At the opening kickoff of the 109th Border War, “Comatose” the thunderous, 100-year old cannon from World War 1, let out a wimpy “poof.”
Colorado State followed suit, punting the ball five straight times before missing a long field goal to end the first half down 3-0 to rival Wyoming before losing 34-21.
“We’re not a very good football team, like I’ve been saying all year, and the ownership is on me,” Mike Bobo said after the third straight loss to Wyoming.
War? This wan’t even a skirmish as the Colorado State Rams were blown out on Friday night by the rival Cowboys as Mike Bobo’s CSU teams are now a combined 2-9 all-time in rivalry games.
Not even injecting Collin Hill into the starting lineup was enough to spark a fire under the Rams; Hill played decently in the first half but turned the ball over twice early in the second half which led to 14 points and a huge deficit. He threw another interception late in the contest, too.
The game started out like this for the Rams: Five straight punts and a missed 53-yard field goal at the end of the half. Wyoming wasn’t much better, punting it four times themselves before a drive stalled in the red zone and they settled for a 30-yard field goal to take the 3-0 lead at the break.
They trailed 3-0 at halftime, with a mere 109 yards of offense. That included -12 yards on the ground for Colorado State, who’s lacked a physical presence all season.
Wyoming started out on fire in the second half, slicing and dicing through the Rams defense, capped with a perfectly thrown ball from Sean Chambers to Nico Evans on a wheel route for the 10-0 lead. CSU answered with yet another punt, their sixth of the game.
On Colorado State’s next drive, Collin Hill was hit, the ball fluttered in the air and Wyoming’s Ravontae Holt somehow caught the ball in mid-flight. The Cowboys quickly converted the field position into a touchdown as Chambers ran the ball in from eight yards out untouched.
Finally, after falling behind 24-0, the Rams offense came alive. Marvin Kinsey rushed the ball around the Wyoming defense, outside, and galloped into the end zone to bring the game to 24-7 late in the third quarter.
Wyoming’s Cooper Rothe put a second field goal on the board, this time from 45 yards out, to extend the lead to 27-7. And the Cowboys pushed that lead even further when Chambers connected with Tyree Mayfield, who was wide open, for a touchdown.
Hill finished the scoring on the day as he snuck the ball over the goal line late to bring it to 34-21.
The loss drops Colorado State to 3-6 on the season, meaning they will have to win-out to make a sixth straight bowl game. That seems incredibly unlikely at this point for such an undisciplined, underprepared team as this.