5 takeaways: Colorado State drubs San Jose State with its best team performance of 2021

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Colorado State (2-3) responded in a major way with Saturday’s 32-14 beatdown of San Jose State (3-3). 

While the Spartans are not playing like the team that shocked the world by winning the 2020 Mountain West championship, they’re still a talented group, especially on defense and beating them at home was important for the Rams. 

“Great to get a win today,” head coach Steve Addazio said postgame. “I thought we played a really really good game from start to finish — very physical and very confident. I was proud of the way the kids came off the bye week and played relentlessly.”

Here are the takeaways from Saturday’s Homecoming win. 

The Todd Centeio game

Todd Centeio has not had the easiest introduction to being a starting quarterback at the collegiate level.

After transferring in from Temple his first training camp was impacted by COVID-19 and the season was ultimately delayed, something he’s admitted had an impact on his, as well as the entire team’s preparation. Not to mention that in his six career starts he’s had to travel to Fresno State with a handicapped roster, play the best team in the FCS, face a top 5 team on the road, go up against a frontrunner in the MAAC, etc; and over that time there have definitely been some ups and downs for him in the passing game. 

A lot of quarterbacks, particularly inexperienced ones, would have crumbled under the pressure. The criticism of him from the fanbase was loud and it was consistent. Obviously some of it was warranted but it’s human nature to get defensive in those situations. Through it all, though, Centeio took it on the chin, he said the right things, and on Saturday he delivered his team to victory with a brilliant performance in the passing game. 

Centeio started 12-of-12 before throwing an incomplete pass in this one. He finished 18-of-22 for 226 yards and a touchdown when it was all said and done. What stood out the most, though, aside from his absolute dime of a touchdown pass to Ty McCullouch in the third quarter, was the composure he played with and consistent touch he displayed through the air. It was by far the most impressive performance of his career thus far. 

Following the victory, Centeio, with a smile on his face, joked with the local press about his 60-yard touchdown pass to McCullouch. “See, I can do it,” he chuckled. 

Centeio added that he has connected with Dante Wright and Trey McBride for some big plays this year, but knows that he needs to be more consistent. “I’m still trying to learn. This is my sixth start ever,” Centeio said. “But we work every day in practice, every day after practice, we script shots and stuff like that. So we’ve been working on it and we hit it today.”

Centeio will need to continue to perform the way he did on Saturday if he wants to completely silence the doubters. As encouraging as his day was, skepticism is still fair until we see it in a larger sample size. That said, Centeio has always moved the ball well with his ability to escape the pocket and run for first downs — if CSU can effectively move the ball through the air as well — it’s going to really open things for the run game, which is obviously the foundation of the offense. I look forward to seeing if he can build off of his stellar day. 

Variety is the spice of life

There has never been any doubt about the talent of Trey McBride or Dante Wright. David Bailey has proven to be a workhorse when he’s healthy. But over the first four games CSU really struggled to get anyone else involved on offense. Against SJSU that finally changed. 

Despite dressing both and going through warmups, neither Wright or Bailey played a snap on Saturday, and even without two of the top playmakers on the team, CSU was able to spread the ball around and effectively drive down the field all game long. 

In the backfield it was a stellar first career start for A’Jon Vivens. The former Mullen High School standout racked up 31 carries for 114 yards in what was a really solid showing. Vivens ran extremely hard against a lot of stacked sets. And it was really his consistency that allowed the Rams to dominate time of possession, move the chains, and set a physical tone in the matchup. 

Along with Vivens, Jaylen Thomas was also impressive as CSU’s other featured running back. Thomas averaged 4.8 yards per carry and really was a nice counter piece to Vivens’ explosive game. While it was disappointing to see Marcus McElroy Jr. elect to transfer out of the program, it is easy to see why the coaches have been high on Thomas. He brings a similar physicality as McElroy but he’s definitely faster and just more explosive in general. The Rams are going to have a nice trio of backs to lean on in conference play. 

In addition to recording 217 yards on the ground as a team, CSU was able to get eight different pass catchers involved in the win. McBride led the Green & Gold in receptions (6) and was top 2 in yardage (60), as he likely will be in every game this year, but Ty McCullough had the play of the game with his 60-yard touchdown catch and led the team in receiving yards (71). E.J. Scott and Jordan Kress both got into the mix as well. It was just a really solid showing in the passing game. 

If CSU can build off of what they did on Saturday and find a way to continue to spread the love when Wright comes back, it’s going to create more opportunities for explosive plays and allow the Rams to play a more sustainable brand of football. As talented as No. 85 and No. 22 are, one or two men can’t do it alone.

Special thanks to special teams 

Special teams were a complete disaster in 2020, however, so far this year they’ve predominantly been a strength for the Rams. CSU scored all 22 of its points in the Toledo upset via special teams. It was another strong showing for the specialists on Saturday. 

It was a memorable day for both Cayden Camper (K) and Ryan Stonehouse (P), as the former set a school record by hitting all six of his field goal attempts and the latter surpassed 10,000 yards of punts in his historic career. The ability to complete drives with points or flip the field with a booming punt is such a massive advantage for this team, especially with how dominant the defense has been playing. 

The Red Zone play calling was pretty modest on Saturday and naturally the fans would love to see the Rams be a little more aggressive in their pursuit of scoring touchdowns. The decision to kick a field goal at the 2-yard line on the final play of the first half had some folks feeling squeamish after already settling for short field goals early in the contest. But as Addazio explained postgame, sometimes you just want to keep positive momentum rolling and capitalize on successful drives by putting points on the board. 

For whatever it’s worth, I genuinely believe that going up two possessions before halftime was the turning point for the Rams. So while I could have gotten behind a more aggressive decision, it’s tough to argue with the outcome. Sometimes it’s best to just take what you can get and lean on a defense that is absolutely rolling.

Secondary is slowly improving 

The front seven is the main headliner and the group put on a show once again this weekend. CSU’s six tackles for loss and three sacks are impressive, the numbers really don’t paint the entire picture of how dominant the group was though. They consistently wreaked havoc in the SJSU’s backfield and had Nick Nash (QB) running for his life throughout most of the game. When CSU is able to generate that kind of pressure defensively, very rarely are offenses going to be able to move the ball against them on a consistent basis. 

While I could rave about the defensive line and linebackers for ages, what’s particularly encouraging has been the growth of the secondary over the last month or so. With so many young players filling key roles for the Rams there are naturally going to be flashes of talent and some moments where the inexperience shows. That was the case on Saturday as there were a couple of blown assignments in the back end. Overall, though, it was a pretty solid day for the group. 

CSU has now gotten an interception from true freshmen in back-to-back weeks — Robert Floyd had a game-changing pick against Iowa — and Jack Howell recorded his first career interception against the Spartans. They’re still raw but it appears that the Rams have some real ballers coming up in the program, especially the aforementioned. 

Don’t forget about DJ 

Finally, while I wanted to point out the progress of the young secondary, Dequan Jackson is more than deserving of individual recognition and is probably slept on a little bit due to the flashiness of the defensive line. 

Jackson had 12 total tackles on Saturday, his third double-digit performance of the season so far. With 47 total tackles on the year, Jackson leads the next closest individual by 17, so it’s really been a consistent dominance for the starting middle linebacker. 

He’s not a flashy guy, he doesn’t go to the podium and brag about his performance. In fact, Jackson didn’t even know he had 12 tackles after the win, it was pointed out to him by the media. That’s what makes him such a solid leader for the defense though. Jackson goes out, does his thing every week, and he leads by example for this dominant front seven.

His impact in the run game is absolutely paramount. And he’s genuinely one of the most talented individuals on the roster. 

“Day in and day out that’s what I’m working on,” Jackson said of his hot start to the season.

“I really didn’t know about that stat, I’m not keeping up with those sorts of things. What I am keeping up with is the influence I have on the guys — how much can they count on me to do my job, and how much can I count on them to do their job? It’s all about love and trust. I’m always going to pride myself on being a leader, because that’s a huge accomplishment.”