Rams take on Falcons

The Falcons perch atop the Mountain West Conference with a 3-0

conference record. The Rams sit two spots below them with a 1-1

record. Tonight’s game could decide who goes to the Liberty Bowl in

January.

The Air Force Falcons come to Fort Collins with one of the most

impressive rushing attacks in the country. Averaging more than 295

yards per game, the Falcons’ option provided 431 yards of offense

when they played against Wyoming. The Falcons’ run attack is

something the Rams’ defense is concentrating on stopping.

“The biggest thing when playing against the option is

discipline,” said senior linebacker Drew Wood. “When they run a

triple option, there’s three people to watch and we need to make

sure we cover the player that we’re assigned to.”

The Falcons offense is very different from any other that CSU

has faced to this date and CSU head coach Sonny Lubick knows that

it might require a different defense to keep it under control.

“We have to shift our gears a little bit on the defensive side

to see if we can slow them down,” Lubick said in a weekly press

conference. “We might bring in another linebacker. That’s one

possibility – of course we will use our base defense also.”

Even if the Rams’ defense falters a little against the Falcons’

running game, the offense is coming off a field day at BYU and has

the ability to bring the same game to the table. The game will show

what happens when the proverbial unstoppable force (the Rams’

offense) meets the immovable object (the Falcons’ defense).

“I’m not really concerned that they’re the top conference

defense,” said CSU senior quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt. “We’re

riding on an emotional high right now but we’ve still got our heads

screwed on tight.”

Van Pelt noted Air Force’s tendency to not get beat on the deep

ball and because of that the responsibility falls to the receivers

to make plays.

“We’ve got to get the ball in the receivers’ hands and get them

to make a big play,” Van Pelt said. “We don’t think they can stop

us when we’re on our game.”

This is CSU’s first Thursday night game at home and it will be

shown on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. The Rams will play in front of a packed

house with both student tickets and reserve tickets sold out by

Tuesday afternoon.

“Our crowd is always good to have behind us,” Wood said. “We win

this game and we’re in pretty good shape but if we don’t win then

we don’t have a shot at the conference. This game is definitely a

must win.”

A win will help the Rams try to retain the MWC title but, as

Wood noted, they still need Utah to lose a couple.