By: Mike Brohard
Not So SpecialThe play of Colorado State's special teams units didn't give the Rams a chance Thursday night on the road in Boise State.
Any chance of beating the Broncos took a big hit when Avery Williams blocked the first punt of the night and recovered it in the end zone. Those chances grew slimmer when the Rams first scoring chance stalled in the red zone, and Robert Liss' field goal attempt was blocked and returned 91 yards for a score.
At that point, it was 21-0 Boise State. By the end of the first half, the Broncos turned a Patrick O'Brien interception into a touchdown, then blocked another punt and returned it for a score. In the first 30 minutes, the Broncos scored 28 off their 42 points off Colorado State mistakes, three of them on special teams plays.
"I'm in charge of the special teams, so I'm the one responsible for it," head coach Steve Addazio said. "So I've got to get it fixed. Bottom line, it's got to be fixed and that falls directly on me."
It wasn't just the blocks, either, as the Broncos generated a couple of solid returns on the night, one of which was erased when Trey McBride ran down the returner and stripped him of the ball deep in Colorado State territory.
It was a great play, but as McBride said, he should not have had to make it in the first place.
"In all reality, I'm the last resort and I shouldn't be making any tackles," McBride said. "We missed a lot of tackles on special teams; way too many. That's something we've got to get fixed up front; we've got to make tackles."
Giving up 28 points to a team on blocks and turnovers doesn't translate to wins, especially on the road to a team like Boise State.
It was a stunning turn of events for units which had looked solid the first two games. For Addazio, it was first, and he intends for it to be the last.
"We have to go back and take a look at the corrections we have to make. I've got to do a better job of preparing these guys," Addazio said. "I've been in special teams a long time in my career, never seen anything like that before. It's totally unacceptable, and I have to make sure that's fixed."
Third-down Woes
They were an issue in the opener. The Rams improved on both sides of the ball against Wyoming. Thursday, they were back to being a major issue.
Colorado State converted just once in 15 third-down tries. Defensively, it allowed Boise State to convert half of its 18 attempts. In either case, it's not conducive to winning football.
The Broncos paid particular attention to the Rams' main weapons, with Trey McBride targeted 10 times, Dante Wright eight times. Combined, they had nine catches as they each had to deal with extra bodies around them. CSU only completed 11 passes (O'Brien was 9-of-20, Todd Centeio 2-of-9), with Nate Craig-Myers and EJ Scott coming up with a catch each.
"They're a tough, physical team. They ran a lot of double coverage," McBride said. "They double covered Dante, they double covered me. It was just trying to figure out which one was double covered and get the ball to the other one kind of a thing. They're a tough defense, a good football team and we didn't execute as well as we could of. We've got to get that fixed and get better."
Wright had 109 receiving yards at half, and that's where he finished. McBride has a touchdown in all three games (four on the season), but have yet to build up a third option in the passing game.
The Broncos were particularly effective on third down in the first half, and on one drive, converted two third-and-longs – 16 and 13 yards -- which helped produce an eight-play touchdown drive
In a word from Addazio: Frustrating
"On offense, we were woeful on third down; a combination of a bunch of factors, but totally unacceptable on third down," he said. "That has to improve. Defensively, I thought again we gave up some critical third-and –longs that we didn't get off the field on."
Here and There
Teams have to accept the negative, but they also need to recognize the positive. There were a few for the Rams.
A'Jon Vivens saw his most work at running back when Marcus McElroy exited the field favoring his shoulder, rushing 12 times for 76 yards, averaging 6.3 yards per carry with a rush of 21 yards. Christian Hunter also ripped off a 21-yard run.
Defensively, the Rams did force three fumbles (converting one into Viven's 17-yard scoring run), and Scott Patchan has delivered at least one sack a game as the Rams had three on the night.
The team is just three games into the Addazio era, and it has not been consistent in any phase as of yet. For the first-year head coach, getting to that point is the goal, and it is going to take some time.
"We lost a game, and we lost it in a way I don't like to see. We lost it in special teams. That's not going to set our program back," he said. "We're going to go back to practice, and we're going to get ready to go to the next week. This is all part of building a football program. We had a great win last week, we went on the road this week and we didn't play very well in special teams especially. We've got some things we've got to correct.
"This is a process, and this process is going to continue. I can be disappointed, but by no means deterred. This has got to be built, and one of the things we have to do is learn to win on the road. That's a big deal, and that's got to happen."
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What We Saw: Not a Special Night - CSURams.com
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