3 takeaways: Colorado State football holds on for thrilling win at Middle Tennessee

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Oh my, do the football gods have a cruel sense of humor.

A week ago, the Colorado State football team had an 8-point lead in the final minutes trying to hold off rival Colorado. The Rams couldn't and lost in double-overtime.

Surely, that scenario couldn't happen again? It sure did.

This time CSU held on, beating Middle Tennessee 31-23 at Floyd Stadium.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Colorado State finishes this time

"Finish" was the buzzword around the program this week. The Rams knew they had a golden chance last week to stun Colorado in Boulder, with a double-digit fourth-quarter lead.

It evaporated in a heartbreaking double-overtime loss. The team vowed to use it as a positive lesson moving forward.

The football gods have a funny way of making things work.

CSU (1-2) entered the fourth quarter of this one tied, with 15 minutes to pull off a big road win. The Rams then snagged a two-touchdown lead and had to find a way to hold on.

Middle Tennessee (1-3) scored with 6:34 left to make it a one-score game. The Rams then ran about 4 minutes off the clock, but punted the ball away.

It was eerily similar to last week giving the ball back to CU at its own 2 with an eight-point lead and just over 2 minutes left. This time, MTSU had the ball at its own 14 with 2:39 to go and no timeouts.

Middle Tennessee drove to CSU's 32 and had a deep ball knocked down in the end zone and then CSU had a sack on the final play to secure the win.

"Man, it's going crazy in there (the locker room)," CSU star Mo Kamara said.

A big CSU away crowd sang the fight song in the corner near CSU's locker room after the game and then cheered each player as they exited to the bus. A week filled with exhausting off-field issues ended with a happy win.

The team had to contend with death threats aimed at a player, plus sickness that ripped through the roster leaving the Rams limited in practice. It ended with a win.

"It was a long week, I'll just say that," CSU coach Jay Norvell said. "I'm just proud of the way our kids kept coming. It's a challenging couple weeks we've had...We knew it was going to be a huge challenge."

Second-half turnaround after lethargic first

The game actually started well enough for the Rams. CSU had 124 yards and 10 points on its first two drives.

Then the offense went stagnant, notching only 15 more offensive yards the rest of the half. Meanwhile, the defense struggled.

The Rams continually allowed key plays, and a sequence of weird events had the Rams down 17-10 at half.

CSU was up 10-7 when a pass into the flat was read by Ayden Hector, who looked primed to grab it and race for a pick six as he did at Nevada a year ago. Instead, the ball went off his hands and to an MTSU receiver for a first-down. That led to a game-tying field goal.

The next play, CSU went deep and Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi hit Caleb Goodie wide open running deep. It would have been a big play, if not a score. But Goodie stumbled and as he fell, the ball flipped up and a defender intercepted it.

Then, in the final seconds of the half, Ron Hardge misread an MTSU deep ball, allowing the Blue Raiders to complete a pass inside the 5 and score a go-ahead touchdown with 16 seconds left.

All told, it was a flat and poorly executed half, but CSU had to feel fortunate it was just a one-score game.

It took awhile in the second half for the offense to spark.

A 47-yard catch from Justus Ross-Simmons on a third-down screen play sparked a scoring drive that ended in a 7-yard TD pass to Tory Horton to tie the game at 17 in the middle of the third.

CSU’s defense forced a turnover on downs inside its own 25 not long after. That set CSU up for a long TD drive, going 76 yards and finishing with another TD pass from Fowler-Nicolosi to Horton deep in the corner of the end zone.

Just 15 seconds later, the Rams had a two-touchdown lead when MTSU tried a screen and reverse. Nuer Gatkuoth blew up the play, forcing a fumble and Mohamed Kamara (who missed the first half due to a targeting suspension) picked it up for an easy touchdown.

The two touchdowns in 15 seconds gave CSU a 31-17 lead.

Fowler-Nicolosi finished the game 29-42 with 306 yards, two touchdowns and a pick. Horton had 10 catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns. Dallin Holker had 11 catches for 112 yards and a touchdown on a trick-play fake field goal pass from Giles Pooler.

Stage set to turn the season

This win won’t grab the national headlines the one over CU could have, but it is a very important one, especially given the loss in Boulder.

"We knew we had to come here and take the win. We knew that," Kamara said. "They were not going to give it to us...We had to come take this win."

The Rams now have every chance to leave nonconference play at 2-2 with an potentially overmatched FCS foe in Utah Tech coming to Fort Collins next week.

Then CSU opens Mountain West play at a struggling Utah State.

The Rams need to take care of business next week on Ag Day, but this gives a chance at a strong season.

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

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado State football holds on for thrilling win at Middle Tennessee