Monday Morning Quarterback: Air Force

Monday means time for us to take a look at last weekend’s game with Air Force, pour through the stat sheet and decide what worked, what didn’t work and what we learned about the Colorado State Rams. Unfortunately for Colorado State, some basic themes are becoming very apparent.

What worked 
The running game:  Coming into the game this weekend, the coaching staff was frank in saying they weren’t sure what they would get out of running back Leonard Mason this weekend. Their answer turned out to be everything they were hoping for. Mason ran 19 times for 95 yards behind an offensive line that pushed around an Air Force defense that came into the game ranked as the conference’s third best against the run. Colorado State was able to push the Falcons for 50 more yards than their yearly per-game average of 130 yards. While Mason, John Mosure and Lou Greenwood ran hard, a lot of the credit goes to the offensive line.

3-for-3  This one is a little good news-bad news, but when you are searching for what worked, sometimes you stretch. Colorado State converted on all three of their scoring chances from inside the Red Zone. The bad news is the Rams only got into the Red Zone three times and one of those scores was a field goal. Still, CSU only gave up the ball once via turnover and did put points on the board when they had the opportunity deep in Air Force territory.

Improved kick coverage:  Colorado State is solidly in the basement of the Mountain West statistics when it comes to kickoff coverage (37 yards per return), but Saturday the Rams allowed an average of just 19.3 yards per return. Colorado State’s defense also got into position to disallow Air Force from running back either of the two Pete Kontodiakos punts.

What didn’t work 
Rams passing:  While Grant Stucker started the season off hot against Colorado and had a good game against BYU, he has completed better than 50 percent of his passes in just three games this season. In his last three games, Stucker has been picked off six times and completed just two touchdown passes. Simply put, among the things didn’t work this weekend was the passing game in general as the Falcons held Colorado State to just 87 yards passing. That is a far cry from the 372 the Rams put up against BYU this season. Some of that has to be chalked up to a gameplan that allowed Mason to go off on the ground, but may have limited Stucker’s chances and his ability to get into the flow of the game.

Falcons take to the air:   It is rare that Air Force actually out-gains a team through the air (this is after all a team that beat Wyoming last year without the help of a single completion), but this weekend saw Falcons Coach Troy Calhoun and his offensive staff completely confound a young Rams defense and directed quarterback Tim Jefferson into completing 7-of-12 passes for 111 yards and two scores. At times it seems the Falcons could have as many yards against CSU as they wanted.

Very few good options:  Things didn’t get much better for Colorado State when Air Force decided to run the ball. The Falcons rushed for 271 yards officially (closer to 285 when you take away sack yardage and yards at the end of the game downing the ball) and consistently put themselves in good position for third-and-shorts. The result was the Falcons converted first downs on 11 of their 16 third downs. By contrast, the Rams converted on just 6-of-13 of their third-down attempts.

Penalties:   Colorado State’s task was a tough one coming in as they had to play a very strong Air Force team. The Rams didn’t make it any easier on themselves by collecting 65 yards in penalties.

Out-scored in the second half:  This season the Rams have been out-scored 179-83 in the second half. The third quarter is particularly rough on the Rams who have been out-tallied 99-38. This weekend that theme continued as CSU was out-scored 17-6 in the second half this weekend.

What we learned 
Unfortunately, we seem to have a pretty good idea of the Colorado State football team right now and it doesn’t look good. The offensive has a strong offensive line, a very respectable running game, but inconsistency in the quarterback and receivers will keep this team from making any noise (and perhaps pick up any wins) in Mountain West Conference play. The quarterback position will need to be addressed this week as well with Grant Stucker either needing to show more consistency or get out of the way for Jon Eastman, Nico Rainieri or even TJ Borcky. With the Rams running game going at full speed a, strong - though al beit inconsistent - receiving corps and an offensive line that has at times been dominant, the pieces are in place for a strong season for whoever ducks under center for CSU.

Defensively, injuries, youth and inconsistency have made for a bad combination. At this point in the season Ram fans need a program to figure out who is on the field for the defense and a defense without much depth or discipline is ranked near the bottom of the conference in total defense (403 yards allowed per game), pass defense (260 yards per game) and opponents third-down conversions (56 percent).


Special teams aren’t helping much either right not, as the Rams are last in the conference in punting average (37 ypk) and net average of kickoff coverage (37.1 yards gained by the kicking team).

All of it has added up to put the Rams at the bottom of the conference standings and signal the need for massive contributions from the recruiting class of 2010 and perhaps some changes on the Rams’ coaching staff.