The good for the San Diego State Aztecs? They broke their first half shutout stretch on their opening drive. The bad? A 41-16 loss to the Toledo Rockets on Saturday afternoon at the Glass Bowl.
The ugly — a re-aggravated injury to senior captain running back Lucky Sutton as well as an injury to running back Javion Kinnard on his only drive for a rushing attack that managed only 15 yards on the 11 carries between the duo and 48 yards overall.
"Disappointed with the effort, we need to be coached better, need to put our guys in better positions to be successful. Obviously going through some adversity, some different things with the injuries, those are things we cannot control, we've got to do a great job developing our depth—next man up—and then executing with great fundamentals in all three phases," head coach Sean Lewis said. "We didn't do that consistently enough today, so need to get back home, do the next thing the right way. Got to continue to improve in all areas of our game."
Kinnard was injured on a third-and-short on the second SDSU (1-3) drive where the Rockets (3-1) bottled up the line of scrimmage and a player rolled up on his leg. Sutton had a player fall on his foot on a second-down scramble by quarterback Jayden Denegal on the first Scarlet and Black possession of the second half.
The Aztecs converted just three of 14 third downs, facing an average of 7.3 yards to go. Toledo completed six passes of more than 15 yards, with three of them going for scores, as they out-gained SDSU 494-296, including 210-48 on the ground.
Toledo scored a pair of touchdowns in a span of 1:52 of game time surrounding halftime, both on big passing plays from quarterback John Alan Richter to wide receiver Bryson Hammer. The 78-yard scoring strike came 1:44 before the break, then after a failed onside kick attempt to start the second half by SDSU, the Rockets first play was a 38-yard touchdown connection to blow the game open 24-3.
"The whole middle eight, obviously giving up that explosive touchdown, I felt like we had some momentum in the way we were coming back in the subsequent drive, then we took a sack, so we had to take it in to the half. We've executed that surprise onside really really well, and really really consistently throughout all of this season, that's something we've had holstered for a while," Lewis said. "When we needed a possession, we felt there was an opportunity there, we had the premium look, and the ball literally didn't bounce our way... Again, we've got to respond in the subsequent play, that happens, and we've got to go play the next play to our standard, that's one thing that I've got to do a better job leading."
It didn't get better from there, as after Toledo got a field goal after bottling up the SDSU offense for the fifth three-and-out of the game, running back Jordin Thomas fumbled on his first carry that the Rockets recovered. The Aztecs defense forced a 43-yard field goal that missed.
But after Denegal converted a third-and-12 with a 41-yard completion to wide receiver Jacob Bostick in traffic, his next pass was intercepted by linebacker Isaac Zay and returned 67 yards for a score.
The Aztecs scored their first second half touchdown in the third quarter, converting five first downs and then finding tight end Ryan Wolfer for a diving catch in the left side of the end zone on fourth down. Toledo added another as well on a one-yard rush by running back Connor Walendzak.
Denegal finished 19-of-31 for 206 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
"I thought the decisions he was making, besides the one interception, he was putting the ball where it needed to be. He was playing confidently, I thought his footwork was good, I thought his mechanics were tight, I think he was giving the guys good opportunities to play pitch-and-catch, and we were able to do some things in the throw game that we hadn't in the past," Lewis said.
Freshman quarterback Draiden Trudeau led a nine-play, 65-yard drive in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter with the reserves in the game. It included a fourth down conversion on a 26-yard completion to wide receiver Daishaun Davis, and was finished with a 14-yard strike to wide receiver Jaylon Hawkins.
SDSU had been to take a major weight off their shoulders on their first drive, snapping the two-game scoreless first half stretch by driving 68 yards in just over three minutes for a 25-yard field goal by kicker Cooper DiLeva.
But after taking advantage of a special teams miscue and the defense shutting down the opening Toledo drive after just one first down, the SDSU offense went three-and-out. A third down completion near the sticks to Ford was erased by a holding penalty, forcing a punt that Tashi Dorje mishit just 24 yards.
The Rockets were quick to take advantage, as Richter completed consecutive passes to wide reciever CJ Miller for 18 yards and then delivered a 19-yard scoring strike over the middle to wide receiver Adjatay Dabbs.
Later, Toledo would convert on a 40-yard scoring drive on their second time with the ball in the second quarter where they ran the ball on seven of 11 plays. The Rockets got stopped just at the edge of the red zone, ending their streak of 13 consecutive drives to start the season where they scored touchdowns when reaching the opposing 20-yard line. Kicker Reice Griffith knocked through a 38-yard field goal to extend the lead.
The real gut punch came on Toledo/s sixth drive, as after the Aztecs had not allowed a play of 20-plus yards to the MAC's leader — the Rockets had 20 through their first three games — Richter took advantage of a busted coverage for the first deep score to Hammer.
San Diego State begins Pac-12 Conference play against the Texas State Bobcats at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3 at Snapdragon Stadium. The game will be broadcast on 760AM, with television coverage provided by The CW.
"Typically you have some familiarity with some of your conference foes, but this year is pretty atypical in a lot of different ways, so we're going into conference play and it's a brand new opponent, so we've got to get to know them," Lewis said. "But again, the significance of the lessons we need to learn here from non-conference play, and apply them to conference play so we can go and compete at the highest level against a really, really good Texas State team, and get back home and start building another winning streak at Snapdragon."
This story was updated at 2:51 p.m.
