- Final Score: Colorado State 31, Utah State 24
- Line: Colorado State +6
- Venue: Hughes Stadium
We enter a new tier of the countdown: Wins Against Crappy Mountain West Teams. This is the largest tier by far, making up 16 of Coach Bobo’s 28 wins.
First up is the 2016 home victory over a 3-9 Utah State team. To be fair, we beat some Mountain West teams who were way worse than this USU squad, but this win is ranked so low (high?) because it’s the infamous game where Collin Hill blew out his knee.
It happened on such an innocuous play. No one was open, so Hill took off for a 19-yard gain. He went down and stayed down. You can’t help but play the “what if” game and wonder how the Bobo Era might have been different had the injury never happened, but it’s hard to do because it’s not like Nick Stevens was chopped liver. He gave us an All-Mountain West season, for pete’s sake. Just a total bummer all around.
Anyway, CSU was down 24-10 at halftime, then the Rams defense did one of those Halftime AdjustmentsTM that fans are always crying about and shut down the Aggie offense for the remainder of the game.
Utah State’s second half drives were: 4 plays (punt), 1 play (fumble), 7 plays (punt), 3 plays (punt), 6 plays (punt), 5 plays (punt), 8 plays (downs), 5 plays (interception). NOW THAT’S A MARTY ENGLISH DEFENSE!
I’ll never forget the fumble that Tyree Simmons caused. I thought he killed someone:
Along with the stellar performance from the defense, this was the first game where Michael Gallup was MICHAEL GALLUP. He ended up with 140 yards and a TD on 7 catches, including this 60 yarder:
Rams would take a 31-24 lead thanks to a stout defense and big plays on offense. Also, the Rams had no turnovers and zero boners in the kicking game! They even converted a fake punt!
As I noted in yesterday’s UTSA post, I’m tracking how many times the CSU offense was able to run out the clock in the 4th quarter of a one score game. Up 7 points with 3 minutes left, the Rams offense took the field. They ran 45 seconds off the clock and went three and out. So our running tally for clock killing drives in one score games is 1 for 2.
The game was over when… Aggies get the ball back, move it to the 50 yard line, then…
Manny Jones with the pick! Rams win!
Behind Enemy Lines:
Pretty funny going from the UTSA message board where everyone is dropping f-bombs to Utah State’s message board where coaches have “puddin’ fer brains”. God bless Utah.
This game’s replay doesn’t exist online. Here are highlights:
It's Always Sonny in Fort Collins 