Six things to know about Utah State’s road game at Colorado State

LOGAN – After breaking its four-game losing streak, Utah State football will look to establish its first winning streak of the season and also grab its first road win of the year. The Aggies (2-4) are 0-2 away from Merlin Olsen Field, though both games were against (at-the-time) ranked opponents in No. 1 Alabama and No. 19 BYU. Colorado State (1-5) will be a far easier opponent to face despite being away from home.

Much like Utah State, Colorado State was struggling to find wins and got one last week. Though, unlike the Aggies, the Rams didn’t have a single win until last week. CSU downed Nevada in a tightly contested 17-14 road win to advance from the ranks of the winless.

Utah State currently holds a three-game win streak against the Rams — the longest winning streak by USU in the series since a five-game one from 1971-75 — and with it are closing in on taking the lead in the all-time series (CSU leads 39-36-2). Here are the things to know about the 78th meeting between Utah State and Colorado State.

Game Info

  • Kickoff: 5 p.m. MT
  • Location: Canvas Stadium | Fort Collins, Colorado
  • TV Broadcast: CBS Sports Network
  • Aggie GameDay Coverage on KVNU (102.1 FM/610 AM & KVNU mobile app) & simulcast on 106.9 The FAN (106.9 FM / 1390 AM & 106.9 The FAN mobile app): 3:30 p.m. MT
  • KVNU Aggie Call (102.1 FM/610 AM, KVNU mobile app + 106.9 FM / 1390 AM The FAN, 106.9 The FAN mobile app): Immediately after game ends

“Need to build” on the Air Force win

Utah State may have broken their losing streak, but that alone won’t change the Aggies’ fortunes this season. They remain a below-.500 team and need to win four of the next six games to have a good chance at a bowl game and would pretty much need to run the table to have a shot at repeating as conference champs. In his weekly press conference, Anderson said the win was a “great step in the right direction” and that they “need to build on it.”

“Hopefully, it’ll be something that can propel us into more wins,” Anderson said. “Hopefully, we can stack two on top of this one and we’ll start worrying about three later.”

Aggies facing drastically different style of offense from last week

One of the quirks of facing Air Force is it forces a team to change on defense to be able to stop the triple-option offense the Falcons run. Anderson spoke about the changes defensive coordinator Ephraim Banda made to his regular defensive schemes, which usually involves aggressive pushes into the backfield by the front seven.

“We had to adjust our style of front play,” Anderson said. “A lot of our vertical push upfield was a problem. It created gaps that we couldn’t fill at the second and third level. We changed our techniques dramatically. We played more lateral, more squeezing gaps down.”

Those changes worked but took a lot of time and energy that now can’t really be recycled in any way as Utah State prepares to face the Air Raid offense run by Colorado State. That style of offense, as Anderson said “spreads you out. Puts you out all over the place. They want to spread the ball around.”

“We’re going to have to do a really good job of re-teaching some things this week and making sure we’re in the right place,” Anderson said.

CSU’s primary QB missed last game, likely to be out Saturday

Colorado State’s primary starter at quarterback, Clay Millen, missed the Rams’ previous game after starting the opening four. Millen suffered an AC sprain in his shoulder during CSU’s loss to Sacramento State. In the week leading up to the Nevada game, Norvell said Millen was “day-to-day.” On Monday, Norvell said Millen was likely still a week away from being ready to play. In Millen’s place, the Rams have gone with freshman Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi.

Millen started four games and completed 73.9 percent of his passes for 166.8 yards per game with five touchdowns and four interceptions. In roughly one-and-a-half games, Fowler-Nicolosi has amassed 194 yards on 17-of-37 passing (45.9 percent) with one touchdown and two interceptions.

Rams own worst offense in FBS

The term “worst offense” is a tad subjective, but the Rams rank dead last in six offensive categories — 3rd down conversion rate (17.7 percent), first downs gained (13.4 per game), red zone attempts (six), red zone offense (50.0 percent score rate), sacks allowed (5.2 per game) and scoring offense (12.0 points per game). CSU also ranks second-to-last in both tackles for loss allowed (9.8 per game) and total offense (244.4 yards per game).

Suffice to say it’s a rough situation for the Rams and it’s hardly been better with the offense down to its backup QB. Through the first three games, CSU averaged 201.7 passing yards (already not great) but are down to just 128.0 in the last two outings. Colorado State hasn’t scored a touchdown on offense in its last six quarters.

Coincidently, Colorado State’s penchant for giving up tackles for loss lines up well with Utah State’s ability to get them. The Aggies rank 26th in team tackles for loss despite only getting one against Air Force last week.

Utah State’s offense rolling into form

For as poor as Colorado State’s offense has been, the Aggies weren’t much better through the first three weeks of the season. USU ranked 123rd in yards per play (CSU ranked 129th in that same span) in FBS and it played the leading role in the Aggie’s inability to score a touchdown on offense for two straight weeks against Alabama and Weber State.

Those struggles appear to be behind USU, however. In the last three weeks, the Aggies rank a much-better 64th in yards per play. In the last two weeks, we’ve seen a solid offensive trio of quarterback Cooper Legas, running back Calvin Tyler Jr. and wide receiver Brian Cobbs put together some great performances.

Cobbs has put together the best overall stats the last two weeks with 18 receptions for 232 yards and three touchdowns. Tyler has recorded back-to-back 100-yard rushing games and is averaging 5.8 yards per carry over the last two games. Legas is gradually rolling into form. He hasn’t been a prolific thrower but has been a solid dual-threat QB. Last Saturday against Air Force, Legas completed 78 percent of his passes for 215 yards and also had 76 yards on the ground. It was the first time an Aggie QB hit all three of those marks in a game since Chuckie Keeton in 2013 (also against Air Force).

“I feel like everything’s back clicking,” Tyler said. “We’re getting that swagger back.”

Crazy endings in recent games

The Aggies and Rams have a flare for the dramatic when it comes to their matchups. Two of their last three meetings have come down to the final play and finished in unexpected fashion.

In 2018, Utah State was on the verge of its first 10-game winning streak in program history but was struggling to beat a 3-7 Colorado State squad in Fort Collins. The Aggies went ahead 29-24 with 43 seconds to play in the game on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Love to Aaren Vaughns. USU failed the two-point conversion to go up seven, giving the Rams a chance for a walk-off TD if they could drive the field.

CSU made it to the USU 34-yard line with eight seconds to play when this happened.

Utah State won on a walk-off illegal touching penalty after more than a minute of Colorado State celebrating an “upset” of the 14th-ranked Aggies.

Then, just last year, the game again came down to the final play. The Rams were down just two points, 26-24, and were driving into field goal range but were short on time. They needed one last push to get into field goal range and that’s when this happened.

A complete bungling of clock and personnel management. The Rams should have spiked the ball and had a much calmer attempt at the 42-yard field goal. But that’s not what happened.

In short, the Aggies are lucky to have won two of these last three.

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