FORT COLLINS — First-year Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell summed up his team’s home opener against Middle Tennessee on Saturday with four words.
“Too little, too late.”
That was how he interpreted a game that was ugly early for the Rams but wasn’t a complete disaster due to a 10-minute spurt in the third quarter.
Middle Tennessee jumped out to a 34-0 lead just after halftime before CSU rallied with three straight touchdowns in the third. However, the Rams wouldn’t get any closer and lost 34-19 at Canvas Stadium.
“I was really disappointed, especially in our first half of play,” Norvell said. “I was more encouraged by our effort in the second half. But it was just a little bit too little, too late. We are going to have to really look hard at this film and try to make some corrections to give ourselves a competitive chance next week.”
Early on, Colorado State fell victim to the same miscues and shortcomings that plagued the Rams last week at Michigan.
For the second week in a row, the Rams gave up a pick-six. They allowed quarterback Clay Millen to get sacked nine times and gave up big plays through the air that set up short rushing touchdowns or field goals. They also turned the ball over four times and were penalized eight times for 72 yards.
At halftime, the Rams had 35 yards of offense.
“The big thing that we have tried to establish with our guys is that we’ve tried to simplify this game and really work on the simple things in practice and try to carry them over to the game,” Norvell said. “I am really disappointed about some of the fundamental things that we did not do early in this game.”
CSU doubled its first-half yardage total on one play midway through the second half. After the Blue Raiders had extended their lead with a touchdown on their opening drive of the second half, Millen connected with Tory Horton for a 48-yard touchdown.
That was the first of three Millen-to-Horton touchdowns in the third quarter. The second went for 69 yards and the third for 17. By the time the third quarter ended, the Rams had gone from behind by 34 to only being down by 15.
Millen ended up passing for 256 yards and the three touchdowns to Horton. Horton had nine catches for 186 yards.
Another key play in that sequence of three straight CSU touchdowns was an interception by Jack Howell, his first of the season after just missing one last week against Michigan.
But just when it looked like the Rams might rally all the way back, the sacks and penalties that hurt them in the first half came back to haunt them in the fourth quarter and they wouldn’t get any closer.
“Defensively, we played in spurts,” Norvell said. “One of the things that we just haven’t done very well at all is to play together. That has been tough. It has been tough to overcome. We didn’t play very well on third down. We have to shore up our protection. We are really going to have to look at personnel and possibly moving some guys around.”
The first half of the game was dominated by the Blue Raiders and it started on the Rams’ very first offensive series.
Millen’s first pass of the game intended for Horton across the middle was intercepted by Middle Tennessee’s Tra Fluellen and returned 32 yards for a touchdown.
With just over five and a half minutes left in the opening quarter, MT drove all the way to the Rams’ 2-yard line. The Rams forced a 6-yard loss on third down and the Blue Raiders had to settle for a field goal to go ahead 10-0.
Early in the second quarter, Middle Tennessee scored on a 1-yard run by Frank Peasant to give the Blue Raiders a 17-0 lead with 11:37 left in the first half.
Midway through the second quarter, Middle Tennessee recovered a Rams’ fumble and again scored off a CSU turnover. The Blue Raiders kicked a 35-yard field goal to make it 20-0 with 2:26 left in the first half.
Following another CSU fumble, the Blue Raiders needed only three plays to run in their third touchdown of the first half and take a 27-0 lead with a minute and half left in the second quarter. That would be the score at halftime.
“It’s just lack of execution,” Howell said. “We have great players who are going to play to the best of their ability and play with all their heart. No one’s going to hang their head in the locker room. That showed in the second half. We just have to play through all four quarters.”
The Rams’ schedule won’t get any easier. They travel next week to face Washington State, which defeated Wisconsin, 17-14, on Saturday.
