Was it all a dream?

Everything Toledo fans thought they saw, heard, and felt at Notre Dame last week?

The go-ahead touchdown in the final two minutes? The roars that echoed through an otherwise silent stadium? The sense that anything was possible for these Rockets?

Was it all a mirage?

Fools ... midnight blue and gold?

Afraid so.

If it’s possible to get fat off of a loss, the Rockets proved it in their no-show of a 22-6 loss to Colorado State at the Glass Bowl, the encore to their inspired defeat at Notre Dame registering as equal parts stunning and humiliating.

Here was supposed to be a snoozer against a down-on-its-luck team that gave up 42 points to FCS South Dakota State and had its local newspaper predict: “CSU Rams have 0-12 written all over them.”

And, as expected, it was exactly the walkover the two-touchdown spread suggested.

Except it was Toledo with the footprints on its back, bullied in its own house.

What went wrong? Buddy, what didn’t?

With the exception of its defense — which, just UT’s luck, has become a force now that the Rockets no longer have a high-flying offense — the hosts graciously handed the Rams the blueprint for an upset.

A five-alarm special teams failure (Colorado State’s go-ahead punt return for a touchdown). Another parade of ill-timed flags (11 penalties for 89 yards). An offense that hadn’t scored so few points at home since 2010.

Again, where to begin?

All you could do was point the finger exactly where coach Jason Candle did.

“I coach the offense. I'm the head football coach. This is nobody’s fault but mine,” Candle said. “It's gotta get fixed. We know how to play winning offense here. We know how to play great, efficient offense here. We know how to play with great tempo, with great pace, with great discipline, with great attention to detail. We know how to do that ... This was an unrecognizable Toledo offense. And this is not the players, this is me.”

Well said, but then we’ve heard it before.

Not about the offense. We’ve never seen this before. I mean, we’ve heard him take the fall for his share of out-of-the-blue clunkers.

I wanted to believe in these talented and veteran Rockets — I voted ‘em 24th on my latest AP ballot — and, in many ways, I still do believe in them and Candle.

But, man, how do you keep explaining these kinds of games? These kinds of incongruous results?

How is it that the Rockets are so often good enough to beat anyone and undisciplined enough to lose to anyone?

How is that they’re one of the most penalized teams in the country year after year — 99th, 115th, 120th, 55th, 120th, and now 129th the past six seasons — and are 18-17 in their last 35 games despite piling up the top recruiting classes in the MAC?

How is it that they beat BYU in 2019, then fell off the face of the planet?

How is that they took No. 8 Notre Dame to the wire last week, then got strangled with it this week?

I especially wondered Saturday, given that Candle said: “We tried to guard against [a letdown] all week long. I knew this was going to be a very physical football game. If anyone paid to attention to our game [against CSU] in ’19, they knew it was physical slugfest. I knew exactly what was coming today.”

I might dispute the characterization of Toledo’s 41-35 win at Colorado State two years ago — a game in which the teams combined for more than 1,200 yards did not suggest were going up against the immovable object here — but you get the idea.

Toledo was ready.

Except it wasn’t.

Somewhere there’s a disconnect, as was clear from the start Saturday, when Toledo was called for a false start that imperfectly set the tone for the day. (Hell, even the cannon had a false start, with UT setting it off after an apparent Rockets touchdown — a 25-yard pass from Carter Bradley to Isaiah Winstead — in the second quarter. Naturally, it was called back on account of holding.)

All day, the Rockets were whistled while they ... got worked, especially up front, where the line gave Toledo no room to run (21 yards on 28 attempts) and little time to throw (Bradley and Dequan Finn were sacked six times).

And all day, the 21,365 fans at the Glass Bowl were left to wonder: Was last week but a dream?

First Published September 19, 2021, 3:13 a.m.