A bye week seemed to have arrived at just the right time.

Following a 56-26 blowout loss against Oregon State prior to the bye week, Colorado State football is currently riding a three-game losing streak. After the game, the team made national headlines for an unexpected reason as former defensive coordinator Tyson Summers left the field mid-game and relieved of his position by head coach Jim Mora.

Despite a rough losing streak in which the team has allowed an average of 52 points per game, the team can’t afford to dwell on the negatives while looking to bounce back.

It’s all about moving ahead.

“These extra days have been really good for us,” Mora said. “Gave us a chance to get (the players) away from football for a couple days — at least the physical aspects of football. These guys really don’t stray too far from football very often, so it gets them off their feet, gets them reset, refocused and they’ve come out with really good energy the last three days.”

The Rams are on a short week as they prepare to take on Texas State at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, in San Marcos, Texas.

TXST and CSU are in very similar situations, with both coming in off of a bye week and holding a 2-3 record. The Bobcats fell 31-29 to San Diego State on the road just before their bye week. 

In that matchup, Bobcats quarterback Brad Jackson threw for 372 yards and three touchdowns along with two interceptions. Adding in his 80 rushing yards, Jackson and a TXST offense full of playmakers pose a big threat to what’s been an extremely vulnerable CSU defense so far.

“They’re balanced, and they score points and get a lot of yards,” Mora said. “It’s not unusual to see these 500-, 550-, 600-yard games anymore. … I think that GJ (Kinne) does a great job with them. He’s developing a really good program down there. … He’s just a very impressive coach.”

CSU’s Week 7 matchup will be the first full game of the season with the defense will have plays called by Kenny McClendon, who took over for Summers in the first quarter of the OSU game. McClendon was initially hired as assistant head coach after spending four seasons with Mora at UConn, and now will assume the role of defensive play caller moving forward.

“The biggest change really is Kenny calling the shots,” Mora said. “But everyone else is kind of in their role. There’ll be some things different operationally, but it’s really just adding some people to help with some things that we didn’t do.”

There isn’t one specific issue that has been holding CSU’s defense back, and whether the firing of Summers will be enough to remedy the egregious scoring allowances remains to be seen. However, taking an area of the game that needs improvement step-by-step is exactly what the Rams hope to focus on in their upcoming game.

“I just want to see us improve (defensively) in all aspects, really,” Mora said. “Everything from just lining up correctly to pre-snap communication, during the snap communication — just being more assignment-perfect. You see the cutbacks and stuff and the missed tackles, and oftentimes that’s just a result of taking the wrong angle and not knowing where your help is or trusting your help.”

With the defense looking to improve expeditiously, the lingering question from the past three weeks remains: Will CSU’s starting quarterback Hauss Hejny be back to lead the green and gold offense?

After missing two games from a hamstring injury, the Rams may have their primary signal caller back Thursday.

“(Hauss) is doing very well,” Mora said. “He’s practicing, not in a full role yet, but he’ll be on the trip with us. … He’ll be listed as questionable, which is 50-50, and we’ll take that right now. That could turn into 75-25 tomorrow, and that can turn into 100% on game day. So we’re very hopeful, but we’re also confident in what K’saan (Farrar) has been able to do.”

Additionally, the Rams will likely be without their main playmaker RJ Vick, whose presence Mora said is “quite doubtful” for the coming game. Vick currently leads the team with 367 receiving yards and four touchdowns on the season. 

On the bright side, Mora pointed toward CSU’s running game as a potential key to success on Thursday.

“I think we’ve really been well; I believe we’re ranked 14th in the country in yards per carry,” Mora said. “Our rush yards aren’t necessarily at the top of the list, but when you’re 14th in yards per carry, that shows that we’re getting more consistency in our running. … I think we all get a little impatient at times because we want every run to be a touchdown or big gainer. But the reality of it is, we’re running the ball efficiently right now.”

CSU will now prepare to pull all the stops this week in order to end their three-game skid and bring back hope for returning to the promising start fans witnessed in the first two weeks of the season.

Reach Devin Imsirpasic at sports@collegian.com or on social media @DImsirpasic.