Colorado State quarterback Nick Stevens entered Friday’s Rocky Mountain Showdown having thrown multiple touchdowns in his last eight career games. The streak ended against the University of Colorado, but that doesn’t mean Stevens wasn’t sharp.
Penalties doomed the senior, who had two touchdown passes called back on the same drive in the third quarter at Sports Authority Field. The first one was negated by offensive pass interference (wide receiver Detrich Clark), and the second one by illegal hands to the face (offensive lineman Jeff Taylor).
Rams coach Mike Bobo didn’t agree with either call — and others. An offensive pass interference call in the third quarter, the third of the game, this time against Michael Gallup, prompted Bobo to call a timeout, where he and members of his staff expressed their displeasure with the officials.
When asked specifically about penalties that negated touchdowns and other key infractions called on the Rams inside the red zone, Bobo said he demands that his team remains “excuse free.”
“We don’t make excuses or let other people make them for us,” Bobo said.
Stevens also had a long pass completion negated by offensive interference in the first quarter. Wide receiver Bisi Johnson was the accused, but replays showed Johnson was innocent and the defensive back slipped.
“They just put us in a tough situation to overcome. Whenever you have offensive penalties — especially 15-yarders,” Stevens said. “What we needed to do was focusing on overcoming those and trying to get in field-goal range. We just put ourselves in rough situations tonight, especially when we got on their side of the field. So we have to executive better.”
CSU fans became frustrated, throwing items on the field, but nobody could have been more frustrated than Stevens, who was pulled from this game a year ago. Stevens played relatively well. He finished 24-of-47 passing for 309 yards; however, he did throw a pair of interceptions. His offensive stats would have been more impressive without the costly penalties.
“You just have to come back and do it all over again,” Gallup said of the offensive penalties. “It happens.”
With Stevens in charge, the Rams had more time of possession than CU (31:17 to 28:43), and more total yards as the Buffs (397 to 345).
Stevens was coming off a 334-yard, three-touchdown performance in last week’s 58-27 victory over Oregon State. It marked his third straight game with three or more touchdown passes and brought his career total to 44 — third all-time at CSU.
Last year, Stevens ranked fifth nationally in passing efficiency (171.3), and fourth in yards-per-pass-attempt average (9.63).
