Steve Addazio, special teams execution let the Rams down in a brutal loss to Utah State

DENVER — Heartbreak. 

Colorado State had an opportunity to complete a crazy comeback against Utah State on Friday night. After trailing for the majority of the game the Rams (3-4, 2-1), led by a dominant defense, were able to fight their way back into the contest and likely should have won. Unfortunately after running the hurry-up offense to perfection and driving down the field with no timeouts in the final 60 seconds of play, the Rams failed to execute in the most crucial moment and ultimately lost 26-24 to the Aggies. 

After Todd Centeio connected with Ty McCullouch for 15 yards to set CSU up at the Aggies’ 24-yard line, the offense had plenty of time to line up, spike the football on first down and allow the kicking unit to attempt the field goal at a normal pace. There were 11 seconds to play and CSU benefitted from the clock stopping for the chains to reset, so really they had an eternity to get this done. 

Of course that’s not what happened. Instead chaos ensued as the kicking unit came out onto the field for a rapid attempt, causing the offense to flee for the sidelines in confusion. And instead of keeping his traditional pace, Cayden Camper rushed the 42-yard attempt and pulled it left. 

Instead of spiking it on first down and stopping the clock, Colorado State rushed their field goal unit onto the field.

With the clock running, they then missed the potential game-winning field goal. Utah State wins the game. pic.twitter.com/vw3sXclgDP

— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) October 23, 2021

Following the loss head coach Steve Addazio explained that the intention was for the offense to spike the football, but they had the fast field goal unit ready just in case they didn’t pick up a first down. After McCullouch did get a first down, though, Addazio said that the fast field goal unit went anyway. “They weren’t sent, but they went in and created that confusion at the end,” Addazio said. 

Addazio continued, stating that even in spite of everything that went wrong in that moment, the unit was still able to get the attempt off. “It wasn’t like we weren’t set up to kick the field goal. We just didn’t strike it.”

“That’s what happened at the end there,” Addazio continued. “I don’t know. No one sent them in but they took off on the field. You know, we work on that play situationally. But that wasn’t the situation for it. It could have been and that’s why we had it ready. But it wasn’t the situation, we could have spiked it, and then gone out onto the field and kicked it without so much chaos.”

Later in the same media session, when asked to further clarify what went wrong for the Green & Gold in the biggest moment of the matchup, Addazio said he thinks that the players got caught up in the emotion of the game. He could not say for sure why it went down that way, but he doubled down on saying nobody sent the players and they simply went on their own. 

“It just happened, which means that it’s my responsibility, because that can’t happen,” Addazio said. “But it did happen. And so I’ll take the responsibility for that.”

Quite honestly, at that moment, I did not notice how much CSU’s second-year head coach threw his players under the bus on Friday night. But considering Addazio prides himself on being the primary leader for the special teams units, the fact that he did was not an encouraging sign of leadership. 

Being fair to him, it is somewhat of a tricky predicament. On one hand, Addazio was probably just being honest about what he believed was the issue, which is really what reporters want, people’s genuine responses. From the perspective of the locker room, though, that has to be Addazio’s sword to fall on. It’s his program, his leadership, and it was his decision to not have an official full time member of the staff handle the special teams responsibilities. Plus, even if it truly was just a case of the players botching the situation, it’s Addazio’s job to have them ready for it, so deflecting the blame elsewhere is not a good look. 

In the 11 games that Addazio has been head coach of the Rams, CSU has now lost two almost completely due to special teams blunders. Sure, there were extenuating circumstances, particularly with the fluctuation of the roster in 2020. It’s still a results business though. And the results have not been consistently good enough for CSU on special teams. That’s on ‘Daz’. Period. It’s on him to fix the problems as well. 

We’ll see what he has in store for Boise State next week. The Broncos embarrassed the Rams on the blue turf in 2020 by blocking three different punts, all of which resulted in touchdowns for the home team. Between last year’s outcome against Boise State and now last Friday’s loss to the Aggies, the Rams sure could use a bounceback game at home. They’ve responded to adversity well throughout this season. Let’s see what they’ve got up their sleeves.