Midseason report card: Colorado State gets a C-minus

CSU’s football team is halfway through the 2015 season, with a 2-4 record overall and 0-2 mark in the Mountain West.

The season clearly isn’t going the way the Rams or most of their fans believed it would coming off a 10-3 season in 2014 and back-to-back bowl appearances under former coach Jim McElwain. The team has had more trouble adjusting to the offensive and defensive schemes of first-year coach Mike Bobo than the coach or his players expected.

There’s still half a season ahead of the Rams, though. So there’s still plenty of time to improve.

Here’s the midseason report card:

Rushing offense: Grade C

The Rams ran the ball well early on, picking up 172 yards on the ground against a good Minnesota defense and 218 against the University of Colorado. The ground game has struggled against the Mountain West’s top defenses, with the Rams managing just 108 yards on the ground in a 33-18 loss to Utah State and 105 in a 41-10 loss to Boise State.

The offensive line is doing a decent job opening holes, and running backs Jasen Oden, Dalyn Dawkins and Izzy Matthews are all averaging 4.1 or more yards per carry. But the Rams aren’t getting the kind of big plays on the ground that could turn a game around. CSU’s longest run this season is a 42-yard touchdown run by Dawkins against CU.

“When we get the front handled and the backers handled and are 1-on-1 with the safety, we’ve got to be able to make that guy miss,” Bobo said last week. “If we block for 5 (yards), we need to get more than 5; we need to turn it into a 10-yard run or 12-yard run and then a 17-yard run. If we block for 5 and we get 5, that’s not good enough.”

Passing offense: Grade D

Quarterback Nick Stevens looked like he might pick up where Garrett Grayson left off a year ago after throwing for 289 yards and five touchdowns in a season-opening 65-13 win over Savannah State. Far from it.

The sophomore has struggled since, throwing as many interceptions (five) as touchdown passes in the past five games while completing just 54.5 percent of his passes (78 of 143) for an average of 180.2 passing yards a game. Redshirt freshman Coleman Key hasn’t been any better, going 14 for 34 for 159 yards, with two interceptions and two touchdowns since the opener.

The Rams have an outstanding corps of receivers, led by consensus All-American Rashard Higgins and Mackey Award candidates Kivon Cartwright and Steven Walker at tight end. But they haven’t been able to utilize that talent effectively.

Rushing defense: Grade C-minus

What looked like an outstanding defensive unit against the run in the first three games has been exposed in the past three, giving up 279 rushing yards at Texas-San Antonio, 298 at Utah State and 201 to Boise State.

For the most part, the Rams have been effective stopping runs between the tackles, other than some quarterback scrambles. Where they’ve been hurt is on the outside, allowing running backs to break containment, turn the corner and get upfield. The Rams allowed touchdown runs of 85 yards at Texas-San Antonio and 56 yards against Boise State.

Passing defense: Grade B-minus

CSU has been good but not great defending against the pass this season. The Rams are limiting opponents to 206.5 passing yards a game, which ranks near the middle (No. 58) among the nation’s 128 FBS programs. Their pass-efficiency rating of 126.5 ranks No. 65.

CSU’s pass defense was exceptional at Texas-San Antonio and Utah State, limiting those teams to 153 and 137 passing yards apiece. But the Rams were beaten repeatedly in the passing game last Saturday by Boise State, giving up 396 yards and two touchdowns.

The Rams have done a better job this year than in recent seasons putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks, with 11 sacks and 16 quarterback hurries. And they’ve broken up 15 passes, with four knocked down at the line of scrimmage by defensive linemen. But they’ve only made three interceptions while allowing 93 completions and eight touchdown passes.

Bobo said he’s been generally pleased with the play of his secondary against the pass but would like to see defenders play the ball better and make more interceptions.

Special teams: Grade B-minus

The Rams have been all over the board in the kicking game this season.

They’ve allowed one punt and one field goal to be blocked. Kicker Wyatt Bryan missed four of his first seven field-goal attempts but has made his last three to get to a respectable 7 of 11 for the season.

Punter Hayden Hunt has been among the nation’s best, averaging 46.0 yards a kick and pinning opponents inside their 20-yard line 11 times on 29 punts.

The Rams have been solid in kick coverage, with national rankings of No. 21 in net punting and No. 33 in kickoff coverage, and they’re No. 5 nationally in kickoff returns, averaging 29.77 per return.

Coaching: Grade C-minus

Bobo and his staff have had a difficult time teaching the new schemes to their players through spring practices, fall camp and the first half of the season. There still seems to be a lot of thinking going on both offensively and defensively when the ball is snapped, with players not always sure what they’re supposed to do on a given play. That’s delayed their reaction time on defense and hurt their execution on offense.

The biggest concern is the lack of discipline the Rams have shown while committing an average of 8.8 penalties a game, more than all but nine other teams at the FBS level, and turning the ball over 17 times in six games. CSU’s minus-11 turnover ratio is worse than all but one other school at the FBS level, Central Florida (minus-13).

Coaches have emphasized improvement in both areas during practices in recent weeks, with little progress to show on game days.

“When you play good teams, that’s what they do to you,” Bobo said Monday. “And when you’re not a very good team, you turn the ball over and make mistakes. We’re not a very good football team right now, but there’s a lot of football left.”

Overall: Grade C-minus

The Rams aren’t a bad football team, by any means. But as Bobo said, they’re not very good right now, either.

They’ve shown glimpses every week that give Bobo, his staff, his players and CSU fans reason to believe they can become a pretty good football team before the season is over.

They’ve got a difficult game this week against Air Force (3-2, 2-0), then a bye the following week to recover and regroup. None of the five teams they’ll face after the bye — San Diego State (3-3, 2-0), Wyoming (0-6, 0-2), UNLV (2-4, 1-1), New Mexico (3-3, 1-1) and Fresno State (1-5, 0-3) — has a winning overall record.

There’s still plenty of time to bring up their grade.

“I don’t feel very good right now, where we’re at and what we’ve been able to do,” Bobo said Monday. “… At the same time, there’s another opportunity this week, and I do believe in what we’re doing. I do believe in these guys, and it’s my job and these coaches’ job to get them to keep believing and continue to put forth an effort and play with the amount of pride that we expect.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

•Next up: Air Force at CSU, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Hughes Stadium

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