Everybody thought one side of the team was stamped; Saturday, they showed otherwise.
Colorado State football dropped their fifth game of the season with a 31-14 loss against Utah State on the road. The Rams’ defense allowed their lowest point total since week two, but there was zero life in an otherwise animated CSU offense.
The green and gold fell into a hole early, allowing the Aggies to go on a quick six-play, 75-yard drive to start with a seven point lead just 2:34 into the game.
USU did not score until a field goal in the final minute of the first quarter, and the Rams’ offense that came into the day averaging 38.6 points per game — ranked 12th in the nation — simply could not make progress against the Aggies defense.
CSU trailed 17-0 at the half, and the Rams’ offense could not muster anything productive. Through the first 30 minutes of game time, they put together just 67 yards of offense, an average of three yards per play and were losing the time of possession battle 9:13 to USU’s 20:47.
The first four offensive possessions for CSU resulted in four punts. Each drive had an ounce of momentum, and then the team stalled expeditiously — picking up only one third down conversion in the first half.
For the Aggies, in the first half and moving forward they went unchallenged on offense against a CSU defense that continued their abysmal tackling and overall play.
USU went back to their old starting quarterback, McCae Hillstead, for Saturday — and it proved to pay dividends against one of the nation’s worst defenses.
Hillstead started in the Aggies’ season opener against Idaho State and put up a poor three-interception performance in the upset loss. He was benched for week two, and didn’t get to start again until Saturday.
Throwing 17-for-22 for 173 yards and a touchdown, Hillstead did it all against CSU. He also added 79 rushing yards, a rushing touchdown, and a 44-yard catch on a first-half trick play.
Anthony Garcia torched the Rams’ secondary in collaboration with Hillstead, as the wide receiver made 11 catches for 121 yards — both career-highs.
CSU’s defense continued to struggle both with allowing big plays and allowing large gaps in the field for the offense to take advantage of. This was especially shown on Hillstead’s second quarter 18-yard touchdown run on 3rd and 14, where no player on the Rams defense kept eyes on the quarterback as he waltzed into the end zone extending the Aggies’ lead to 17.
USU did not slow down in the second half, scoring two more touchdowns — one in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter.
Holding the Aggies to 31 points would normally be an improvement for a CSU defense that has allowed plenty more points than that in recent weeks. But USU entered this week ranked 138th out of 138 in scoring nationwide — and they had their highest-scoring output of the season against the Rams.
Hauss Hejny was unable to stay on fire after his monstrous performance last week against San Diego State. He finished with a quiet statline of 186 passing yards, one garbage time passing touchdown and -5 rushing yards after being sacked twice.
Durell Robinson scored one of the touchdowns for the Rams in the third quarter, and he continued his good play as of late with a performance of 66 rushing yards on 16 attempts. Robinson has now scored nine touchdowns in his last six games — a true goal-line machine for CSU.
Running back Mel Brown and tight end Juice Vereen missed Saturday’s matchup with injuries, as Brown’s looks to be short-term while Vereen could miss an extended period after getting hurt against SDSU.
Wide receiver RJ Vick made his return from his injury problems that forced him to miss the last two outings. In his return, he immediately slotted back in as one of Hejny’s favorite targets with five receptions for 58 yards. Terrence Smith Jr. was the team’s leading receiver with 70 yards.
Issues persist now for the Rams defense after letting the worst ranked offense in the nation stomp all over them, but the offense has to get back to their dominant ways or else CSU could be in some real trouble trying to win games in the back end of the season while struggling on both sides of the ball.
The Rams will host one of the top teams in the Pac-12, No. 20 ranked Boise State, at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7 — an extremely tough test for a CSU squad who will need to recover following a disheartening road loss.
Reach Devin Imsirpasic at sports@collegian.com or on social media @DImsirpasic.
