RENO, Nev. — Although they nearly staged an ugly collapse Saturday night, the Colorado State Rams seem to be for real.
Garrett Grayson threw three touchdown passes — two to Rashard Higgins and one to Steven Walker — and the Rams barely held on for a 31-24 victory over Nevada on Saturday night to improve to 5-1 for the season.
CSU led 31-3 late in the third quarter at Mackay Stadium before Nevada rallied to give the Rams nervous moments down the stretch, as Nevada pulled within seven points and reached the CSU 10-yard line. But CSU’s DeAndre Elliott intercepted a Cody Fajardo pass in the end zone with 46 seconds left to seal the win. Even that got anxious for the Rams, because there was a flag flown on the play – but the call was offensive pass interference on the Wolf Pack, so CSU survived.
“I thought it was a great call,” CSU coach Jim McElwain said, smiling.
A little earlier on the same drive, an apparent 63-yard touchdown pass from Fajardo to Hasaan Richardson with 3:40 left was waved off because of offensive pass interference, with Richardson pushing off on Elliott before the reception.
So while CSU might not have been “lucky,” it was fortunate to win after leading 17-3 at halftime, and then by 28 late in the third quarter. For one thing, two offensive pass interference calls on the home team in crunch time is, well, a rarity.
McElwain could have been excused for being more relieved than ecstatic, but he seemed genuinely thrilled with getting out of Reno with the win.
“I just can’t tell you how excited I am about this win,” McElwain said. “I think it’s a great win against a very good football team on the road. Obviously, we had to hang on a little bit, but what it is, is another opportunity for us to teach. . . We won and beat a very good football team, so I’ll take it.”
Going into the season, the conventional wisdom was that the first half of the CSU schedule in McElwain’s third year was tougher and that if the Rams could get through it with at least three wins, they likely would be headed for their second consecutive bowl game.
They’ve done better than that, losing only in the second week at Boise State.
The Rams have put together back-to-back road wins at Boston College of the Atlantic Coast Conference and at Nevada. The Wolf Pack isn’t a powerhouse but is at least tough at home and lost only by seven (35-28) to Arizona in Tucson. And the Wolf Pack the previous week had hung up 46 points against Boise State — albeit in a 51-46 loss.
What did the Rams learn?
“Last time I checked, we’re not the Green Bay Packers or anything,” McElwain said. “We have to play every down for us to be successful. This will be a great teachable moment for us. . . Here’s what I think we’re starting to learn a little bit: There were some disappointed guys in the locker room – for a win! Let’s think about that. I kind of had to tell them these are hard to come by. There’s no reason to get down about what happened. Let’s just learn from it and let’s be excited about it.”
CSU, 1-1 in league play with only MW games remaining, plays its next two at Hughes Stadium, against Utah State on Saturday and Wyoming on Oct. 25.
Against the Wolf Pack, Grayson was 26-for-36, for 326 yards and the three touchdowns, and the two to Higgins – covering 42 and 51 yards — gave the sophomore wide receiver 10 scoring receptions for the season, including six in the last two games. The third TD pass, to Walker, was a one-yarder off play-action to open the scoring.
“Obviously, that’s not the way we would have liked to win,” Grayson said. “It got a little ugly there are the end of the game, but at the end of the day, a conference win is a conference win so we’re happy with where we’re at. We’re 1-1 in conference now and we just have to keep moving forward.”
Dee Hart ran for 90 yards on 23 carries for the Rams, and had the fourth touchdown on a 9-yard run with 4:48 left in the third quarter. It was 31-3 at that point, many of the fans in the crowd of 21,847 bailed out, and it seemed all over.
It wasn’t.
“It was a good win,” Hart said. “You always are thankful and blessed you’re on the winning side, but that isn’t how we wanted to win. Coach preached ‘finish’ and ‘finish’ and ‘finish,’ and we didn’t finish tonight. Mainly it was on the part of the offense and we take a lot of blame for it. . . We just didn’t execute and myself, I fumbled (early in the fourth quarter), and we let them back in the game.”
The Wolf Pack got back in it with Fajardo’s 13-yard TD run with 2:13 left in the third quarter, then his two TD passes – a 9-yarder to Henderson with 10:31 left and a 11-yarder to Richy Turner with 6:22 remaining. CSU couldn’t move the ball or add points, adding to the pressure – and it ultimately took Elliott’s interception at the side of the end zone on a third-and-5 from the 10 to clinch it.
“My emotions were going crazy,” Elliott said. “It was being in the right place at the right time, I guess.”
The Rams, of course, declined the offensive pass interference penalty on that play, but it wouldn’t have been shocking to see the call go the other way with contact made in the end zone, given the realities of the contemporary game.
“I wasn’t too surprised,” said Elliott. “It just meant the refs were doing their job.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
Eye on… The Aggies
Utah State at Colorado State, 5 p.m. Saturday, CBSSN
For the record: The Aggies are 4-2. Their 34-16 victory over Air Force on Saturday came in their Mountain West opener.
Streaking: Since a 21-14 overtime loss at Arkansas State, Utah State has defeated Brigham Young (35-20) and Air Force.
Who’s hot: Quarterback Darell Garretson, who started seven games last season, again has played well since replacing injured Chuckie Keeton on Sept. 13 in a 36-24 victory over Wake Forest. He is 77-of-116 passing for 1,008 yards and eight touchdowns.
Who’s not: No Aggies running back has cracked 200 yards for the season.
Key stat: Utah State limited CSU quarterback Garrett Grayson to 147 yards passing in a 13-0 victory over the Rams in 2013.
FYI: Yes, NBA fans, the Utah State quarterback is the grandson of the former NBA referee of the same name and the nephew of referee Ron Garretson.
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
