Colorado State football had a large opportunity in front of them to turn their season around in a big way — and did not meet the moment.

The Rams were blown out at home 64-38 by the No. 20 Boise State Broncos in a game where the Rams never really put up too much of a fight. BSU scored in the first 52 seconds, CSU equalized about two and a half minutes later and then the Broncos began to run away with it.

The nation’s leading rusher Dylan Riley started the scoring with a 73-yard touchdown off a wheel route, then a 42-yard rushing touchdown on the following possession. BSU’s offense could not be stopped — as has been the case all season — and the Rams’ offense could not do nearly enough to keep up.

Laying down the hammer did not work

Head coach Jim Mora had his most irate postgame press conference following last week’s loss to Utah State, and made it clear that the display of football will not be tolerated anymore and changes will be made.

Those changes were not seen against the Broncos.

CSU’s defense allowed 669 total yards to the high-powered BSU offense — even below expectations for the unit that came into Saturday allowing 538.4 total yards per game. While it was an extremely tall task coming in to try and stop that offense, the Rams still could not rise to the occasion they needed to.

The Broncos started their backup quarterback Max Cutforth, who had no issues coming in and dicing up the defense; throwing for 317 yards on only 16 completions, alongside four touchdowns. Riley, the team’s star playmaker, finished with 300 all-purpose yards, which is two yards shy of the BSU single-game record, and three total touchdowns — as the Rams’ lenient defense continued to have zero answers for yet another star running back.

Offense continues to do their job

The poor showing from CSU’s offense against USU proved to be a fluke with how the unit responded Saturday.

Quarterback Hauss Hejny continued his stellar play on the season, not turning the ball over en route to a stat line of 253 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 69 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown.

His superstar ability continued to show in many moments, constantly evading pressure, throwing deep balls under pressure and making plays out of nothing — such as on his incredible 9-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

For the run game, even with Durell Robinson out and Mel Brown very limited with an injury, the combined group of backs were able to accumulate over 200 rushing yards in a solid performance.

Aside from a couple stagnant possessions in big moments of the game where tides could have turned, the offense did their job — but to no avail when opposing teams are consistently scoring over 50 points every game.

Will real change on the defense be seen this season?

It is a fair time to ask if the defense will improve noticeably in the remaining three games of the season.

Former defensive coordinator Tyson Summers was fired in week five. Mora has been calling out the defense since very early in the season, yet the 600+ yard and 50+ point performances continue.

Tackling continues to be an issue all the way from the defensive line to the secondary, allowing more yards after contact than should ever be allowed. Every opposing offense takes advantage of the consistently massive gaps in the defense and knows they will be able to constantly break tackles if they run hard with the ball.

Now dropping to a 3-6 record on the season, CSU must win out to be bowl-eligible. In order to do so, the defense has to finally improve: Not say they are going to improve, but show results on the field.