Colorado State's postseason hopes hang on a hobbled Rams defense stopping Air Force's triple-option offense

DENVER — Colorado State (3-6, 2-3) has blown the opportunity to contend for a Mountain West Championship. Needing to close out the season with a three-game winning streak, their postseason hopes are hanging by a thread as well. 

While the Rams still technically could qualify for a bowl game — teams find a way to get hot over the final month every year — coming off one of CSU’s worst showings of 2021, it’s tough to feel very confident with Air Force coming to town. The Rams haven’t beaten the Falcons since 2015. They’re just 3-12 against them in the last 15 meetings overall. Quite simply, Troy Calhoun has owned the Green & Gold, so Air Force is the last team ram supporters would want to see in a must-win game. Alas, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. 

With all of this in mind, let’s talk about the matchup. A hobbled CSU defense that just allowed 385 rushing yards to an extremely average Wyoming offense, now has to defend against the triple-option. 

“Last week, as I told you after the game, we were deeply disappointed,” Steve Addazio said on Monday.”

Addazio continued, explaining that losing three linebackers, Dequan Jackson, Bam Amina and Sanjay Strickland, put the defense in an extremely vulnerable position against the run. Jackson has been the heartbeat of the back seven and has served as one of CSU’s key run stoppers all year long. As soon as he was injured in the Boise State game, the impact was evident. He tried to play against Wyoming but wasn’t physically able to go. Then, early against the Pokes, Amina was likely lost for the season with a lower body injury. Sanjay Strickland, a young linebacker out of Arvada was injured in relief of Amina as well. 

“We’re into our fourth MIKE linebacker in our system,” Addazio said. “We had some real fit problems. It’s certainly not the guy’s fault, it’s just inexperience.”

The Rams did activate Tavian Brown, who has been battling injuries for most of the season. Brown was cleared for the Wyoming game but did not practice the week leading up to it. “We tried to activate Tavian in a position where he didn’t have any reps that week, so that was kind of an unfair situation, but we were out of options. And so that had a real adverse effect on us,” Addazio said. 

According to the second-year Rams coach, after reviewing the film, CSU’s depth issues were especially evident on about six plays where they were gashed for big runs. He did add that it wasn’t the only problem on defense, the Rams also got beat on a couple of fade routes from Isaiah Neyor (WR). But as ‘Daz’ explained, the defense as a whole was trying to compensate and plug a lot of holes created by injuries. 

“How do you help fit the box? How do you help the corners? I can tell you it was hectic,” Addazio said. “And it was hard on the coaching staff on defense. But that’s football.”

Coming off a nightmare of a game, nobody has time to feel sorry for themselves, not with the Falcons coming to town. Trying to stop Air Force and its vaunted triple-option offense is one of the toughest parts of every season in the Mountain West. And outside of a small handful of games, the Rams have never had much success against this team. Going all the way back to 1980, Air Force has scored 30+ against CSU 19 different times. They’ve thrown 40+ on the board nine times since 2000. It’s a series where the Falcons have pretty much had their way with their in-state rivals. 

“We’ve got to get ready to roll into Air Force, which is no box of candy,” Addazio said. “We have to get ready on defense to stop what is obviously one of the better rushing attacks. And we’ll be short bodied to say the least.” 

So far this season Air Force is averaging 303 rushing yards and roughly three rushing touchdowns per game. In games when they’ve scored four or more times on the ground, the Falcons are a perfect 4-0. CSU, on the other hand, is 0-2 when the defense has allowed more than one rushing touchdown. (Uh-oh.)

As we all know though, Air Force doesn’t present a traditional running game. Their option attack repeatedly tests the discipline of your defense on all levels, making every individual play their assignments perfectly. If one defender overpersues and plays the wrong man, all hell can break loose defensively. 

“You’re playing assignment football,” Addazio said. “You’ve gotta make sure someone’s got the dive, someone’s got the que, someone’s got the pitch and they can beat you with the play-action pass. It forces you to be very detailed.”

What’s even more frustrating is the way they can completely dictate the pace of the game. Drives of 6, 7, 8 minutes wear down opposing defenses. It has an impact on your offense too, because they get less total possessions and have to maximize the few opportunities they get; something that could be a real problem for a CSU team that’s been inconsistent in the Red Zone all season. 

If the Rams are going to have any chance of winning this game, CSU is going to have to be able to score touchdowns and not settle for field goals. The defense is under enough pressure as is and failing to capitalize with points is going to put them in a brutal position. As will short drives in general. The best recipe for success against the Falcons is keeping your offense on the field and theirs off of it, or it’s getting up big and forcing Air Force to abandon the option and lean on its passing game. The Rams aren’t exactly a high scoring offense, so one would assume the former is the more realistic route to victory. But who knows at this point.

Saturday’s game is no doubt going to be a challenge. We’ll see what the Rams bring to the table in a game that will impact their postseason fate. It would be easy to assume this group threw in the towel after last week, but CSU has surprised us before. Maybe they have one more Toledo-like performance up their sleeves. If not, it will probably be as frustrating as 12 of the last 15 meetings between these schools have been.