FORT COLLINS — The all-blue wrecking crew blew into Fort Collins on Saturday afternoon and left a Hughes Stadium-sized amount of carnage afterward.
Every bit of the hurt from a scoreboard that reflected the Grand Canyon-esque gulf that separates Colorado State and No. 5 Boise State was written all over the face of every Rams player and coach for anyone to see.
Boise State 63, Colorado State 13.
“That scoreboard,” CSU safety Ivory Herd said. “It shouldn’t be like that.”
The fact is Boise State has dismantled teams much better than Colorado State. But when confidence grows from a solid week of practice and preparation, that kind of beating is tough to swallow, no matter which team inflicted the wound or what its pedigree is.
Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore is as good as advertised. Boise State’s explosive offense is as good as advertised. Its suffocating defense is as good as advertised. CSU can put a stamp of approval on each one of those.
What the Rams don’t want is this to be start to a negative stamp on their season. CSU has lost two straight games and three of the past four. September was a boon. October has been a bust. The Rams, once 3-1, have not won this month, are 3-3 and face some very real questions about what kind of team they are and how willing they are to take back control of their season.
“This is unacceptable,” CSU coach Steve Fairchild said. “We’ve all got to look at ourselves, myself included. We didn’t coach very well; we didn’t play very well. There’s a lot of good football players in that locker room. I think we’ll be fine. We’re sitting at 3-3. We’ve just got to find a way to get back and string some wins together.”
No one knows yet how easy or difficult that will be after taking one of the worst losses in school history. Boise State looked effortless in rolling up a school-record 742 yards of total offense. Moore threw for 338 yards and as many touchdowns (four) as he had incompletions (four). He hit 18 consecutive passes to start the game, leading Fairchild to quip, “When I played, I couldn’t have done that on air.”
After the game, Moore kicked back on a wall near the BSU locker room, flashed a smile a dentist would love, and offered this assessment: “It just felt like we were executing the way it goes in practice.”
And while Moore was wrapped in the comfort that the game mirrored BSU’s practices, CSU is looking for practice to pay dividends in any game. The offense has still not been able to gain any traction, and the defense is losing its mojo.
Colorado State did not pick up a first down in four first-quarter drives and went five drives overall before finally moving the yardsticks once on their sixth. And when they did, on a 6-yard run by Raymond Carter early in the second quarter . . . he fumbled on the next play.
Colorado State got two touchdowns on the board via trick plays. One was a tight end Crockett Gillmore-to-fullback Joe Brown pass. The other was from wide receiver Charles Lovett to another wideout, Matt Yemm.
But by then, Boise State had put 35 unanswered points on the board.
When Boise took a 35-0 lead five minutes into the second quarter, the Broncos had 337 yards of offense on 29 plays to the Rams’ 18 yards on 20 plays.
While the Broncos lead 35-13 at the half, they added four touchdowns in the third quarter, including Moore’s 62-yard pass to Tyler Shoemaker, to put away the game. Shoemaker finished with 180 yards on nine catches.
“I think we were most pleased with the way the team went out after halftime and answered, both offensively and defensively,” Boise State coach Chris Petersen said. “Colorado State came out and took the momentum from us. It irritated the guys, and they came out and answered.”
Neither team scored in a quickly played fourth quarter.
Moore carved up the defense through the air, while running back Doug Martin (20 carries, 200 yards, three touchdowns) controlled matters on the ground.
“I don’t know if I take anything good from this,” Fairchild said. “I don’t find a whole lot good in what went on out there. We’ve got to state that this is unacceptable, that we’re not going to play like this. We’ve got to make a statement next Saturday night (against UTEP) that we’re a much better football team than we were here today.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Key stat
Seven: Boise State scoring drives in the game that lasted less than two minutes. The Broncos’ longest touchdown drive took 3 minutes, 36 seconds.
Key play
Boise State’s fake punt in the third quarter. Just when it appeared CSU had an important defensive stop to start the third quarter, the Broncos faked the punt. Thirty-six yards later, BSU had a first down and eventually scored a TD.
Three questions
1. Can the Rams put together both a solid offensive and defensive performance? No, on both fronts. In what was one of the more disappointing aspects of the contest, CSU couldn’t gain any traction on either side of the ball. Breakdowns on defense led to Boise State touchdowns. CSU miscues on offense led to short drives and punts, which gave the ball back to Boise State in position to score again.
2. Can CSU make this a fourth-quarter game? Well, the game got to the fourth quarter — and CSU was down by 50. Boise State starters were out of the game. So were CSU fans, who had long since headed for the exits.
3. Will the defense get back on track? Absolutely not. There were plenty of missed tackles and blown assignments to go around. The Rams’ defense didn’t stand much of a chance against Boise State, one of the nation’s most high-powered offenses.
