• Final Score: Colorado State 23, Boise State 28
• Line: Colorado State +28
• Venue: Albertsons Stadium

The onside kick game. Probably one of the most improbable endings you’ll see, and it looks like you’ll never see it again because hardly any video of this game exists online. CSU didn’t even put together a highlight package for their YouTube channel.

The game started off as a defensive struggle and the Rams led most of the first half 3-0. It wasn’t uncommon for the 2016 defense to pitch a shutout for an entire half. They did it against UTSA, Northern Colorado, Utah State, UNLV, Fresno State (x2), and almost against SDSU, who scored a garbage-time TD late in the 4th quarter. People liked to talk trash about Marty English (myself included), but this was by far the best defense of the Bobo era.

And the defense was one stop away on from another shutout. Boise State 3rd-and-10 from the 50, running back Jeremy McNichols motions out of the backfield and lines up at receiver. Evan Colorito follows him out there. Colorito was our best defender that year, but he’s not covering McNichols out in space. Colorito was a “linebacker” by name only, he was a defensive end.

So you have the quickest running back in the conference on an island against a defensive end. I vividly remember this play. We had one timeout left in the half. “CALL TIMEOUT YOU ASSHOLES”, I yelled at my television. They didn’t hear me.

McNichols runs a simple go route and is wide open for a 33 yard gain. WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING?? We wanted to save that timeout for half time??? Shit like that drives me up the wall.

BSU score two plays later and we go into half down 7-3. Boise must have made some Halftime Adjustments^TM because they scored touchdowns on their first three drives of the 2nd half.

Down 28-3, this game was over.

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OR WAS IT!

Rams score on their next drive to make it 28-10 and then the unthinkable happens. The Rams bring in two kickers who motion in opposite directions so Boise didn’t know which way the onside kick was going. It worked perfectly!

I love watching Hayden Hunt celebrate. Legend.

Next play:

LET’S GOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Still down two scores, we need the ball back:

The mad lads did it! They run the same play but to the opposite side! Boise in shambles!

Rams score 20 points in the span of two minutes and it’s a one score game!

We wouldn’t convert the next onsider and Boise ran the clock down to 15 seconds before CSU got the ball again. The game would end in the most anti-climatic way as possible with a 10-second run off of the clock after the Rams threw an illegal forward pass.

As far as losses go, this one wasn’t that bad. At the time Boise was 15th in the country and a 28-point favorite. Moral victory!

And in a cruel twist of fate, Boise would steal the two-kicker onside kick concept and use it against us in our next meeting:

As if that loss wasn’t bad enough.

If you want to watch the 2016 game again… good luck finding it!