Fort Collins – Colorado State’s Mountain West Conference campaign opened just in time to dash Air Force’s league hopes.
Running back Kyle Bell and wide receiver David Anderson combined to score five touchdowns in CSU’s 41-23 victory Thursday night in its MWC opener. Air Force (2-3, 1-3) has already played half its MWC schedule. CSU (2-2, 1-0) evened its overall record before 26,711 at Hughes Stadium.
The Rams went ahead for good with 10:30 left in the third quarter when Justin Holland found Anderson uncovered in the end zone on a 19-yard strike.
Kory Sperry and Luke Roberts loosened the coverage on the Rams top receiver. Roberts, who earlier had a 27-yard TD catch, set up the go-ahead score with a 44-yard reception that withstood an instant replay review.
Then CSU began to take over the game, forcing Air Force to punt on its next possession.
The Rams finally found a way to get fullback Tristan Walker and H-back Sperry on the field at the same time by lining up Sperry wide. Holland found Anderson for a 27-yard gain and went back to Roberts. The drive sputtered on the Air Force 33, but the punt just went into the end zone for a touchback.
Air Force then replaced starting quarterback Shaun Carney with backup Adam Fitch, but couldn’t move the ball and had to punt again.
Bell became the first CSU running back to rush for more than 100 yards in back-to-back games since current Broncos fullback Cecil Sapp in 2002. Bell, who had 183 yards against Nevada last week, reached triple figures on a 29-yard run to the Air Force 25. Holland finished off the drive with a 23-yard pass to Anderson for a 27-16 lead with 1:57 left in the third quarter.
Bell added a 30-yard scoring run to send the Rams ahead 34-16 with 12:37 left.
After taking 30 minutes to score three field goals, Air Force opened the second half with a three-play outburst to regain the lead to 16-13. Chad Hall outraced the CSU secondary down the sideline for a 43-yard gain to the 30. Chad Smith finished it off with a sprint up the middle.
An early exchange of four turnovers resulted in a CSU touchdown and two Scott Eberle field goals for Air Force. Then both teams started to move the ball.
The Falcons gained their first lead of the game at 9-7 with Eberle’s third field goal, a 30-yarder, with 1:24 left in the first half. The highlight of the 10-play drive was Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry throwing a flag on a coach’s challenge just as Eberle was about to line up for a 39-yard attempt.
DeBerry’s unsuccessful challenge regarding the spot of the ball cost the Falcons a timeout, as established by MWC rules. Air Force moved another 9 yards to burn some more time before Eberle went back on the field.
But Air Force didn’t use enough time. Holland needed only 58 seconds to cover 88 yards in 10 plays. He completed passes of 19 and 27 yards to Sperry to move the Rams across midfield.
Roberts, a third-year sophomore from Golden, caught his first career touchdown with the 27-yard reception over Air Force safety Bobby Giannini.
The Rams took a 13-9 lead into halftime when the two-point conversion attempt on a pass from Holland to Sperry failed, as Falcons strong safety Denny Poland broke it up.
It marked the first time in the series since 1999 that the Rams held Air Force without a touchdown in the opening half.
Air Force turned the ball over on its first two possessions and two of its first three plays, setting up a Kevin Mark field-goal attempt that was no good and a 1-yard Bell run for a 7-0 lead.
After Robert Herbert downed Jimmie Kaylor’s punt on the Air Force 8, Herbert forced and recovered a fumble by halfback Hall to spoil a 20-yard gain, setting up the Rams on the Air Force 27.
Mark was wide from 45 yards, leaving him 1-for-4 on field-goal attempts for the year.
Then linebacker Jahmal Hall forced Carney to fumble, and it landed right in the hands of linebacker Courtney Jones.
Holland set up the opening score with a 20-yard strike down the middle to Sperry at the Air Force 8, and Bell needed three plays before scoring from the 1 with the help of a nice block by Walker.
CSU had trouble holding on to the ball, too. Wide receiver George Hill fumbled on a reverse, leading to a five-minute Air Force drive for Eberle’s first field goal. The next time CSU had the ball, it lost it when cornerback Chris Sutton intercepted the football, which had deflected off CSU’s Dustin Osborn.
The Rams, who won for the second time in six days, get some extra time to prepare for a home game Oct. 8 against defending Mountain West champion Utah, which plays Saturday at North Carolina.
Air Force travels to service academy rival Navy on Oct. 8.
Staff writer Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-820-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
