Most Colorado State football fans had never heard of Western Illinois University before this week, but Saturday’s game was an important one for CSU football. Last season, the Rams suffered a shocking 35-19 home loss to Illinois State University, who plays in the same conference as WIU.
Well, this time, Collin Hill and the Rams were determined to not have a repeat performance against another Missouri Valley Football Conference opponent. On the Rams’ first play, Hill let it fly for a 75 yard touchdown, connecting with speedy freshman receiver Dante Wright, setting off the cannon just 10 seconds into the game.
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“That play was pretty great; you couldn’t really chalk it up any better than that,” Hill said. “Coach said he wanted to take a shot, we had good pass protection and Dante made a good play.”
The Rams dominated the game on both sides of the ball. In the first half, the offense racked up 440 total yards, with Hill throwing for 351 yards. Wright hauled in five receptions for 103 yards with a score and running back Marvin Kinsey had 11 carries for 76 yards and two receptions for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
Head Coach Mike Bobo has been impressed with Hill’s performance through the first two games of the season.
“I think he’s playing extremely well,” Bobo said. “He’s confident and he [has] to play confident for us to be successful. We’ve got some weapons offensively at different positions.”
Hill would finish the game going 25/32 for 367 yards and four TDs, while Wright added a carry for a 33 yard touchdown in the third quarter.
On the defensive side of the ball, CSU held the Leathernecks to just 215 total yards and allowed just 64 rushing yards on 28 attempts in the game.
The only thing that stuck out was that CSU fumbled the ball three times in the first half, with WIU recovering two of them.
Last week, the talk was about the defense and how they were unable to generate turnovers and get the offense back onto the field. This week, the defense was able to get their first turnover of the season.
Defensive end Jan-Phillip Bombek was able to sack WIU quarterback Connor Sampson and caused a fumble.
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“I thought it was a great day to be a Ram today,” Bobo said. “Any time you can go out and handle your business and get a win, that’s always an awesome feeling. I thought our boys played extremely hard. I thought the defense was excellent today, … constantly harassing the quarterback, tight coverage.”
The Rams were able to walk away with a 38-13 win over WIU, but there are still adjustments that need to be made before the team takes on the University of Arkansas next week. CSU lost the turnover battle again but was able to get a win because they outmatched WIU at every position.
They won’t have that advantage next Saturday. The Rams also missed all three field goal attempts in the contest. Granted, the second miss was a 61 yard attempt at the end of the first half (the NFL record is 63 yards).
To be successful against Arkansas, the Rams will need to take better care of the football and take advantage of the stops that the defense provides them with. Both sides of the ball are playing well, but have yet to have a complete game.
Junior Guerrero can be reached at sports@collegian.com or on twitter @juniorg45.
