FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Friday night’s letdown was not the result that Ram Nation was looking for. A 42-23 loss at home is never easy to swallow but especially when it’s the first opportunity for the fan base to attend a game in close two years. The fact that it was to an FCS opponent didn’t help either, even if they legitimately are better than multiple FBS teams on Colorado State’s 2021 schedule. 

While there are plenty of things you can look at when identifying what went wrong against South Dakota State — the secondary struggled in man coverage, the offense missed more than one chance to connect on shots down the field to Dante Wright and struggled even worse in the trenches, the Jackrabbits looked genuinely more prepared on both sides of the ball — the most surprising part of it all was that CSU’s defensive line was essentially not even a factor in this one. The Rams had zero sacks and only three tackles for loss in four quarters.

CSU was able to create a little bit of pressure early but SDSU quarterback Chris Oladokun did a nice job of evading it and getting the ball out of his hands quickly. Once SDSU got rolling though, the defensive line was largely neutralized in pass rush situations. They didn’t do any better against the run either, SDSU gashed CSU for 7.1 yards per carry and four touchdowns on the ground in what was a dominant showing by a team coming off of an appearance in the FCS National Championship last May. 

Following the loss, Scott Patchan, a veteran defensive end and one of the team captains, pinpointed CSU’s lack of gap control as the primary reason the Rams were so poor against the run. He explained that the unit preaches gap sound defense but simply failed to do it. 

“We’ve got to go back and correct it, you know, be gap sound, make sure everyone is playing great and that starts with me,” Patchan said. “I was voted a team captain by my teammates, I’ve gotta hold myself to a higher standard.”

As CSU prepares for Vanderbilt on Saturday night, head coach Steve Addazio is hoping that the Rams will have Toby McBride back to help shore up the interior. Without him against SDSU, Patchan had to move around a little bit and play some reps on the inside. He’s most effective when he’s on the edge though — a role in which he thrived in 2020 with 22 total tackles (7.5 for loss) and 5.5 sacks in just four games. 

“We’re hoping to get Toby back and solidify, not shuffle the front, the way we shuffled the front,” Addazio said. 

The coaches are expecting to have Logan Stewart back in his starting role at safety as well. Stewart was cleared to play in Week 1 and received some snaps late to help him get in the flow of things, but after being eased back in, Addazio is banking on Stewart’s experience being a benefit for the Rams in the back end. CSU got exposed in man coverage a couple of times last week and struggled to get off the field on third down. Having someone like Stewart to fly around the secondary at least gives the defense a better shot at making some plays. 

“We had a couple of mistakes in man coverages where we let the guy go,” Addazio said. “I don’t know what to tell you. That happened. We have a little bit of inexperience back there.”

Finally, while it was not a banner night for CSU’s defense in Week 1, ‘Vandy’ provides an opportunity for the Green & Gold to get back on the right track in Week 2. As Addazio explained on Monday, they’re still an SEC team with SEC talent. They probably aren’t losing too many recruiting battles to G5 teams, Addazio said. But the reality is the Commodores hired a defensive minded head coach in Clark Lea and are coming off a game in which they scored 3 points against an extremely mediocre FCS team; a team that would lose by 40 to South Dakota State. 

If CSU can get the pass rush going, stop the run much more consistently and maybe create a turnover or two, there is a real chance for the Rams to dominate this matchup. At the end of day it just all comes down to execution.

If the defense struggles mightily once again this week, it’ll probably be time to start sounding the alarms. Before we do though, let’s give a group with a lot of experience, raw talent, and general nastiness an opportunity to work out some of the kinks. It’s a long football season and we’ve only just begun. What else are you gonna do? Chores? 

CSU and Vanderbilt will kick off at 8:00 p.m. MT at Canvas Stadium on Saturday night, assuming we aren’t delayed by weather once again. The Rams will be rocking new Ag Day alternates and the crowd will be rocking ‘orange out’ gear. As frustrating as Week 1 was, this is generally one of the most enjoyable games of the season. It’s a chance to don sick threads, celebrate CSU’s history, and for the 2021 Rams, it might just be a chance to rinse the bad taste of defeat out of their mouths.

We’ll see what they’ve got.