Colorado State football stifled in blowout by No. 4 Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — The first 24 minutes were all right.

No, the Colorado State football team wasn’t imposing its will on No. 4 Texas, but the Rams were hanging in.

Texas was up just 10 points and CSU was right in the game.

Then the Rams had a meltdown. Texas scored 21 points in the final 5:50 of the second half and 14 in the final 1:50 alone. CSU never fought back in the second half, either. The most notable thing from the final 30 minutes was Arch Manning’s loud reception when he entered the game and promptly threw his first touchdown pass as a Longhorn.

It turned a close game into a demolition in a flash on the way to an easy Texas 52-0 blowout win.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Colorado State’s failure in all three areas

None of CSU’s offense, defense or special teams can lay claim to playing up to Texas’ level.

The defense was at least solid early. They were strong early in a bend-but-don’t-break fashion. They forced a Quinn Ewers interception (he threw only six last year) while the Rams were down just seven and Texas was in CSU territory.

The defense held to a field goal when a CSU turnover on downs gave Texas the ball at CSU’s 31.

Those were the good points. But outside the interception, which came when Chase Wilson snagged a ball tipped by James Mitchell, the quarterback was dicing up CSU.

Texas receivers found lots of acreage to get open and the Rams weren’t clean tacklers. Ewers finished 20-27 for 260 yards and three touchdowns. He was pulled middle of the third quarter for Arch Manning, who promptly came in and threw his first college touchdown pass. Manning also scored on a QB sneak. Texas finished with well over 500 yards of offense.

The special teams had a punt failure when Paddy Turner was tackled trying to run for a first on a punt (he had an option to run but delayed on his decision then was stifled). They also gave up a 35-yard punt return, which helped lead to a Texas touchdown in the final seconds of the half.

And the offense? Well, it didn’t look anything like the explosive unit it promised to be. Play-calling was conservative in the first half and when he did throw, Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi was off-balance. He threw an interception on a first-half deep ball, which helped Texas turn a tightish (17-0) game into a blowout (31-0 at half).

CSU never threatened to score in a dismal offensive effort.

Offensive malaise disappointing

Everyone knows the caveats. This is Texas. It’s a likely College Football Playoff team.

But, still. This is a CSU offense that has big goals (they’ve internally talked about being a 35 point-per-game unit) and it showed none of that.

Starting the game with tight, conservative play-calling made sense. Try and run the ball a bit, complete a few short passes and try and shorten the game while staying in it. That’s fine for a bit. But then it never opened up with any success.

The one aggressive attacking attempt (while the game was still competitive) was when Fowler-Nicolosi threw a no-chance deep ball that led to an interception.

CSU even had a fourth-and-1 just inside its own territory on the first drive of the second half and called a timeout only to then punt. The offense and how the weapons were used showed few hints at a dominant unit.

Maybe it was all about protection in this game, but it was discouraging to see so little success.

Fowler-Nicolosi was a meager 10-18 for 59 yards. This was a major offensive letdown.

The lone bright spot was Justin Marshall. The redshirt freshman running back again looked explosive in finding holes, and he ran for 106 yards on 25 carries.

Real season starts now

Games like this are for the balance sheet, not the football team. That’s the reality.

CSU (and few, if any, Group of 5 teams) are in a position to truly have a chance to go to Austin and beat a top-five Texas team.

This is a paycheck game. CSU made $1.8 million for it in a deal signed way back when Mike Bobo was still coaching the Rams.

It was a letdown in the overall performance, but the grade of this season will be determined on the final 11 games and not the first one.

CSU returns home to host Northern Colorado on Ag Day at 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7.

The Rams need to cleanse the Texas game with not only a win, but a convincing one against the Bears. After that is Colorado.

The real evaluation of the status of this program begins now.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on X and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.