FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Execute and win. Fail and lose. Although it’s become a cliche spouted by every football coach in the country, going up against Air Force’s triple-option offense this week, Colorado State football has significantly less room for error than usual.
“We’ve got a big one with this rivalry game against Air Force — a game we haven’t won down there since 2002, and a game we haven’t won period in the last five years,” head coach Steve Addazio told the media on Monday.
It’s no secret what the Falcons want to do. Air Force’s success is predicated on running the football consistently, dominating possession and dictating the pace of the game. Although there are times where the predictability or simplicity of the scheme can hurt the Falcons, generally speaking, Troy Calhoun’s squads tend to just wear their opponents down physically and mentally; especially after multiple quarters of pounding the football down their throats.
As a defensive unit you have to stay sound to your assignments and make sure that you don’t get drawn out of position or confused by all the misdirection. With all the pre-snap movement and various forms of counters that the Falcons will throw at teams, it’s really easy for defenders to start going rogue while trying to make plays — particularly when Air Force is running the football well and keeping drives alive with third or fourth down conversions.
“Against Air Force, every down is critical because they’re a four-down team,” Addazio said, before continuing on how it’s really a completely different style of football going up against the academy. Most teams have to be in plus territory to consider going for it on fourth down but as Addazio emphasized, you cannot plan for the Falcons to adhere to traditional conventions, they do their own thing.
“It’s a different game in its entirety,” Addazio said.
The keys to slowing down an offense like Air Force, according to the first-year CSU coach, are making sure that you contain the running backs and limit their averages to less than three yards per carry.
“If you get to 2nd and 6 against this team, you’re now in trouble,” Addazio said. “At 2nd at 6, they now believe they have three downs to get six yards… If they start getting four yards at a clip, you don’t have to be a mathematician to know that four, four, four is 12. That’s what they’re really good at. They’re outstanding.”
Additionally, Addazio explained how you cannot give up explosive plays over the top when they do decide to pass. As Addazio pointed out, in the 2019 loss to the Falcons at Canvas Stadium, former AF QB Donald Hammond III burned the Rams for three passing touchdown passes.
“They can throw the ball and they can pass too, so you better watch out,” Addazio said. “A year ago that was a problem for us here. They threw the ball on us.”
Offensively, the toughest part of going up against Air Force is simply making sure that you do not try to press too hard or do too much. After sitting on the sidelines for minutes at a time and watching the Falcons move the ball at will, it’s natural for opponents to want to respond with big plays of their own. Obviously, CSU will need some explosive plays downfield, it’s a big part of what makes their offense tick. But the problem is that if you don’t hit them, they can be back-breaking for your team.
In the Falcons 28-0 win over New Mexico last Saturday, Addazio felt the game was actually much closer than the score indicated. According to Addazio, the Lobos just “hit a lot of long foul balls” — meaning that they barely missed on multiple opportunities for big plays. Eventually, though, the difference in execution just became too big of a gap for the Lobos to overcome.
“They’re very, very physical, and they’re big,” Addazio said of the Falcons defense. “I think what happens to you a little bit on offense is that you don’t get to touch the ball all that often, so sometimes you press, and I think it can get you out of rhythm really quick.”
In their 40-7 win over Navy to open up the 2020 season, the Falcons won the time of possession by over 8 minutes and ended up +2 in the turnover margin. In their win over the Lobos, they actually lost the turnover margin as the Falcons ended up fumbling away three consecutive possessions at one point. However, they controlled the football for 13 more minutes than their counterparts and converted on third down 69 percent of the time, compared to just 30 percent for UNM. If CSU wants to go into Falcon Stadium and steal an upset victory on Thanksgiving, the Rams will have to do a better job of keeping their offense on the field and keeping their defense on the sidelines than the Lobos did in their most recent loss.
It might be a cliche but football truly is a game of execution. More times than not, Calhoun’s teams are better coached, play with better discipline, and they make the most of their opponent’s mistakes. In CSU’s upset of Wyoming, the Rams nearly played a perfect game in all three phases. Can they do it again with another trophy on the line?
CSU and Air Force will kick off at 12:00 p.m. MT at Falcon Stadium. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
