Kelly Lyell

kellylyell@coloradoan.com

It might as well have been another bye week for CSU’s football team Saturday.

Because the only competition the Rams faced against Fresno State was themselves.

At least, it seemed that way.

Junior quarterback Nick Stevens threw for 237 yards and two touchdowns in three quarters, sophomore Izzy Matthews ran for two TDs and the Colorado State University defense held an opponent scoreless for the first time in 19 years Saturday.

The Rams were truly dominant for the second straight game in a 37-0 win over Fresno State before 23,187 fans in the next-to-last game at 48-year-old Hughes Stadium, before moving to their new on-campus home next fall.

“It’s nice, because we finally put together four quarters,” Matthews said. “It’s just unfortunate it happened nine games into the season, because it’s something we could have been doing from two games into the season, first game of the season. Our record would look a lot different right now, but it’s definitely something to look forward to these last three games.”

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With its third win in the past four games, CSU moved within one victory of clinching a berth in a bowl game for the fourth year in a row. The Rams have three games remaining — at Air Force next Saturday night, Nov. 19 at home vs. New Mexico and Nov. 26 at San Diego State — to get the sixth win it needs for bowl eligibility.

And the way the Rams played Saturday, that seems a lot more likely than it did five weeks ago, following a 38-17 loss at home to Wyoming.

It was 23-0 at halftime and 37-0 by the middle of the third quarter, allowing second-year coach Mike Bobo to rest his starters for the remainder of the game.

So it was second- and third-string defenders who came through to preserve the shutout, the first by a CSU team since a 63-0 win in 1997 at Hawaii.

Fresno State (1-9, 0-6 MW) managed just two first downs and 68 yards of offense in the first half, and 25 of those yards came on the final play, with the Rams in a prevent defense to keep the Bulldogs from scoring.

CSU had a 35-0 halftime lead in its previous game two weeks earlier at UNLV, and won 42-23.

This time, the Rams (5-4, 3-2) didn’t let up.

They not only kept the Bulldogs from scoring, they scored touchdowns on their first two possessions of the second half to put the game away early.

"We're pretty dangerous," Gallup said. "We can take shots whenever we want to. The running backs are really clicking now; you saw Marvin Kinsey today, he was toting the ball. And the line, they stood in there, and they’re holding it down for Nick Stevens."

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Players said they were dialed in during bye-week practices, and it showed.

This Rams looked nothing like the wide-eyed, inexperienced bunch they were when they lost their season opener 44-7 to the University of Colorado.

Stevens, so ineffective in that game that he lost the starting job he held throughout a 7-6 season in 2015, completed 18 of 23 passes while directing an offense that gained 494 yards almost equally divided between the run (265 yards) and pass (237). Two of his incomplete passes were intentional to avoid sacks and a third was dropped by the receiver.

“He played awesome,” Bobo said. “He played extremely well.”

So did Michael Gallup. The junior-college transfer who has become the Rams’ go-to receiver had nine catches for 126 yards and one touchdown.

And Marvin Kinsey Jr., one of a handful of true freshmen playing increasingly significant roles for the Rams, led the ground game with 83 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries. Another true freshman, receiver Anthony Hawkins, caught his first touchdown pass of the season, a 14-yarder from Stevens midway through the third quarter to complete the scoring, after running for a 17-yard gain on an end-around to start the drive.

First-year players made their mark on defense, too, with true freshmen linemen Arjay Jean and Toby McBride recording 1 ½ quarterback sacks apiece. Safety Jamal Hicks recorded five tackles and cornerback Robert Awunganyi broke up a pass in the end zone with a little more than a minute remaining to preserve the shutout. Another true freshman, linebacker Max McDonald out of Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, was credited with a quarterback hurry on the play.

Fresno State’s starting quarterback, Chason Virgil, was knocked out of the game early with a shoulder injury, and backup Zach Line completed just 11 of 24 passes for 147 yards with one interception.

His best pass, for a 48-yard gain to Jamire Jordan early in the fourth quarter, was followed by an interception by CSU cornerback Jordon Vaden.

The Bulldogs managed just 77 yards on the ground.

“We’ve been building all season,” Matthews said. “If you watch our tape from Minnesota (a 31-24 loss Sept. 24) all the way to this game, from UTSA (a 23-14 win Sept. 10) all the way up to this game, we’re a different team every single week.

“And it’s not different like we don’t know what we’re doing. It’s different (because) we’re getting better. You’re not going to get the same thing the week after, because we’re a much better team than we were the week before.”

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

This CSU fan’s tailgate features lots of green and gold