Utah Utes @ San Diego State Aztecs Football Recap

Utah 38, San Diego State 34

The Utah Utes won an important ballgame Saturday night in a rain-soaked San Diego stadium, but the main storyline from this Mountain West thriller was the losing team’s inability to close a sale. Yet again, the San Diego State Aztecs came from ahead and lost. A snake-bitten program once again played just well enough to lose.

It’s a fascinating yet searing narrative: While San Diego State hasn’t enjoyed a ton of football success, the boys from the Montezuma Mesa make an impact every once in a while. Yet, whenever ultimate victory lies in sight of SDSU, something seems to go wrong. Marshall Faulk should have been the 1992 Heisman Trophy winner, but Miami’s Gino Torretta won the award instead in a miscarriage of justice, leaving San Diego residents to wonder how such a thing could have happened. In 1986, SDSU led Iowa by scores of 28-13, 35-21, and – with only 47 seconds left – 38 to 36. Yet, Iowa clawed back each and every time to pull out a 39-38 win on one of the most important nights in San Diego State’s gridiron history. This program, no matter the decade, can’t quite grab the brass ring, and now, there’s another stomach-punch defeat for SDSU fans to lament.

Never mind the blown 27-10 first-half lead. Disregard the Utah touchdown scored just before halftime on a Hail Mary pass (San Diego State got one of those as well, just a few minutes into the second half). The heart of this game and its turning point emerged because SDSU didn’t manipulate the pace as well as it needed to.

The Aztecs, leading 34-31 midway through the fourth quarter, were zooming down the Qualcomm Stadium turf and preparing for a snap inside the Utah 35. San Diego State quarterback Ryan Lindley, who wound up throwing for 528 yards in this contest, didn’t like something he saw in the Utah defense before the 1st-and-10 play. He called timeout. Immediately afterward, Utah’s defense – which had been rocked on its heels by the Aztecs’ prolific passing – regrouped in every way. The Utes posted a 12-yard sack to force 2nd-and-22. One play later on third-and-long, Lindley forced a pass into traffic to try to move the chains, and he got intercepted on a tip drill. An Aztec offense that dominated Utah for 27 points in the game’s first one and a half quarters never rediscovered its rhythm in the second half… not for a fully-sustained drive, at any rate. Utah escaped Southern California with a fortuitous but still well-earned win, as maligned quarterback Jordan Wynn got off the deck. The young signal caller erased two miserable performances against TCU and Notre Dame by throwing for 362 yards and two touchdowns without a pick.

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Yet, for all of Wynn’s legitimate and praiseworthy deeds, it still has to be said that San Diego State – a team that blew a late lead against Missouri, blew a 14-point lead at TCU, and lost a close game at BYU – is still very much locked into a decades-old pattern: Play well, play hard, fade in the fourth quarter and lose by an eyelash.

It’s worth noting, as a postscript of sorts, that Lindley – the man responsible for the unwise timeout that gave Utah life – was also responsible for burying the Aztecs by throwing a pop fly into the end zone against double coverage… on first down. SDSU had ample chances to win even after it surrendered its big lead. Yet, the coulda-shoulda-woulda Aztecs fell short of the winner’s circle yet again.

Coach Brady Hoke will have to wait another year to get his players and his program over the hump in the Mountain West Conference.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer