UNLV football scores 35 unanswered in blowout win over Colorado State | Takeaways

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The season is marching forward to a quiet conclusion.

It was an almost fully empty Canvas Stadium by the end of the night as the Colorado State football team lost 42-10 to UNLV on Nov. 8.

This was the latest chapter in an awkward lame duck situation where a coaching change has been made and the final month is mostly just an order of business until CSU names the next coach.

Here are takeaways from the game.

Colorado State is unable to sustain quality

The start of the game was basically ideal for the Rams (2-7, 1-4 Mountain West).

CSU had the ball first and had a quality 13-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a play-action touchdown pass from Jackson Brousseau to Rocky Beers to open the game.

The Rams then forced a UNLV (7-2, 3-2 MW) punt on the first drive for the Rebels. The second UNLV drive ended with CSU’s Jace Bellah picking a ball off in the end zone.

That’s just about as good a start as both sides could hope against UNLV’s high-powered offense.

But as has been seen all season, even when the Rams are good in spurts, they’re not in long stretches.

After a pretty strong start, the offense began to stall. And as expected, UNLV’s offense started moving the ball. Jai’Den “Jet” Thomas had a 57-yard TD run for UNLV and 121 yards on four carries in the first half.

Quarterback Anthony Colandrea started cooking, making plays with his legs and his feet.

UNLV scored 21 second-quarter points to take a 21-10 lead to half.

More of the same in the second half as CSU picked up just one first down in the third quarter and UNLV racked up a total of 35 unanswered points to go up 42-10 and then the teams just played out the rest of the clock.

CSU’s offensive issues persist

One consistent through the season: CSU struggling on offense.

It doesn’t matter what changes have been made. Jay Norvell gave play-calling duties to Matt Mumme for a few weeks. Tyson Summers then took over as interim head coach and passed those duties to Grant Chesnut for the last two games.

Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi started and QB then gave way to Jackson Brousseau, who has been relieved by Darius Curry each of the last two games.

None of it makes much difference in the output. CSU has good drives here and there but can’t sustain.

The receivers do not get open enough nor do they make tough catches. The quarterbacks have held the ball too long too often, made poor throws and reads. The running backs are talented but CSU struggles to be a consistently good run team.

CSU had two first downs in the entire second half. And this is a UNLV defense that entered the week 124th in scoring defense and 133rd in total defense.

Seeing UNLV's offense was a stark contrast. The UNLV offense is electric with lots of playmakers and a fun system.

Yes, Dan Mullen is getting paid a bucket of cash ($3.5 million), but his roster rebuild shows how quickly a program can be infused with talent. CSU fans have to hope a surge of playmakers will be coming ahead of the 2026 season.

All focus now on what’s next

Few realistically saw any bowl hope, but CSU technically was alive for bowl eligibility entering this game.

That’s now over, so any mirage of postseason talk is gone.

There are three games left in the regular season and CSU is now a few weeks into the coaching search.

A new coach likely won’t be named until around the end of the regular season (early December is a likely bet), but there’s just very little to glean anymore.

Most if not all of this staff will be elsewhere next season. Same is true for the roster, where there’s no way to even project young players into the future without knowing who the next coach is.

This is a very odd situation and going to be a lackluster finish to the season as fans wait on the hire.

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

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: UNLV football dominates Colorado State | Takeaways

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