FORT COLLINS — Let the Rams’ November heater, and a clear path to bowl eligibility, begin.
Colorado State held off San Diego State, 22-19, on Saturday at Canvas Stadium, led by three of the Rams’ most consistent players amid an inconsistent season, as well as a standout freshman.
“This was a good measuring stick as a program to win this game tonight, and we needed to,” CSU head coach Jay Norvell said. “This was a one-game playoff, and we won today, so we advance to next week where we get another one-game playoff.”
Defensive end Mo Kamara put the Rams on the board first with a safety, Jordan Noyes’ two field goals made up for the offense’s stumbles, and tight end Dallin Holker’s one-yard TD run set the tone in the first half as the Rams snapped a three-game slide and cemented the Aztecs’ first losing season since 2009.
Tailback Justin Marshall also went off in his collegiate debut, with 18 rushes for 119 yards and a touchdown. He became the first CSU freshman to rush for 100 yards in a game since Ron Harris in 1974.
“We felt like (Marshall) is very talented and that we just needed a shot in the arm,” Norvell said. “We needed somebody to give us an extra step, an extra burst, and a little juice in our running game. We were very close to making some big runs (in weeks past), and he gave us something we haven’t had.”
All that enabled CSU to hold off the Aztecs’ late push and check the first of three boxes down the stretch of the regular season to get to six wins and its first bowl appearance since 2017. CSU still has two Mountain West games left: against Nevada next Saturday and at Hawaii on Nov. 25. The Rams will likely be favored in both.
But first, they had to take care of business as a favorite against SDSU, and the Rams did that despite leaving plenty of points on the board and a so-so performance by QB Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi.
The redshirt freshman was unable to dial in CSU’s passing game with an array of overthrows and passes that simply didn’t give his targets much of a chance to make plays. Fowler-Nicolosi settled in a bit during the second half, finishing 17-of-30 passing for 202 yards with an interception that came on a Hail Mary throw on the final play of the first half.
“We talked (with Fowler-Nicolosi) about when you play a team like (SDSU), you can’t give them a short field and easy drives by turning the ball over,” Norvell said. “He missed a couple passes early … but I thought he was smart with the ball. He never put the ball in harm’s way tonight, and that was really important for him. And he was putting us in those right runs and making the right calls (at the line).”
Kamara’s sack of Aztecs QB Jalen Mayen at the 5:58 mark of the first quarter was the Rams’ first safety since 2015 and bumped the graduate student up to second on CSU’s all-time sack list. Kamara is now at 29 career sacks, four off Clark Haggans’ record of 33 set in the late 1990s.
That safety, in conjunction with Noyes’ leg and Holker’s direct-snap TD that came off a turnover due to a miscue by the Aztecs’ punt returner, put CSU ahead 15-0 at the break.
“I’m comfortable (in the Wildcat formation), because I played quarterback until my sophomore year of high school,” Dallin Holker said. “That was a fun play, and it’s fun to mix it up like that and that makes it challenging for defenses, because it’s something they haven’t seen before.”
In the second half, it appeared the Rams’ third-quarter struggles might re-emerge. CSU had been outscored 37-0 in that frame over the past three defeats and 66-23 overall this year. After CSU punted to open the half, San Diego State drove the field for a field goal to make it 15-3.
But CSU responded with a seven-play, 75-yard drive in which Fowler-Nicolosi found Justus Ross-Simmons for a 41-yard pass to set the Rams up in plus-territory. Four plays later, Marshall continued his impressive debut with a 5-yard TD run to make it comfortably 22-3.
Marshall, who had 50 yards on his first three touches in the first half, made a case for being more involved in CSU’s game plans going forward. The freshman said he “can’t wait until next weekend.”
“We’d like to play him more,” Norvell added.
Kamara said that Marshall “always did a good job of being slithery (on scout team), and he did the same thing out there tonight.” Holker also praised the freshman, who didn’t even know he was going to be playing until pregame stretch.
“Remember Justin Marshall’s name, because he’s going to keep balling,” Holker predicted.
SDSU got another field goal late in the third quarter, and finally found the end zone via Mayen’s 8-yard scramble at the 11:47 mark of the fourth to cut the visitors’ deficit to 22-12 after a failed two-point conversion.
The next drive, CSU was driving to put the game on ice, but Vann Schield’s fumble gave the Aztecs new life. The Rams defense rose up, with Kamara and his teammates on the defensive line stuffing the Aztecs three straight times near the goal line. SDSU finally broke through with Jaylon Armstead’s TD run on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line to make it a three-point game.
But the Rams (4-6, 2-4 Mountain West) were able to avoid choking the win away by running out the final 2:04 of clock, with Avery Murrow’s 7-yard run on third-and-4 finally putting the game away for good.
“In the huddle on that last drive, we talked about how badly we wanted to end the game in victory formation,” Holker said. “That was our main theme to get to take a knee, and we really wanted to close that one out.”
Saturday’s win broke CSU’s recent negative trend against SDSU, as the Rams had previously lost two straight in the series and 10 of the last 12.
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