FT. COLLINS — Colorado State brought a Nerf bat to a knife fight. And when Wyoming cut, it cut deep.
The battle for the Bronze Boot was won on the ground, as the Cowboys (3-6, 1-4 Mountain West Conference) became the sixth Rams opponent to rush for at least 190 team yards in a 34-21 win victory at Canvas Stadium late Friday night.
It was the Cowboys’ third straight win in the Border War series, and one that raised more questions than answers for Colorado State (3-6, 2-3 MWC) when it came to the fundamentals — namely, blocking, tackling, and physicality.
Perspective: Wyoming dropped 34 points on the Rams’ backyard after scoring just 32 points over its previous three October contests combined and racked up 291 team rushing yards.
After a sludgy first half, the Cowboys posted a 21-point third quarter to open up a lead they would never relinquish. Wyoming’s breathing room started with on the ground with a nine-play, 75-yard drive to open the second half. A hands-to-the-face penalty on Rams defensive lineman Damion Dickens gave Wyoming a 1st-and-10 at the hosts’ 14-yard line. On the next play, freshman quarterback Sean Chambers got the CSU defense to buy the read-option play action fake, and hit tailback Nico Evans with a lob up the left boundary for a touchdown and a 9-0 cushion with 11:08 left in the third quarter.
A sloppy third quarter went from bad to worse four minutes later, when quarterback Collin Hill was hit on his blind side by Cowboys safety Marcus Epps as he released the ball, causing it to squirt up in the air and into the paws of Wyoming defensive lineman Ravontae Holt at the CSU 21-yard line. Three plays later, Chambers kept the ball on the read-option and scored from eight yards out to push the lead to 16-0 and effectively put the contest out of reach.
The ditch somehow got deeper on the Rams’ next possession, when Hill was intercepted by Wyoming linebacker Cash Maluia at the CSU 48. On the ensuing Cowboys drive, Nico Evans squirted through a hole on the right side and rambled for a touchdown that extended the margin to 23-0.
The Rams responded with an 11-play, 78-yard drive capped by Marvin Kinsey’s 15-yard touchdown run. Wideout Preston Williams provided a jolt to those who remained in the fourth quarter with a 47-yard up the right boundary to set up another Kinsey touchdown, this one from 10 yards out, to cu
This after a first half that required patience — and more than a little caffeine. The running game that had offered up flickers of hope over the previous three games was nowhere to be found early on, as Cowboys defenders bullied Rams blockers in the trenches and stonewalled CSU ball carriers with gleeful regularity.
Backs Izzy Matthews, Marvin Kinsey Jr. and Marcus McElroy totaled -5 yards on 10 carries in the first half as the hosts managed to net -12 yards on 12 carries as a team at the break.