FORT COLLINS — The kick was good. The game was tied. But a penalty made Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell change his strategy.
Backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau, who replaced starter Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi early in the fourth quarter, had just thrown a 4-yard touchdown pass to Rocky Beers to pull the Rams within a point of UTSA, at 17-16, with 34 seconds left in the game late Saturday night at Canvas Stadium.
Isaiah Hankins kicked the extra point to tie the contest, but the Roadrunners were called for offsides, moving the ball half the distance to the goal line. Norvell decided, with the short-yardage situation, to go for the win.
“I felt like we had a really good play that we could score and win the game,” Norvell said. “That was a gut feeling that I had.”
That play did not include Brousseau, however.
Instead, wildcat quarterback Tahj Bullock — who had already scored a fourth-quarter touchdown — replaced Brousseau on the field and was pressured immediately after taking the snap. He scrambled to his right, trying to avoid the pursuit of the UTSA defense. As he neared the sideline, he threw the ball toward the end zone.
However, his pass led Lloyd Avant out of bounds and the conversion failed. The Rams tried an onside kick, but the Roadrunners recovered and ran out the clock, sending the Rams to their second loss in three games this season.
Norvell later defended his decision by saying that he thought the play would work, even though the Rams had found some rhythm on offense with Brousseau at quarterback.
“I like the play that we had,” he said. “I thought it was the right play. The penalty is really what made me decide to do it. If we wouldn’t have had the penalty I wouldn’t have gone for it. I felt like that gave us an opportunity to get it.”
Brousseau, who led the Rams on two touchdown drives after replacing Fowler-Nicolosi, ended up competing 10 of 12 passes for 78 yards, watched the two-point conversion play out from the sideline.
He said he agreed with the decision to go for two and the win.
“I loved it,” Brousseau said. “I loved the play call. I thought it was awesome. Put the ball in Tahj’s hands. Tahj is dynamic. We just didn’t execute. That’s on us. We’ve got to get there.”
Norvell called the play a ‘roll pass.’ It was similar to one UTSA scored on earlier in the game. While it worked for the Roadrunners, it didn’t at the most crucial point of the game for the Rams.
Linebacker Owen Long, who finished with a game-most 14 tackles, also defended Norvell’s desire to try to win the game. Long said it means everything to the team that their coach had the trust in them to go for two instead of settling for a tie at that moment.
“It means everything to us, so we want to play for him,” Long said. “Someone that wants to go win the game; that’s something we can rally around.”
The Rams had to rally all game long against UTSA, as the visitors held a 10-3 lead going into the fourth quarter. Brousseau orchestrated a drive in his first series that resulted in a 10-yard touchdown run by Bullock to make it 10-10.
UTSA took a 17-10 on a long pass play, but Brousseau and the Rams got the ball back and drove successfully drove down the field, setting up the all-in two-point attempt.
CSU will now regroup before its final nonconference game against Washington State next Saturday back at Canvas Stadium.
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