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Sunday, October 25, 1998
Colorado State defeats TCU
By Whit Canning
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- At the end of a beautifully sunny afternoon,
Dennis Franchione strode to midfield and warmly clasped the hand
of Colorado State quarterback Ryan Eslinger.
It is possible that he simply wished to make sure that Eslinger's
strong right arm would do no further damage to TCU.
"Well, I've had my tail whipped by these guys before,"
said the TCU coach, after watching the Rams roll to a 42-21 Western
Athletic Conference victory over the Horned Frogs (4-3, 2-2).
"I've seen them do this before -- they're on one of their
late-season rolls where they're just about unbeatable."
The Rams (7-2, 4-1 Western Athletic Conference) were certainly
that on Saturday, and the main culprit was Eslinger -- a fifth-year
senior who waited four years to become the starter after the graduation
of Moses Moreno.
"He's better than Moreno," said Franchione, after
watching Eslinger (25-of-36, no interceptions) carve TCU's secondary
up with 370 yards and two touchdown passes, adding a 2-yard scoring
run of his own.
It was a day where not much worked for the Frogs, who finally
looked more like rebuilders than contenders.
"I think they came in here determined to stop us on the
ground," said Colorado State tailback Damon Washington, "because
every time they hit me in the first half, those defensive linemen
were telling me, 'You're not gonna run today.'
"I couldn't say much, because at the time it was true.
But Ryan took care of it."
The Frogs contained the Rams pretty well on the ground, but
Eslinger was another matter.
"I just had receivers open all day," he said. "Our
line kept them off of me and they never sacked me. It's easy to
complete passes when that happens."
The day wasn't much better offensively for the Frogs -- who
replaced starting quarterback Patrick Batteaux for the first time
this season. Kevin Colon and finally Jeff Dover ran the TCU attack
for the game's final 50 minutes.
Eslinger moved the Rams 80 yards in two minutes midway through
the first quarter, scoring on a keeper with 7:21 remaining for
a 6-0 lead.
Shortly thereafter, Colon came into the game and moved TCU
crisply to the CSU 21 with tosses to Michael Crawford and Mike
Scarborough. But when he threw for Jason Illian at the goal line,
CSU's Jason Craft intercepted and returned it to the 10.
From there, the Rams rolled 90 yards, with Eslinger throwing
15 yards to Dallas Davis for the score. The only consolation for
the Frogs was that they blocked both extra-point kicks.
But Eslinger soon had the Rams back -- this time on a 60-yard
drive capped by Washington's 5-yard run 25 seconds before intermission.
Curtis Fuller provided TCU with one bright moment in the third
quarter, picking up a CSU fumble and racing 65 yards to cut it
to 19-7. But the defense had to play 10 minutes, 56 seconds in
the third quarter, and it soon began to tell.
Thereafter, the Rams recovered two fumbles deep in TCU territory,
scored twice more on a 23-yard Eslinger pass and an 8-yard run
by Duan Ruff, and added three Derek Franz field goals.
Dover managed to drive the Frogs to a pair of fourth-quarter
touchdowns, scoring one on a 4-yard run and then -- with 11 seconds
remaining -- hitting Cedric James for 9 yards on TCU's first TD
pass of the season.
"We just got whipped by a very good team," said Franchione,
whose New Mexico team lost to CSU last year in the WAC title game
when Moreno was the quarterback.
"They're on a roll now, and I think this team is better
than the one they had last year. And I think that today, they
played their best game of the year so far."
X X X
(c) 1998, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Visit the Star-Telegram on the World Wide Web: www.star-telegram.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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