It wasn’t a secret that San Diego State’s matchup against Colorado State at Canvas Stadium featured two of the defenses ranked in the bottom six in all of FBS football in yards allowed and in the bottom eleven for points allowed.
So when the Aztecs (3-5, 2-2 Pac-12) dropped a 56-49 decision on Saturday evening to the Rams (3-4, 1-2) that saw the teams combine for 1,149 yards of total offense, it was hard not to feel like Michael Bluth looking in the fridge on the television show “Arrested Development.”
Only instead of taking out and looking in a bag labeled “DEAD DOVE Do not eat!” the note may as well have read “ROUGH DEFENSE Offense is gonna eat!”
Well, I don’t know what I expected.
Despite chalking up 40-plus points for the 7th time under head coach Sean Lewis and putting together its most points against an FBS opponent since hanging 52 in a win at San José State in 2017, the Scarlet and Black dropped the highest combined scoring game in program history.
“Disappointing coming up short there, obviously some bright spots, but hard to be excited about that when the number one goal is to win,” Lewis said.
“Guys fought, we need to fight harder. Things that we need to improve upon (are) some basic fundamentals in all three phases that we can be better at.”
Here are three takeaways from SDSU’s second road loss in Pac-12 play and their 4th 100-plus points combined game ever:
There is no “D” in “Fort Collins”
After dropping their previous three games and being held under 30 points in the preceding two, the Rams clearly welcomed the return of second-year quarterback Hauss Hejne, an Oklahoma State transfer who had posted a 178.1 QB rating in his first three starts of the season before going down with an injury.
Be it him going 24-of-31 for 333 yards through the air with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception, or carrying 11 times for 85 yards and 2 TDs, the Aztecs struggled to contain him and the weapons around him all night.
“(Hajne) does it all well, he’s a true dual-threat, they do a good job within the run game of scheming some things for him so he’s protected and he does a really nice job off-script,” Lewis said. “We need to do a better job with our rush lane integrity that, if I’m the contain player, it’s my job to set it so we can control where the ball’s going to be…so that hats can rally to it.”
The running plays in particular were crushing, as the Rams rolled up 77 of their 216 yards on the ground in the fourth quarter, with Hajne accounting for 58 of them. Beyond the scoring scampers of 4 and 30 yards, the back-breaker came on a zone-read keeper to pick up 7 yards and convert a decisive final third down with 1:33 remaining.
Inability to get pressure on the quarterback, as well as not recording a tackle for loss in the entire game was magnified by far too many missed tackles. CSU’s only negative plays were kneel downs at the end of each half, with only one non-incompletion play being held for no gain and 18 of the 64 non-incompletion plays being held for three or less.
It was a big part of why the Rams finished 9-of-12 on third down and only punted once.
In a game that saw 15 combined scoring drives, there were more drives that ended in turnovers (four) than in punts (three).
Weirder still, all four takeaways came across five plays, with a pair coming in three play span near the end of the first half which served to swing the momentum.
Cornerback Mike Lindsay snatched an interception at the SDSU 40-yard line with 1:48 remaining before halftime, only to see cornerback TreShawn Moore house a 38-yard pick 6 a play after a sack that gave CSU a two-score lead that held the Aztecs at bay the rest of the way. Then a fourth quarter interception by safety D’Mon Brinson was returned all the way to the Aztec 3-yard line only for Gavriel Lightfoot to force and recover a Hajne fumble at the 1-yard line a play later.
“We didn’t help the defense when we got that turnover by turning it right back and it led to points that led to the difference in the game,” Lewis said.
But for a defense that gave up a season-high 549 yards of total offense and allowed nearly 500 yards-plus (including Toledo’s 494) in four of their last five outings, down the stretch is going to require a lot more of the kind of efforts like against Fresno State.
Saunders makes most of first NCAA start
At the very least, redshirt freshman quarterback Stone Saunders now holds the distinction of throwing for the most yards by an Aztec quarterback making his debut on the road in the program’s DI history.
Being pressed into duty with senior captain Jayden Denegal’s being “pretty significant” and “a long-shot, game-time decision all the way through” according to the head coach, Saunders finished 23-of-33 for 369 yards with 2 touchdowns and two interceptions.
“(I was) proud of Stone’s ability to prepare in that he played… the way that he really attacked that opportunity, that preparation led to a really solid night,” Lewis said.
“He showed great maturity attacking the preparation, knowing the plan intimately, and then executing it.”
Both of the scoring strikes with big chunk plays, with his first going to wide receiver Jaylon Hawkins for 43 yards up the right sideline in the third quarter, then connecting with Jordan Napier for 24 yards to the left sideline on a third-and-2 that pulled the Aztecs within a touchdown again thanks to a 2-point conversion pass to WR Bert Emanuel Jr.
The debut performance was the third-most passing yardage in program DI history, and the most in a game since former Aztec and current senior offensive analyst and tight ends coach Ryan Lindley threw for 413 in the 2011 New Orleans Bowl against Louisiana. SDSU had not had a QB throw for 300-plus on the road since 2014.
But, of course, the two interceptions.
“There’s a couple plays there obviously at the end of the half he’d love to have back, I’d love to have that call back for him, (I) put him in a tough spot there,” Lewis said.
The second came after pulling the ball on a run-pass option and firing over the middle to Hawkins. It was a bit high and away in the midst of three linebackers dropping in coverage, but the ball deflected off the receiver’s hands and into the waiting arms of a safety.
With Denegal’s status still up in the air, the first full-game showing from Saunders showed plenty of possibility for the final stretch of the regular season as needed
Bowling lane gets narrower
With the second conference loss all but closing the door to a shot at the conference championship — a trip to Boise State before the road flex game to close the season provided a slight crack — the focus has to be on becoming bowl eligible
Going 1-3 in non-conference had already put the pressure on the Scarlet and Black, though looking back, that slate now looks like the toughest in the conference. Both UCLA and James Madison finished the day in first place in the Big 10 and Sun Belt respectively, with Toledo as one of four teams sitting a game back at 3-1 in the MAC.
Utah State (2-5, 1-2) and Washington State (1-7, 0-4) will close out the home half of the schedule, with a key bye finally arriving between for the weekend of Nov. 7. The Aggies played Texas State tough in a 20-17 loss in San Marcos, and the Cougars got handled 31-10 at home by the No. 21 Broncos.
“There’s a lot of football still left to be played and again, we’ve got to do a good job at home so that we can go into our off-week the right way, and no one needs that more than us right now, so we’ve got to handle one more week of great work and end that week the right way,” Lewis said.
The guard rails aren’t completely gone, but the final two home games have a “must win” feel against a pair of teams who have gone a combined 2-11 (removing the 17-16 USU home win over WSU).
The bowl of the program since 2010 speaks for itself.
With the Aztecs having dealt with injuries, illness and a myriad of misfortune in what was such an anticipated season, adding to SDSU's bowl legacy seems even more important now.
San Diego State hosts Washington State at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Snapdragon Stadium. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network, with a local radio broadcast on 760AM KGB.