Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Football Beat Reporter
After an hour-long meeting, you walk over to the water cooler for a little chit-chat with coworkers. Immediately, you find yourself waterboarded with brutal small talk.
I present to you: Water Cooler Talk. A column that supplies you with three (hopefully interesting) topics about SJSU’s (6-2, 4-1) 28-16 win over Colorado State (2-7, 2-3) to steer your dull chit chat into a more ‘survivable’ direction.
Line the pins up, SJSU football is going bowling
When SJSU football clinched a bowl game and won the Mountain West title in 2020, it felt real, but not entirely real.
Players couldn’t see head coach Brent Brennan’s smile, as it was hiding behind his mask and if then-quarterback Nick Starkel looked up in the stands after a touchdown, empty steel bleachers were the only things looking back at him.
Any raucous they heard after a drive-ending sack or go-ahead touchdown was artificial crowd noise.
Real, but not entirely real …
It was a tale of the times. Some peculiar and easily forgettable times.
Thankfully COVID-19 lockdown days are in the rearview and the Spartans have the keys to drive themselves to another bowl game and potentially a Mountain West title.
Behind the wheel is Hawaii transfer quarterback Chevan Cordeiro and sitting shotgun next to him is Nevada transfer wide receiver Elijah Cooks.
Emphasis on transfer.
They’ve only played eight games together, but are the best QB and WR duo in the Mountain West.
Cooks has the second-most receiving yards (701) and touchdowns (four) in the Mountain West.
His efforts have helped Cordeiro throw for 786 more yards than any other QB in the Mountain West (2,244 total) and most touchdowns (11).
In just eight games, they’ve built a connection that looks like it was developed on the playground.
The Big Bad Wolves of Seventh St.
San Jose State’s pass rush aka ‘The Big Bad Wolves of Seventh St.’ blew down Colorado State’s offensive line like the first two little pigs’ houses. They racked up nine sacks, linebacker Alii Matau accounting for a third of them, and 14 tackles for loss.
There’s an argument made that they could have 10. That is if you count forcing a friendly fire sack.
The Rams’ Sam Norris tried to take out linebacker Matthew Tago on a cut-back block, but stonewalled his own quarterback Clay Millen instead.
Self-inflicted wounds was an ongoing theme for Colorado State on Saturday night.
They were penalized 13 times for 101 yards, but worst of all they came away with three points on four trips to the red zone.
I’ll lay them out for you in a Golden Corral-buffet style, and let you pick which was the most self inflicting.
Dish #1
With five seconds left in the first half, up 10-7, the Rams made it to the SJSU 8-yard line, but a false start forced a 10 second clock runoff, prematurely ending the half. The Rams could’ve gone up two possessions to end the half.
Dish #2
Down 21-10 in the fourth quarter, the Rams marched 73 yards down to the SJSU 1-yard line.
Four opportunities to gain one yard to make it a one possession game.
Somehow, by the powers that be, the Spartans stopped them on four-straight plays.
Props to any Rams fan who didn’t rocket a remote through their TV.
Dish #3
At the SJSU 18-yard line down 14-10 at the beginning of the third quarter, Millen was looking for Justice McCoy in the end zone but Nehemiah Shelton leapt in front for a touchdown-saving interception.
About the self-inflicted wounds … not sure if CSU wanted two receivers in a phone booth.
Still room to improve
Duck tailing off CSU’s redzone woes, SJSU football should be thankful the Rams couldn’t close the deal.
The Spartans were outgained 469-355 with a good chunk coming from four plays of at least 25 yards on either 3rd or 4th down SJSU allowed.
Remember when Norris cut Millen’s lights out? On the next play, Rams true freshman Jackson Stratton completed a 40 yard touchdown to Tory Horton on 4th and 23.
The offense was far from perfect, too, despite scoring 28 points.
SJSU ran for 81 yards, which isn’t great, but was vastly better than the 28.5 averaged in the previous two outings. Which could be seen as a positive.
The Spartans are atop the Mountain West and winning games, even though there’s some dents in the armor.
Speaking of not completely hitting the mark, don’t you have a job to get back to?