The Colorado St. Rams were stunned on Saturday when they fell to the San Jose St. Spartans, 38-31. The Rams had a good offensive performance by quarterback Pete Thomas, who had a career day throwing for 387 yards and two touchdowns but he also had two interceptions. The running game was atrocious, as the team they had 71 total yards and were led by Thomas who had 20 on the ground. The Spartan rush defense was one of the worst in the country so the expectation of the Rams running game was to be a positive one, but the poor rushing has been a theme all year.
The Spartan offense was more balanced with quarterback Matt Faulkner throwing for 313 yards and two scores. Their running game was led by Brandon Rutley who averaged 5.7 yards per carry en route to 137 on the day. The Rams actually out gained the Spartans on the day by eight yards, but it was the early 10-0 lead the Spartans had and a fumble by the Rams that was returned for a touchdown -- with multiple laterals -- that were the difference-makers in the game.
The Rams basically had to play catchup from that early deficit and the defense could never put together consecutive stops to give the offense a chance to win this game. This was a game that the Rams were counting as a win toward getting back to a bowl game, and now the Rams need to win three of their last seven games. The meat of their schedule is still down the stretch, as they play Boise State next week and still have games against San Diego State, TCU and Air Force.