Bobo wrong to trust defense

Air Force made Colorado State pay for coach’s decision.

FORT COLLINS» Colorado State coach Mike Bobo put faith in his defense Saturday. That was a mistake.

In retrospect, it’s easy say it was the wrong call. But it was curious at best in the moment.

Trailing Air Force 38-28 with just over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Colorado State faced a fourth-and-7 from the Falcons’ 45-yard line. Instead of putting faith in a veteran offensive line to protect the Mountain West’s leading passer (Nick Stevens) and allow him to throw to college football’s leading receiver (Michael Gallup), Bobo elected to punt.

Ryan Stonehouse’s kick had the perfect hang time and was downed at the Air Force 2 with 10:21 remaining, but that mattered little. The Falcons marched 98 yards on 13 plays, eating up 7:09 of clock to put the game away. Two possessions prior, Air Force had a drive that lasted 9:59. There was nothing CSU could do to stop Air Force’s option attack Saturday, which dominated time of possession 41:38-18:22.

So why, when almost nothing has gone right on defense, give the ball away?

“It was fourth and long and the percentages aren’t good. The percentages were, hopefully, in our favor that we were about to get a stop,” Bobo explained. “And then we executed the punt perfectly and had them on the 2yard line. And they fumbled the first snap and (we) get them in second and long, so we’re ahead of the chains. You got to give them credit. They did a great job. That was the difference in the game.”

Air Force ran 78 plays in its 4528 victory to the Rams’ 54. Seventy four of those were rushes and not one went for negative yardage. The only empty possessions Air Force had were via an interception thrown by quarterback Arion Worthman on third-and-9 in the first quarter and when it decided to take a knee before halftime and head to the locker with a 28-21 lead and a punt with 0:22 to play.

The Falcons’ game plan coming in was to play keep-away from the Rams’ explosive offense (which had its own struggles Saturday with Stevens throwing three interceptions). It worked flawlessly, and CSU’S decision to punt late only worked further into Air Force’s hand.

For the third consecutive week, CSU gave up at least 450 yards of offense, allowing Air Force to go for 477. The Rams average 426 yards allowed. Worthman ran the ball 25 times for 117 yards and a score, running back Jacob Stafford had 104 yards on only nine carries and the Falcons only had five third-down plays facing at least 5 yards to go; two of those were at the end of halves when they were in victory formation to run out the clock.

“There’s no hiding the fact we got our (butt) kicked today. And it should hurt and it ought to be embarrassing,” Bobo said. “I’m embarrassed that that was what we put on the field today, and I’m in charge of that. I’m also in charge of getting us ready for Wyoming next week and I’m planning to be ready.”

Stevens was quick to point out after the game that the Rams (6-3, 4-1 Mountain West) still control their destiny for a conference championship. Win out — which includes beating conference front-runner Boise State on Nov. 11 — and CSU will be in, and most likely hosting, the championship game. But for that to happen, CSU will have to start making stops.

“I feel more frustrated than anything. That’s not the kind of football we want to play as a team, as a defense. Moving forward, I think we still need to make some adjustments,” CSU linebacker Evan Colorito said. “I don’t know what that is yet, but something that will allow us to play the best football we can play.”