There comes a point when change is needed.

After a devastating 31-14 loss to Utah State, with defensive struggles continuing and offensive actions falling stagnant, Colorado State football head coach Jim Mora said he has realized a change needs to happen now, by any means necessary. 

“That was awful, an awful performance by all of us starting with me not getting the team ready to go,” Mora said postgame following the loss. “It’s not acceptable, it will not be acceptable, it will not be tolerated. We’re all professionals — everyone in that locker room is making money. … With that money comes an obligation to do your job all the time, not just once in a while.”

Mora did not hold back in his comments after the game; and now is the time to be strict as the Rams’ toughest Pac-12 opponent yet coming to town: No. 20 Boise State Broncos. 

BSU is off to a 7-1 start to the year, holding a 4-0 conference record, and will be the second ranked team to walk into Canvas Stadium this season after No. 7 BYU beat CSU 41-23 on Sept. 19. 

The Broncos come off a thrilling 46-45 win against Texas State this past week, in which they had a 28-0 lead before allowing 36 unanswered Bobcat points in the second half of the game. BSU starting quarterback Maddux Madsen was injured in the fourth quarter, and backup quarterback Max Cutforth came in and threw three touchdowns to lead the Broncos to a win.

With Madsen likely out this weekend, CSU and its struggling defense will have to prepare for a new quarterback who seems to bring just as much firepower as the now-injured starter.

“They don’t really change the structure of their offense,” Mora said at his weekly press conference Monday. “They had to throw the ball a little bit more than they would probably have liked to with their backup quarterback, but Texas State knew that. And (Cutforth) went down and won the game for them throwing the ball even against a team who knew they had to throw it.”

The fourth-quarter heroics from Cutforth to beat TXST will give BSU confidence in their backup, but the Rams may have bigger fish to fry when dealing with the Broncos offense.

Running back Dylan Riley sits at second in the country in rushing yards and has been a nightmare for opposing defenses. The Broncos’ offense packs an extremely dynamic punch fueled by both the running and passing games and will present a big test for a Rams’ defense that struggled to stop any offenses this season — nevertheless offenses as good as BSU’s.

“(Riley) is one of the best players in the country — one of the best running backs in the country,” Mora said. “Stopping the run is the cultural background of any good defense; it’s a non-negotiable. … When you look at the way we’re playing defense right now, when everybody does their job and stays connected, we’re good. But when we don’t, then we have issues.”

A question that will need to be answered going into this matchup is whether the offense can get back the juice they had displayed all season until last week. The run game was not as successful as it had been in recent weeks; the team only mustered 263 total yards of offense and quarterback Hauss Hejny only managed to throw 186 yards and scored just one touchdown.

The Broncos defense has not been particularly exceptional this season, which has proved as a weakness for a top-25 ranked college football team. The unit has been poor on third and fourth downs, and CSU’s offense will need to find a hole in the defense to attack in order to keep up with BSU.

“You approach (the offense) with candor and honesty, and you tell the truth in meetings,” Mora said. “You count on your leaders to set a great example, and as a staff you come up with another great plan, and you’re very demanding of yourself and your players. … Then, you come out and really work hard emotionally, physically, mentally to live up to the standard we’ve set the first part of the season.”

For a struggling Rams’ defense, the key to victory this weekend will be in stopping Riley and maintaining their run game. And while the task has proven difficult over recent games, the defensive staff will look to keep the unit together in a game where they must perform above and beyond.

“You rely on everybody; stopping the run is an 11-man proposition,” Mora said. “It always has been, and it always will be in the game of football. It depends on everybody doing their job at a consistent level, so that the man behind him that’s responsible for a gap can be aggressive in his gap. … It’s a process that takes time. And unfortunately for this football team and this fanbase and this coaching staff and these players, we weren’t able to play that way until we made a change.”

Sitting at a 3-5 record, CSU prepares to host Boise State at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7; the program will hope to salvage what has begun to look like another lost season in the first year of the Mora era.