CSU Rams Get Big Road Win at Utah State, 35-34 in Double OT

by bhsmarine on Sep 25, 2011 9:59 AM PDT in Colorado State Football

Final - 9.24.2011	1	2	3	4	OT	Total
Colorado St. Rams	0	3	7	11	7	35
Utah State Aggies	0	7	7	7	7	34

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The Rams came back from their first loss of the season in a big way with a come from behind double overtime victory against Utah State. The Aggies went for the two point conversion on the one yard line after their second overtime touchdown, Mike Orakpo made the big stop to seal the victory for the Rams. The Rams scored the tying touchdown and two point conversion with less then a minute to play after trailing the whole game. Crockett Gillmore and Chris Nwoke were the go to guys scoring all the Rams touchdowns and two point conversions. Ben Deline nailed all his FG and PATs which proved to be a factor in winning. The Rams had not won consecutive road games since 2003 when they beat California and then BYU five weeks later.

The Utah St Aggies didn't play their best game with 4 turnovers. The Aggies out gained the Rams 367-232 in total yards, but two fumbled punts proved to be their undoing. The Aggies put up another hefty 281 rushing yards for the game. The Rams managed 124 yards on the ground, but a weak 2.6 yards per carry. Watching the game you got the feeling it was more the Aggies losing then the Rams winning. Which is true, but the Rams still took advantage of the mistakes and made the plays that the Aggies didn't.

The Rams offense came up big when it needed scoring touchdowns to tie the game, along with a two point conversion, and two touchdowns in overtime. The defense bent but didn't break coming up with two forced fumbles and three sacks. Nordly Capi had a tackle for a loss on the quarterback, it wasn't recorded as a sack on some stat sheets. The CSURams.com webpage has him getting a sack for number seven on the year, leading the nation. The big play was Orakpo's tackle on Robert Turbin on the two point attempt from the one yard line after a penalty on Utah State's first attempt. Turbin had burnt the Rams for 114 yards and four touchdowns.

The Rams are now half way to a bowl game at 3-1 and sit atop the Mountain West with TCU for the moment. Forget the Utah St mistakes, the Rams made plays when they needed to and are sitting pretty at 3-1 instead of 2-2 on a losing streak. This was the biggest win since 2009 when they beat CU at Folsum Field. A Steve Fairchild twitter summed it up best, "What a game! I'm so happy for the kids because they kept believing. It's such a fun team to coach, especially when they believe." The Rams of old seem to give up. The Rams kept fighting in Logan, Utah last night and ruined a homecoming game while keeping their bowl dreams alive. It was a good night to be a CSU Ram.

Next week the Rams get San Jose State at home. The Rams get a bye week before they take on the possibly the highest ranked team to ever visit Fort Collins when Boise State rolls in on Oct 15th.

If you got time to waste check out the replay on ESPN. At worst check out overtime cause it was very exciting. As noted in the game thread it was the worst camera work I have ever seen, ever. It looks like some guy was taping it under his jacket then made 12 copies of copies and then put it to broadcast.

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I caught the last five minutes and OT, exciting stuff.

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by Jeremy Mauss on Sep 25, 2011 10:11 AM PDT via mobile reply actions

Utah state gave that game away in the end just like they did at Auburn

Gary Anderson has to be really disappointed. That muffed punt at the end of the game was a huge mistake. With the game in control that reciever should not have taken any risks. With 20-20 hindsight coaching from my couch I would say don’t even put anyone back to recieve that kick and go for the block to try and improve field position.

There were a couple major plays that turned the game that I thought were worthy of replay reversal, but there were too few camera angles and bad video quality. It makes it so you have to go with the play on the field because it is too difficult to catch anything definitive. The quality of the video on the ESPN3 broadcast was simply garbage.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Larry soon would be there. -Maji Man

by daedalus17 on Sep 25, 2011 2:05 PM PDT reply actions

so was the TV feed

I actually had this game and at least for half of the game they had technical difficulties and aired some very old tv shows with a message scroll saying they were working on it.

I have to also question the two-point conversion to go for the win. Going for it was fine but the play call was terrible. Why force Robert Turbin to the outside when you are on the one-yard line and he has proven to get the yards. Instead they go wide and force him to go about five yards for one yard and he got stuffed.

Still, a win is a win for CSU and they scored and made some plays when they needed to in overtime.

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by Jeremy Mauss on Sep 25, 2011 2:15 PM PDT up reply actions

TV feed was AWFUL!

It looked like the ref was floating cause his black pants mixed in with the grass. Any fumble you had no idea when the ball left cause you couldn’t make out the ball.

Utah State did give it away, but CSU still took the opportunity and won the game. CU tried to give the game away at points and CSU politely declined and gave it back to them.

Great win for them on the road against a good WAC team.

Bring back Fum's Song!

by bhsmarine on Sep 25, 2011 3:36 PM PDT up reply actions

I could be wrong, but I think the bad video feed helped CSU.

It seemed like there were some close calls on the field that the refs decision favored CSU. With the poor video quality and limited angles there is no opportunity for any instant replay that is good enough to overturn the call on the field.

Of course, with the poor video feed I had I could be wrong. It would have been nice to see a quality video feed replay that could have verified it though.

One specific play I remember was the CSU fumble deep in their own territory that was ruled the player was down. The ball looked live to me. Just not enough to overturn it with the picture quality.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Larry soon would be there. -Maji Man

by daedalus17 on Sep 25, 2011 7:14 PM PDT up reply actions

Possibly

The feed the refs looked at might have been much clearer not going over the satellite. It is impossible to tell what kind of quality they got to see. But I do remember that play and you couldn’t tell a thing with the bad feed.

Bring back Fum's Song!

by bhsmarine on Sep 26, 2011 9:03 AM PDT up reply actions