FORT COLLINS — Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi wasn’t just getting outplayed by Brendon Lewis. He somehow found himself getting outgunned.
“I don’t lose confidence,” CSU’s redshirt freshman quarterback said of a rocky middle two quarters of a 30-20 win over Nevada on Saturday in the Rams’ regular-season home finale at Canvas Stadium.
“There’s no loss of confidence. I really know the player I am, who I can be.”
The lithe Texan showed it down the stretch, completing five of his last seven throws in the fourth quarter and using his arm — and legs — to preserve a fourth home victory for the Rams (5-6, 3-4 Mountain West), who can clinch bowl eligibility with a win at Hawaii (4-8, 2-5) next weekend.
Fowler-Nicolosi’s afternoon, like the game itself, wasn’t pretty. The CSU signal-caller misfired on 10 of 15 pass attempts in the second and third quarters as a 20-3 Rams lead evaporated into a 23-20 nail-biter to start the fourth stanza on Senior Day.
“I thought (Fowler-Nicolosi) was inconsistent today,” CSU coach Jay Norvell said of his young signal-caller, who was 15 for 30 on the afternoon for 245 yards and two scores through the air. “He wasn’t as sharp as he needs to be, and I think he’ll be the first one to tell you that. But he did make some big plays and some big throws.”
Despite some misfires in the pass game, the Rams were able to take advantage of the Mountain West’s worst rush defense to pile up 169 yards on the ground on 34 carries. The tally included six runs in the game’s final 3:54 that forced the Wolf Pack to burn three timeouts and helped notch a fifth win on the season, the most at CSU since 2017 (7-6).
“(Saturday) was hard,” chuckled Norvell, whose record in two seasons in FoCo improved to 8-15. “It’s hard, man — it’s hard to win games.
“But I’m very proud of our guys. And I know that they have more in them. I really do. I believe in our team, I believe in our players. We have some tremendous leaders on this team and they really want to lead this team to a successful season.”
CSU ultimately won the day, but not without some physical costs along the way. Bruising tailback Avery Morrow left the game after scoring the game’s opening touchdown, with a lower-body injury that Norvell described as a possible hip-pointer, one that required hospitalization.
While the Rams started fast and finished strong, the middle was a muddle. And aesthetically, if you wondered what 2020 Rocky Mountain Showdown that never happened (thanks, COVID) might’ve looked like, Saturday offered something of a tease.
Different offense, at least where the Rams were concerned. But the Pack had a familiar feel.
That was because Nevada coach Ken Wilson turned the reins of his offense over to Lewis, who played QB for the CU Buffs from 2020-22. The redshirt sophomore entered the portal last Oct. 17 — before Coach Prime showed up and cleaned house in Boulder — and committed to the Pack last Christmas eve.
You know what? New colors, same guy. Same tendencies. Still running for his life. Zone read. Dink. Dunk. Zone read.
Although not with 2:32 left in the third quarter, while CSU clung to that 23-20 edge. On third-and-16, the ex-Buff, who wound up with 169 passing yards and 61 more on the ground, stepped up in the pocket and fired a 31-yard dart to Dalevon Campbell, extending the drive to the Rams 46.
The Pack drove to the CSU 19 before a Mo Kamara sack on third down pushed them back to the 26, forcing a 43-yard field goal attempt … which Brandon Talton pushed wide left. That kept the Rams’ lead at three with 12:41 to go in the tilt and helped the hosts regain some of that lost mojo.
In hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have been that close.
The Rams grabbed control from the jump, scoring on their first four drives while ending two of Nevada’s first three possessions with a pick. The hosts turned those Pack mistakes into 10 points, with Jordan Noyes’ 42-yard make pushing CSU’s cushion to 20-3 with 9:43 until halftime.
But the Rams stalled out from there, felled by curious play-calling and lapses in execution. A last-ditch CSU drive at its own 49 turned into a first-half-ending pick-6 off Fowler-Nicolosi, a miscue that cut the Rams’ lead from 20-6 to 20-13 in a blink. Half the 20,121 in attendance appeared to be in shock while the other half wondered if the Comatose Cannon going off in the middle of Richard Toney Jr.’s runback would rule the play dead. (It didn’t.)
“The pick-6 helped them. I kicked myself for that,” Norvell said.
“But I give our kids credit for being resilient and playing through the fourth quarter and the rough, rough patches of the game. That’s something they’ve learned to do. And that’s what we have to continue to do.”
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