Gildan New Mexico Bowl: Colorado State vs Washington State
By Chuck Edel
Chuckedel.com
The first bowl game of the bowl season features a pair of programs that are in the middle of rebuilding their programs. Colorado State is in their first post season game since 2008, when they won the New Mexico Bowl and finished 7-6 on the season. They'll beat that record by a game of they're able to beat Mike Leach's Washington State team. The Cougars' program has even had a longer bowl drought, stretching back to 2003. Leach has already guided the Cougars to 9 wins in his first two seasons, and with one more will have won more games than Paul Wulff did during his whole tenure.
The Rams offense was fairly serviceable this season. QB Garrett Grayson was able to convert 62.1% of his passes for 7.8 yards per attempt with 21 touchdowns. There was a big difference though between the first half signal calling and the second half. Grayson completed only 55.8% of his passes in the second half, with just five touchdowns to four interceptions. His yards per attempt dropped form a stellar 8.4 to just 6.9. This is in the exact opposite for the running game, where Kapri Bibbs saw his yards per carry grow to over seven yards per attempt. The run game overall was extremely effective at converting first downs, with Bibbs and Chris Nwoke combing to convert 23 of their 31 third and short carries.
The Cougars offense has been hampered all season by turnovers. They posted a -5 turnover margin for the season, a lot being attributed to Connor Halliday's 21 picks. Halliday though has not been awful, especially in the first half of games where he has a 17:9 touchdown to interception ratio. He just has not been able to get the ball down the field enough though, just 11% of his pass attempts gaining more than 15 yards. His best receiving threat has been Dom Williams, who is averaging 16.5 yards per catch with three touchdowns the last three weeks. Over one third of his catches have been big plays, and has 10 of his 12 third down receptions getting converted.
Neither defense has been overwhelmingly dominant, with Colorado State allowing 29 points per game and Washington State 31. The Rams do have an outstanding defender in Shaqil Barrett, a 250 pound linebacker that has deliver 20.5 tackles for loss amongst his 74 stops. He is an intense pass rusher, tallying 12 sacks and five QB hurries. The Cougars on the other hand have a battle tested secondary that allowed just 12 yards per catch. CB Damante Horton was tied for the team lead with five interceptions and three more passes defended. Deone Bucanon picked off five more form his safety position.
WSU is a three and a half point favorite early on, and we should expect that number to stay just about there. The teams are closely ranked in just about every category, and while CSU only played three games against teams with a winning record, they were able to score 16 touchdowns in November and only went three and out on 19% of their drives this season.
By Chuck Edel
Chuckedel.com
The first bowl game of the bowl season features a pair of programs that are in the middle of rebuilding their programs. Colorado State is in their first post season game since 2008, when they won the New Mexico Bowl and finished 7-6 on the season. They'll beat that record by a game of they're able to beat Mike Leach's Washington State team. The Cougars' program has even had a longer bowl drought, stretching back to 2003. Leach has already guided the Cougars to 9 wins in his first two seasons, and with one more will have won more games than Paul Wulff did during his whole tenure.
The Rams offense was fairly serviceable this season. QB Garrett Grayson was able to convert 62.1% of his passes for 7.8 yards per attempt with 21 touchdowns. There was a big difference though between the first half signal calling and the second half. Grayson completed only 55.8% of his passes in the second half, with just five touchdowns to four interceptions. His yards per attempt dropped form a stellar 8.4 to just 6.9. This is in the exact opposite for the running game, where Kapri Bibbs saw his yards per carry grow to over seven yards per attempt. The run game overall was extremely effective at converting first downs, with Bibbs and Chris Nwoke combing to convert 23 of their 31 third and short carries.
The Cougars offense has been hampered all season by turnovers. They posted a -5 turnover margin for the season, a lot being attributed to Connor Halliday's 21 picks. Halliday though has not been awful, especially in the first half of games where he has a 17:9 touchdown to interception ratio. He just has not been able to get the ball down the field enough though, just 11% of his pass attempts gaining more than 15 yards. His best receiving threat has been Dom Williams, who is averaging 16.5 yards per catch with three touchdowns the last three weeks. Over one third of his catches have been big plays, and has 10 of his 12 third down receptions getting converted.
Neither defense has been overwhelmingly dominant, with Colorado State allowing 29 points per game and Washington State 31. The Rams do have an outstanding defender in Shaqil Barrett, a 250 pound linebacker that has deliver 20.5 tackles for loss amongst his 74 stops. He is an intense pass rusher, tallying 12 sacks and five QB hurries. The Cougars on the other hand have a battle tested secondary that allowed just 12 yards per catch. CB Damante Horton was tied for the team lead with five interceptions and three more passes defended. Deone Bucanon picked off five more form his safety position.
WSU is a three and a half point favorite early on, and we should expect that number to stay just about there. The teams are closely ranked in just about every category, and while CSU only played three games against teams with a winning record, they were able to score 16 touchdowns in November and only went three and out on 19% of their drives this season.
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