Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium was more like a haunted house for the hometown Colorado State Rams on Halloween Saturday.
The Rams’ four turnovers helped the San Diego State Aztecs cruise to a 41-17 blowout victory, and the first turnover was the most memorable.
SDSU scored on their first drive of the day, a Donnel Pumphrey plunge on 4th and 1 to take the 7-0 lead, and CSU tried to follow suit. But, from the five yard line, Jasen Oden took the ball, was hit and fumbled just before the goal line.
The ruling on the field was a fumble, yet it looked clearly like the senior running back’s elbow hit down before the ball bounced out. After a CSU timeout, the referees finally decided to review the play, the timeout was awarded back to the Rams.
“Something about a camera angle, couldn’t see, the shadows were in the way,” head coach Mike Bobo said of the play not being immediately reviewed. “I wanted to make sure it was reviewed. It was not being reviewed, and I said I wanted to review it. After 5-10 minutes they say, ‘The buzzer just went off.’”
But after review, the play stood as called on the field, as a fumble.
At the time of the turnover, in the first quarter, the only feed available in the press box was the Hughes Stadium feed, so some believed that was the only view the replay official had. Later, we learned the official had the CBSSports feed, too, which they used to call the play a fumble.
Oden thought he scored – along with every CSU fan in the Western Hemisphere – or at least was down at the one-inch line. But, no.
“Me being a player, of course I’m going to say yeah, I think I did score,” Oden explained after the loss. “The ground caused that fumble. But, that’s not my call. I believe they made the right call…I just have to do a better job of holding onto the ball and make sure I cross the goal line so it won’t even get that far.”
The fumble was a turning point for CSU. Instead of tying the game up 7-7 and therefore matching the Aztecs intensity and scoring ability, the Rams trailed 0-7 after the fumble.
“All turnovers are gonna really get us,” Oden said. “Unfortunately, it was me who let the ball go.”
“They ruled it a fumble,” Bobo said. “At the end of the day, that’s not how we protect the ball when you’re at the goal line. You don’t reach out, ever. Unless it’s 4th down. You don’t reach out. That’s a rule. That’s fundamentals. That’s the little things. We’ve got to protect the ball better.”
Oden agreed.
“I’ve got to just do a better job of holding onto the ball,” the senior running back said. “That hurt my team. And the sequence that it happened, we were on the one yard line, down by seven. Even though our defense made a tremendous stop, and we went down and scored again, it’s the what-if factor. We could’ve been up 14-7.”
14-7 looks much better than 7-7, especially when at home and against a better team. What if the Rams were ahead 14-7 at that point and everything else unfolded the way it did in the first half? CSU would’ve still led 17-13 at the break instead of being down 10-13.
Of course, that’s not how the game of football is played. But, it’s simply human to think about the what-ifs.
What if Colorado State came to play in the second half instead of being run over by Pumphrey and the Aztecs? What if they somehow found a way to win?
Well, they didn’t.
There have been multiple “what-if” moments this season for CSU, which simply should be expected in the first year of a new coaching staff.
As Bobo explained after the loss, “[We] didn’t play like a Colorado State team in the second half. And, it’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing for you as a coach, for you as a player, for you as a fan and supporter. But, you know, like I told them guys, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to come back to work. And go to work. That’s what you do.’”
