DENVER, Colo. — Gather around Rams fans, this is a safe place.

Let’s talk about the season opener. 

It still may sting to think about how Colorado State let an FCS team walk into their home stadium and beat them by 19, but let’s break the game down and extract some positives from a disappointing season opener.

While performances from Trey McBride and Dante Wright were an apparent bright spot for CSU in week one, it was obvious that the offense was struggling. Despite those struggles, I’m here to tell you that quarterback Todd Centeio is not to blame and showed some promising signs that he can lead this offense throughout the season.

Let’s start by looking at the first drive of the game.

The Rams drew up a beautiful play-action shot out of 12-personnel early on. The Jackrabbits second and third-level defenders all bit on the play-action and Dante Wright was wide open in the middle of the field. Simply put, Centeio missed Wright. While it should have been an easy six points, I’m going to chalk this one up to Week 1 nerves and even then the pass was just over the outstretched hands of Wright.

The Rams’ coaching staff took note and went back to this play later on in the drive.

Now, I hate to be the guy that analyzes a play and simply says, “the QB should have passed to the open man,” but Centeio does get greedy here. After Wright was so wide open the first time CSU drew up this shot, if you watch his eyes, you can see that Centeio locked on and decided he was throwing this ball to Wright before the snap. Jordan Kress was wide open with a curl route to the boundary. This just might be Centeio’s lack of game experience showing because as we saw throughout this game, he is plenty capable of going through his reads and finding open receivers.

It was wise of the Rams’ coaching staff to go back to that shot play but they also seemed too eager going back to that play on the same drive. Even though the game was out of reach by this point, the Rams went back to this play-action shot for a third time in the fourth quarter.

Similarly to the first time the Rams attempted this shot play — in terms of formation, motion and routes — Centeio is finally able to pick up a big gain here. The Jackrabbits are understandably ready for this play again, but Centeio does well to not rush the throw and finds an open Trey McBride crossing over the middle.

Play-action results were a mixed bag

One of the things that really stood out about the play calling was that the Rams tried to get Centeio comfortable with the play-action game. Unfortunately the results were mixed as their running game was unable to keep the South Dakota State defense honest in these situations. 

It was a close call here as the ball is deflected before finding E.J. Scott for a completion. But you can see Centeio’s confidence starting to build as he makes a quick read and puts just enough mustard on the ball to keep moving the offense forward. This drive would last 17 plays and eventually result in CSU’s first points of the game. It was a great example of the offense functioning the way it’s intended to.

Of all the plays Centeio made early, this was his best of the first half. Centeio is poised in the pocket and delivers a dime to Wright who plays the ball exceptionally well in the air.

His lone touchdown pass of the game came early in the fourth quarter on a play-action rollout as well. While it looks nice here, the Rams elected to go for two after this play and the results were, well, different.

Dissecting the conversion attempt, I believe this play looks worse than it actually was. Centeio was late on the throw and you can see him begin his throwing motion before double-clutching the ball, which ultimately impacted the timing of the play. Situationally, it’s not the end of the world and the Rams are already getting beat by 19 at this point anyway. The point is, I think Centeio just needs to let it fly on this one. The consequences of turning the ball over are almost none existent since it’s a two-point conversion. He just has to trust what he sees and cut it loose.

What he did best

Centeio performed well enough in the play-action game but he was at his best when he was in the gun, asked to read the defense and then make a throw. Unfortunately, the Rams only resorted to these situations towards the end of the first half and late in the fourth quarter.

Looking at CSU’s second third down of the game, the ball is a bit low but Centeio targets the Rams’ best offensive player and McBride bails Centeio out for a first down. Again, the throw isn’t perfect but the line of thinking was correct. 

Here is Centeio’s best pass of the game. It’s late in the fourth quarter and the game was essentially over at this point but Centeio settled in nicely as the fourth quarter progressed. He is calm, makes a good read and delivers an even better ball to Wright up the seam.

Moving forward I would like to see more of this from CSU. This may be Centeio’s first full year as a starter but he is a fifth-year quarterback and he showed his maturity and poise in high-pressure situations against South Dakota State.

Where was the run game?

The final aspect of Centeio’s game I would like to see more of is the QB run game. I know the depth is a question mark behind Centeio after losing Matt Valecce for the season, but I was surprised the coaches didn’t call more designed runs to create opportunities for the Rams to play 11 vs. 11 football.

Centeio’s best run of the game came on this QB sneak late in the first quarter, resulting in eight yards in total. If your quarterback is able to gain eight yards by simply putting his head down and churning his legs, you should probably call more designed quarterback runs.

As mentioned earlier, the Rams did try to get Centeio moving often in the play-action game but it was strange to me that this aspect of Centeio’s game was ignored for the most part.

Head Coach Steve Addazio stated his support for Centeio going back to early spring and emphasized that he thought Centeio was the right man to lead this offense. It’s only one game, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Coach Addazio was right in picking the Temple transfer.

While there were plenty of mistakes and things that need to get cleaned up, Centeio did well to protect the ball; aside from a miscommunication with David Bailey on a mid-third quarter handoff.

He showed confidence in the pocket and in his reads when the offense relied on his arm to move the ball. It might not have been perfect. The flashes were present though, and even though the Rams were overpowered by South Dakota State, there is plenty of potential for this offense moving forward.

The Rams face a great opportunity to get their first win of the season this weekend as they will host the Vanderbilt Commodores in Fort Collins. ‘Vandy’ is also coming off of a disappointing showing against an FCS opponent and appears to be in for yet another long season.