What Colorado State coach Jim Mora said after losing to BYU

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Colorado State has suffered its first loss of the Jim Mora era.

Mora’s Rams fell 41-23 to No. 11 BYU Saturday night in Fort Collins, Colorado, with the Cougars leading by as many as 31 points and nearly doubling Colorado State’s total yardage.

“We said it all week, I mean, that’s a really good football team. They don’t have any holes,” Mora told reporters postgame, referring to BYU. “They’re a really good football team and we didn’t perform well.”

“I say ‘perform’ because I think when coaches say we didn’t play well, they’re putting it on the players, and it’s it’s on all of us. It’s a program performance, so we have to do a better job of putting our players in position to make plays.”

BYU scored on its second play of the game and again just three snaps later, going on to rack up 559 yards of offense and 332 rushing yards while averaging 9.6 yards per play.

Conversely, Colorado State managed 302 yards of offense and scored on just 3 of 11 drives. After averaging more than 220 rushing yards per game on the season prior to kickoff, the Rams ran for just 82 yards against the Cougars.

“When you’re playing against a team like that, with a quarterback like that, and of course (running back LJ Martin), and those big receivers and a big, physical offensive line, you know, you have to play darn near perfect, and you’ve got to stop big plays,” Mora said. “That’s been a real, real, real, big, big, big, big problem for us defensively.

“We gave up over 300 yards rushing, which is not OK, and we didn’t run the ball well.”

Earlier in the week, Mora referred to BYU as a “road map” for what Colorado State can become as a program, and he said seeing the Cougars up close on Saturday further solidified that opinion.

“I think everybody that’s involved with this program has to take a look at (BYU) and understand that that’s what we’re striving to be,” Mora said.

“But we’re not a Big 12 school, so we don’t have the resources that they have, but we have a group of people here that are just as committed as you’ve ever been around to doing all they can with what we have to be special … so that’s another clue that leads me to believe that we’re going to be a good football program, because we have the right people with the right mindset.”

Colorado State — which started the year with two straight wins for the first time since 2011 — is now 2-1, traveling to UTSA for one final nonconference matchup next weekend before opening Pac-12 play against Oregon State on Oct. 3.

“It’s up to us whether or not (losing to BYU) defines our season. You have to attack the next challenge with the same vigor,” Mora said. “You attack this challenge. It just didn’t work out for us tonight, you know?

“… The standard never changes, whether you’re behind or ahead. The standard can’t change and we won’t let it change. The feeling I get from our players in the locker room is they’re disappointed, but they’re not discouraged, because they did stick together, they did stay connected. They did continue to compete. They did continue to cheer each other on. There were no cracks.”

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