Todd Centeio isn’t shying away from the criticism, knows the Rams must be more consistent through the air

FORT COLLINS, CO. — Colorado State is still looking to find more consistency with its passing game. Sitting at 1-3 the Rams have started slow but have an opportunity to turn things around in conference play. That is if the Green & Gold can start to help out its defense by putting more points on the board. 

In each of CSU’s three losses there have been key missed opportunities offensively. Whether it be drops, penalties, missed throws or field goals, the Rams have really left a lot of big plays on the table in 2021. If they’re going to right the ship, taking advantage of the opportune moments will be paramount, and frankly that starts with Centeio. 

While he is not the only reason the offense has been up and down at best, Centeio’s inability to hit open receivers downfield has been a consistent problem. In CSU’s last game Centeio had an early opportunity to strike against No. 5 Iowa. 

On CSU’s second offensive series of the game, after he had delivered on third down moments earlier, the Rams ran a fleaflicker and Trey McBride was as open as you can be down the sidelines. Centeio simply overthrew him and three plays later the Rams turned the ball over on downs. 

Following practice on Tuesday, Centeio was asked about how CSU is exploring to try and create more explosive plays on offense. Centeio responded that it really comes down to him. 

“I missed Trey wide open. You can’t do that,” Centeio said. “Now that’s just the realization — I missed Trey when he was wide open against Iowa — it could have been 21-7 going into halftime and that changes the whole game.”

If we are pointing out that he missed a chance to score early, it should also be mentioned that Centeio is the primary reason the Rams scored two touchdowns in the first half. 

Driving halfway through the second quarter, with a chance to tie the game, CSU appeared to be stalling near midfield. That is until Centeio rushed for 15 yards on 3rd and 11 to keep the drive alive (6:41). Then, after the Rams attempted an end-around run to Thomas Pannunzio and it lost three yards, before a draw from A’Jon Vivens gained back two, CSU faced third and long again. Centeio stayed calm in the pocket as Iowa blitzed, he hit Trey McBride on an out route and No. 85 made a phenomenal play after the catch to secure the first down (5:08). 

Now in the Red Zone, after a small Vivens run and a dump off pass that lost a yard, the Rams faced third and nine. Operating out of the gun with a pair of receivers and tight ends spread out wide, Centeio read the coverage and scampered for a 10-yard touchdown run to tie it up at 7-7 (3:55). 

Centeio also capitalized on Robert Floyd’s momentous interception — which is not the focus of this piece but was an absolute baller play — particularly when you consider Floyd, a true freshman, had been burned for a big catch earlier in the drive. Anyways, facing third and six with 36 seconds left in the first half, Centeio hit McBride for 16 yards to set up first and goal from the 3-yard line. And from there Centeio hit Gary Williams on a beautifully designed rollout play that completely confused the Hawkeyes defense. 

Assuming that Iowa would be keying in on McBride, CSU lined him up on the end of the formation but used him as a blocker instead. Before the Iowa safety realized No. 85 wasn’t going to be the receiving option, he took a few steps in and that freed up space for Williams who was coming out of the backfield and left wide open. The play gave CSU its first lead of the game at 14-7 and took the air out of Iowa’s crowd. 

It doesn’t change the fact that Centeio and his receivers must find a way to start delivering on shot plays. But the reality is that he has five career starts under his belt, which means there’s going to be a lot of highs and lows. That’s just part of inexperience. There’s no question that they were better throwers of the football, but even guys like Garrett Grayson and Nick Stevens had quite a few head scratching plays early in their careers. It’s been a shaky start — if Centeio can be a little more clutch in key moments though — the Rams actually could be an offense that’s pretty respectable — especially when the run game is going. 

According to Centeio, the connection is hand and hand. Sometimes he needs to place the football better and sometimes the receivers need to help him out. He feels they haven’t been able to be consistently cohesive over the last couple of games. Because of that, though, Centeio and the receivers have really been trying to refine things in practice over the last two weeks. 

“We’ve been throwing a lot of them in practice, scripting them, and then after practice we’ll throw some more. We’re trying to get it right, so we’re hopefully going to bear our fruit.” 

At the end of the day Centeio has to find a way to be more reliable as a passer but it’s nice to see him taking total responsibility for the offense. He’s been praised as a leader by just about everyone in the locker room and it’s that type of self accountability that shows his maturity. 

Because I want to make it abundantly clear — I am again stating profoundly that there must be improvement if the Rams want to change things against league competition — and that burden is going to fall predominantly on Centeio’s shoulders. But this team truly has displayed an ability to grow through adversity over the first five weeks. They’ve improved in key areas as well.

CSU couldn’t stop the run against South Dakota State but they’ve dominated in the trenches in the three games since. The Rams struggled on special teams in the loss against Vanderbilt, but then beat Toledo after scoring all 22 points on special teams. Maybe the passing offense will be the next phase CSU is able to figure out. 

“We played the No. 5 team in the country and had the lead at halftime. We’ve got to be happy about that, but we didn’t finish the game. We’re still learning how to finish games,” Centeio said. “Once we keep knocking on that (door) and keep hitting that rock, as coach would say, we’re going to bear our fruit.

“The confidence is there,” Centeio continued. “I feel like our team has been flying around the last two weeks. Against Toledo we played good, the defense played great. At Iowa the offense struggled a bit but we lost David Bailey. As a whole team, we played really good in the first half and then some things didn’t go our way. In the second half we didn’t capitalize, and like I said, I missed Trey. But it’s stuff that we can build off of.” 

The Rams (1-3) will have the chance to build off the foundation set in the first month against San Jose State (3-2) on Saturday. The Spartans are the reigning conference champions but a little beaten up and have had to do some serious traveling over the first five weeks with trips to Hawaii and Western Michigan. While the Spartans do have impressive talent on defense, the game appears much more winnable than it did coming into the season. As of Wednesday morning the Rams are actually 2.5 point favorites over the 2020 Mountain West Champions. Time to see what Centeio and CSU have up their sleeves.