There they go again

Fresno State's third loss of year has Bulldogs searching for answers

By Jeff Christian
The Collegian

The Bulldogs attempted to regain control and get their season back on track before starting conference play, but those hopes were denied as Colorado State defeated Fresno State 35-23 and extended the Bulldogs losing streak to three games.

Fresno State lost another non-conference game and conference play has never looked so good as they attempt to rebound from their worst season opening record since 2002.

“Our non-conference schedule is basically up and now we’ve got to go in to Utah next week and we’ve just got to get a win and stop the bleeding,” linebacker Dwayne Andrews said.

Despite the loss, Fresno State remains 1-0 in the WAC and must now forget about their early season struggles and regroup and improve heading into conference play next week.

“I told the team, thank God it’s not conference right now. We need to really get ourselves together for this trip to Logan next week and I know that they are 0-5 but I promise you that if we don’t get better than what we’re doing, we’re going to have a very tough and difficult game,” Fresno State head coach Pat Hill said.

To salvage the rest of the season, the Bulldogs must regroup emotionally and improve in all phases of the game.

“Emotionally, I’m just down right now because we need to find something. I don’t know what it is, but when we look at the film we’re going to have to find out where we made our mistakes,” running back Dwayne Wright said.

Hill believes that the early season struggles can be attributed to a lack of execution rather than a lack of effort or desire.

“We worked real hard during the week, during camp and summer. We put a lot of stuff in the bank and we expect to get dividends, but we’re not getting the payout right now,” Andrews said.

The Bulldogs spent their bye week trying to strengthen some of those troublesome areas where they had struggled the past two games, but once again they gave up too many big plays and failed to capitalize on third down conversions and scoring opportunities.

“Our punt team has got to improve and we got another kick blocked tonight which has not really been something that has happened to us a lot, so I don’t really know how to put my finger on it. We work on those things an awful lot but were not getting the ball up off the tee fast enough obviously,” Hill said.

The crowd and the special teams unit received a bolt of energy with the return of speedster Clifton Smith who had been sidelined with a knee injury since the third game of the 2005 season. Smith possesses that big play capability and despite not being in game shape, showed some of that talent during the first punt return of the night. He dodged tackles and returned the ball 28-yards to give the offense great field possession and help setup the opening touchdown.

“I’m glad to have him back and each day he is going to get stronger and stronger and Clifton can help us in more phases than just punt returns,” Hill said.

The offense was unable to get going and once again when the running game was shutdown, the passing game struggled to click.

The Rams stacked players at the line of scrimmage all night and challenged the Bulldogs receivers to beat their man-to-man coverage. The Colorado State rush defense, ranked 12th nationally going into Saturday’s game, held Dwayne Wright under 100 yards on the ground for the first time this season.

The lack of consistency in the running game led to long third down situations and put a lot of pressure on the Bulldogs passing game and quarterback Tom Brandstater.

“From a play calling standpoint we put Tommy in quite a bind. We put a lot on him tonight. It’s all out blitz or all out coverage and I think that it was a great experience that he had to go through tonight,” Hill said.

Brandstater was hurried all night by a Rams blitz that threw off the timing in the passing game and led to three interceptions.

“The young quarterback situation is over with. Tommy played three games and he should be used to it, but as a quarterback you can’t do everything. I’ve got faith in Tommy and he’s going to be my man until I graduate,” Wright said.

The Bulldogs need to improve in all phases of the game and most importantly need to win the battle of big plays as they enter the bulk of conference play next week on the road against Utah State.

“I think we’ve got good football players, but we’re not a good football team right now. We’re just not making enough big plays,” Hill said. “We’re close, but close doesn’t get it.”

Comment on this story in the Sports forum >>