Colorado State used big plays to jump out to a sizable lead in route to a 45-31 win versus rival Wyoming on Saturday night in Fort Collins, Colo.
“Colorado State is an excellent football team,” head coach Craig Bohl said. “We knew we needed to play error free tonight to have a chance to win and we certainly did not do that. It was a disappointing result.”
Colorado State moved the ball effortlessly on Wyoming, especially through the air. The Rams racked up 558 total yards, 411 of which came through the air. Colorado State’s senior quarterback Garret Grayson was very effective going for 18-for-21 for 390 yards. His first incompletion came with 5:54 to play in the half; prior to that pass he was 13/13.
The Cowboy defense on the Rams opening possession forced a field goal after stopping three consecutive runs from inside the 5-yard line. The defense, however, would struggle from then on out, highlighted by many missed tackles.
“Short little dump off passes they were able to … make big plays,” senior cornerback Blair Burns said. “Everyone is running to the ball pretty hard. Sometimes we over pursue the ball. When we are in wide-open space we miss tackles. We have to get missed tackles corrected.”
Colorado State logged eight plays of 20 or more yards. Missed tackles have been a glaring issue for the Cowboys this season, especially in their losses.
“We are going to work on tackling,” Bohl said. “We are going to work pursuit angles and work on positioning.”
Wyoming was very thin defensively going into this game. The Cowboys were without their leading tackle senior linebacker Mark Nzeocha, who suffered a leg injury versus San Jose State and is doubtful for the rest of the season. They were also without senior defensive end Sonny Pulitasi and senior cornerback DeAndre Jones who also suffered injuries in last weekend’s game. To add insult to injury redshirt sophomore running back D.J. May suffered a torn ACL in practice.
The injury bug, for the third consecutive game, bit the Cowboys on Saturday night. Junior linebacker Malkaam Muhammed left the game early with an elbow injury. Many other Cowboys were in and out of the game at various times after getting shaken up.
“We have to do more things to develop depth,” Bohl said. “It did give us the opportunity to play a lot of younger guys.”
One injury that played a big role in the game was Junior starting running back Shaun Wick who broke his hand on Wyoming’s first possession and did not return. This placed freshman running back Brian Hill into the spotlight. Hill ran for 121 yards on 28 carries.
“Brian did a really good job,” redshirt senior quarterback Colby Kirkegaard said. “He ran really hard and filled the roll really well.”
“It was an admirable performance,” Bohl added.
Kirkegaard had a career high 335 passing yards and two touchdowns for Wyoming.
Kirkegaard spread the ball around finding seven different receivers throughout the course of the game. Sophomore wide receiver Tanner Gentry led Wyoming with six catches for 96 yards. Senior Jalen Claiborne recorded five catches for 88 yards and Dominic Rufran extended his streak to 45 consecutive games with a reception as he caught six passes for 52 yards.
“I do believe we did some good things on offense,” Bohl said. “It just took us a little while to get going.”
Wyoming has now lost four in a row, three of which have come in conference. They will need to close the season at 3-1 to become bowl eligible.
“There is still a lot to play for this season,” senior linebacker Devyn Harris said.
“We can’t give up,” Burns added.
Wyoming’s next game is at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday Nov. 1 in Fresno versus Fresno State.
