yard run and then a pass interference flag to advance the ball.

That fourth sack came and gave the Rams the ball back with 19 seconds remaining.

"I thought we had a chance to keep the field clipped and put ourselves in a short field to kick the field goal, so I chose not to do that onside kick because of that," Summers said. "We wound up giving up the first down or two that I wish we wouldn't have and didn't give our offense enough time to give themselves a chance to get the ball down the field to end the game."

Special Teams

As he has done most of the year, Bryan Hansen gave the Rams' defense a long field to defend. He punted six times, averaging 58.2 yards per attempt. Two of them went for better than 60 yards, and twice he pinned the Lobos inside the 20.

Every little bit helps, and he's trying, ranking in the top 10 in the country in average.

"It felt like it was about a 70-yard punt where we were able to pin it somewhere around 3 or 4 or ," Summers said. "But there were obviously two other opportunities early to be able to do that. And I think that (special teams coach) Tommy (Perry's) done a great job with him with the special teams and the punt."

Isaiah Hankins made the one attempt he had, though Summers hoped at the very least he could give his kicker another chance at the end to tie the game.

It just didn't happen. But next week is another chance to do something special, and he hasn't seen his team lose heart.

"I think we played one of our better defensive games tonight after not playing as well. We had to change some things up and had to change the personnel groupings up," Summers said. "I thought they did well, and again, I think you see the offense getting going on the second half. We'll continue to improve. We'll continue to finish. We'll continue to fight, and I think you're going to see a really cool thing the last two weeks."

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