1-2
Colorado State
1-2
No. 14 Cal Poly Falls to Colorado State, 34-17
9/14/2013 12:00:00 AM | Football
FT. COLLINS, Colo. – Colorado State amassed 353 yards and 27 points in the first half and held on for a 34-17 victory over No. 14 Cal Poly in a non-conference football game Saturday afternoon at Hughes Stadium.
As they did in a 41-25 loss to another Mountain West Conference member last week, Fresno State – Cal Poly trailed 34-0 at halftime – the Mustangs rallied in the second half against the Rams, only to fall short, their record dropping to 1-2 on the year. Colorado State also is 1-2.
The Rams produced three touchdowns and a pair of field goals for a 27-10 advantage at the break.
Cal Poly answered in the third quarter with a 23-yard scoring pass from Chris Brown to Willie Tucker and drove to the Rams' 12-yard line early in the fourth period before a 32-yard Bobby Zalud field goal attempt was blocked by Shaquil Barrett.
Colorado State had leads after three quarters in losses to both Colorado and Tulsa.
"We're 12 yards from making that a 27-24 game with about eight minutes to go and we've got to find a way to score," said Mustang head coach Tim Walsh. "I challenged them at halftime again and I think our guys responded and we made some adjustments for the second half.
"Colorado State is big. It's a big football team that is physical and that's the way that Coach (Jim) McElwain wants his team to play," Walsh added. "We can't play teams like this and Fresno State and get down like we've done, then try to battle back."
Barrett also blocked a Zalud attempt from 47 yards in the second quarter.
"Once he blocked it, I saw that he was going to pick up that ball and he was going the full distance with it," Tucker said of Barrett's second blocked field goal. "Before he could grab it, I tried to tackle him and I flipped over him and he landed on my back. I don't know how big he was, but he pushed all of the air out of me. I don't know what's up with my ribs, but it's making it hard for me to breathe right now. It will be fine."
Colorado State sealed Cal Poly's fate with a 68-yard drive after the second blocked field goal, scoring on a six-yard pass from Garrett Grayson to Kiv Cartwright with 4:03 to play in the game.
"I told our players that everything is still in front of us," Walsh said of his postgame chat with the team. "I don't really care about FCS polls and week four. They're great for our fans and stuff, but the reality of the situation is that we haven't lost anything. We lost two football games, which I'm disappointed in, but we still have a lot to look forward to in nine games and we still have not played a conference game yet.
"We're going to get better, and we're going to get some guys better in the bye week, and it's a bye week that we need after playing two FBS schools," Walsh added. "We're not bad, we're just digging ourselves too big of a hole to play against these types of teams. It doesn't matter who it's against. If we get down 14 to 17 and 25 to 34 points, you're not going to win a lot of football games."
Grayson completed 21 of 30 passes for 297 yards and two touchdowns. Crockett Gillmore caught seven passes for 83 yards while Rashard Higgins and Cartwright each caught one touchdown pass for the Rams.
Chris Nwoke rushed for 133 yards on 19 carries while Kapri Bibbs and Donnell Alexander each ran for a touchdown for the Rams.
"As simple as it sounds, I think we were just getting away from how we play," linebacker Johnny Millard said of Cal Poly's first-half performance. "We just weren't fundamentally and technically sound in the first half. We started to pick up and play how we were capable of playing. It just comes down to us playing a full 60 minutes of football.
"There wasn't that much adjustment (in the second half)," Millard added. "It was doing what we were supposed to be doing and doing it right. I think Coach (Josh) Brown was calling a good game and making good calls. We just needed to execute. When we made mistakes, they capitalized on them. We've just got to play fundamentally sound and stay true to our technique and trust our scheme and we'll play great.
"We've got a bye week coming up, and I think it will be a great opportunity to fix those things and smooth the edges out and get ready for conference," Millard said. "We just need to get better. We don't need to stray away from what we're doing. We just need to be consistent and play a full 60 minutes of football on both sides of the ball and for the offense and defense to be on the same page."
Brown connected on 11 of 20 passes for 164 yards and the score to Tucker. The sophomore quarterback also rushed for 61 yards on 14 carries.
"I thought he did as well as he could have done," Tucker said of Brown's first collegiate start. "I couldn't have asked for anything better than what he did for us out there."
Added fullback Akaninyene Umoh, "I rate his performance well. I think it's hard to just jump in there as quarterback and I think he's taking it pretty well and he's trying. I just tell him to go out there and have fun. We're out there with him, and we're all family. We hang out every day, we live right next to each other, so I just tell him to have fun and, no matter what, we have his back. Mistakes or positive things, we'll be there together."
Tucker (above, left) was the top Mustang receiver with three catches for 69 yards. Nicholls and Kristaan Ivory both had three catches as well.
"We were still in that game right up to the last minute," said Tucker. "We had a feeling that we were going to generate our offense and everyone felt the same way. We had a rhythm and we definitely thought we could beat these guys."
Cal Poly's only scores of the first half came on a 46-yard field goal by Zalud midway through the first quarter and a 34-yard run by Umoh early in the second quarter which cut Colorado State's lead to 13-10.
But Binns ran one yard for a score and Higgins caught a 36-yard pass from Grayson as the Rams pulled away in the final nine minutes of the first half.
"It's a little frustrating (losing to two FBS schools) because, as a team, we feel like we only played two halves in two football games," said Umoh. "In my opinion, I feel like it should make us hungry. We have a bye week coming up, so we can look at the film and get things corrected. I know that we're going to come back stronger against Portland State."
Cal Poly's defense was credited with seven pass breakups, including three by end Andrew Alcaraz and two more by Millard. Millard finished with 13 tackles, one less than Mustang leader Nick Dzubnar (pictured above) with 14.
Alex Hubbard and Cameron Ontko both notched a dozen tackles for Cal Poly.
Colorado State finished with a 533-367 advantage in total yards. The Rams collected 236 yards on the ground and 297 through the air, far exceeding their 290-yard total offense average in the first two games of the season.
Cal Poly football, presented by French Hospital Medical Center, totaled 203 yards rushing and 164 yards passing.
The Mustangs have a bye next week, returning to action Thursday, Sept. 26, with their Big Sky Conference opener at Portland State.
Photo above of Willie Tucker's touchdown catch courtesy of Owen Main / www.fansmanship.com
Team Stats
CP 0, CS 7
CS - ALEXANDER, Donn 6 yd run (ROBERTS, Jared kick), 7 plays, 75 yards, TOP 2:33
CP 3, CS 7
CP - Bobby Zalud 46 yd field goal 10 plays, 46 yards, TOP 4:28
CP 3, CS 10
CS - ROBERTS, Jared 33 yd field goal 6 plays, 59 yards, TOP 2:43
CP 3, CS 13
CS - ROBERTS, Jared 39 yd field goal 8 plays, 45 yards, TOP 3:31
CP 10, CS 13
CP - Akaninyene Umoh 34 yd run (Bobby Zalud kick), 3 plays, 75 yards, TOP 0:48
CP 10, CS 20
CS - BIBBS, Kapri 1 yd run (ROBERTS, Jared kick), 12 plays, 75 yards, TOP 5:59
CP 10, CS 27
CS - HIGGINS, Rashar 36 yd pass from GRAYSON, Garret (ROBERTS, Jared kick) 6 plays, 70 yards, TOP 2:40
CP 17, CS 27
CP - Willie Tucker 23 yd pass from Chris Brown (Bobby Zalud kick) 6 plays, 56 yards, TOP 2:14
CP 17, CS 34
CS - CARTWRIGHT, Kiv 6 yd pass from GRAYSON, Garret (ROBERTS, Jared kick) 10 plays, 68 yards, TOP 4:08
