3 takeaways from Colorado State’s win over San Jose State | sport

FORT COLLINS – Colorado State could have folded twice.

The Rams could have carried over the feeling of last week’s tough loss to Oregon State and got away slowly against San Jose State. They could have made it at halftime when Tory Horton was injured on consecutive plays and the Rams recovered a fumble that led to an 85-yard scoop-and-score touchdown for the Spartans, making it 14. 14 plays at halftime .

But Jay Norvell’s team did none of that and CSU turned in arguably its best performance of the season, playing well in all three phases to defeat SJSU by a final score of 31-24 in the Mountain West opener at Canvas Stadium.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Efficient attack

Norvell has found a winning formula for his offense.

With an improved offensive line capable of overcoming a majority of their Mountain West opponents, the Rams have geared up for a tough rushing attack led by veteran running back Avery Morrow. They took some of the responsibility off quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi’s shoulders and allowed him to throw on the move and on target to his stable of experienced receivers.

All of this could be seen on Saturday afternoon.

Morrow reached triple-digit rushing yards for the third straight game and finished the game with an even 100 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. Since becoming the focal point of the offense over the last three games, Morrow is averaging over 130 yards per game and nearly six yards per carry.

Another strong game from Morrow and the rest of the defenders allowed Fowler-Nicolosi to not press and he completed 73% of his passes for 269 yards, one touchdown and one interception while leading CSU to go 8 of 13 on schedule throughout the game held third down conversions.

Even though Tory Horton was still going strong, he finished the game with seven catches for 75 yards, and promising sophomore Armani Winfield had his best game as a Ram with six catches for 108 yards and the game-winning touchdown in the last one minutes.

The defense is doing its job

It was a difficult task for the CSU defense, which faced a pass-heavy San Jose State offense a week after facing a physical, run-heavy Oregon State attack.

The Rams did what they had to do, holding the Spartans well below their passing yards per game average and largely keeping star wideout receiver Nick Nash — the top wideout in the Mountain West — at bay.

They didn’t force a turnover until late in the game, but prevented the Spartans from scoring on six straight possessions from the first through the third quarter.

CSU still needs to put more pressure on the quarterback and no player had a sack in the game, but this is probably the toughest offense the unit will run in the Mountain West.

Clutch special teams play

For CSU kicker Jordan Noyes, age is just a number.

The 32-year-old from Kent, England, is one of the oldest players in college football – somehow not the oldest – and hit a crucial 58-yard field goal to give the Rams a 10-point lead, their first lead from two points of the game, in the fourth quarter.

It was the fourth-longest kick in program history and the longest since 1986. Noyes would have made a 60-yard field goal at the end of the first half had there not been a timeout before the snap and then a bad snap on the re-try prevented another brand.