Maybe best game of the first day of college football’s bowl season: the New Mexico Bowl between Marshall and Colorado State. The Thundering Herd won, 31-28.
Marshall’s New Mexico Bowl win over Colorado State was a blast
The Rams almost pulled off a great comeback.
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
What turned out to be the decisive play: this fourth-down stop by Marshall with 1:46 to play, where Colorado State quarterback Nick Stevens caught his own batted pass, tried to run for a first down and got wrapped up for a loss of 1 yard.
Colorado State needed a furious comeback to even make a game of it. Marshall had a 31-14 lead with 19 minutes left, and it would’ve been more if the Thundering Herd hadn’t stalled and kicked a field goal at the CSU 4-yard line.
But the Rams kept churning. They scored two touchdowns about six minutes apart in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to 31-28. After that score, CSU forced a Marshall punt and took the ball back at its own 16 with 3:18 to play.
Marshall could’ve sealed the game when the Herd forced and recovered a fumble in the shadow of Colorado State’s goalposts. But a defensive holding call on the Herd nullified that turnover, and the Rams kept the ball.
CSU’s star receiver, Biletnikoff Award finalist Michael Gallup, made an outrageous catch on a third-and-10 that kept the drive going in another difficult spot:
Gallup almost caught a 61-yard go-ahead touchdown pass on CSU’s next set of downs, but Stevens’ deep ball fell just out of Gallup’s reach.
The next play after that was Marshall’s fourth-down stop, which didn’t formally clinch the result but did end the Rams’ last best chance. The Herd converted on a third-and-5 on their ensuing possession to end the game with Colorado State out of timeouts.
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