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Aztecs Decimate Pac 12 Arizona In September Desert Battle

gavinireGavin Ireland
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(Photo) San Diego State defensive captain, linebacker Caden McDonald guides his Aztec warriors onto the field Saturday night in Tucson, Arizona.

Tucson, Ariz. – What a difference a halftime can make. After a very slow start last weekend in San Diego State’s contest against New Mexico State up in Carson, the Aztecs have played an above average effort on both sides of the ball. The team is being coached up, and it’s a testament to the quality of this staff in rallying this proud group of young men.

For an Aztecs team that has struggled the past few years to put points up on the board, San Diego State scored 63 points from the 3rd quarter of the New Mexico State game through the end of the first half of tonight’s game.

That is a staggering improvement!

This defense is one that has not skipped a beat with the honorary passing of the torch by the legendary Rocky Long. The intensity, the scheme, and the talent has not dropped one bit.

With Araiza and the punting team playing a solid first half, this program fired as close as you can on all cylinders for a 2019 model.

Thanks to Rocky Long and the smooth transition to Brady Hoke retaking the head coaching position, you’d be barked out of the complaint department by calling it a lemon.

In the first three scoring drives for the Aztec offense in the 1st quarter, Brookshire and Co. came up with the following:

  • 4 plays, 75 years in 1:38, Greg Bell scored on a 55-yard run for a touchdown. 7-0 SDSU.

Second possession on offense for SDSU:

  • 7 plays, 96 yards in 3:08, Brookshire ran a keeper into the end zone. 14-0 SDSU.

Arizona deep into their own territory, the punt team comes onto the field:

  • On 4th down, U of A attempted to boot it away from the 31 until Kaegan Williams came up with the blocked punt, while Tyrell Shavers moved quick to scoop it up and run it back into the end zone. 21-0, SDSU.

In the 2nd quarter:

  • 7 plays, 78 yards in 3:35, Brookshire’s pass to Bellinger was caught and delivered into the end zone from 25 yards out. 28-7, SDSU.

San Diego State on offense early in the 2nd quarter in Arizona territory:

  • 3 plays, 56 yards in 0:55 seconds off the game clock, Brookshire fired a beautiful over-the-shoulder pass to Ethan Dedeaux from 40 yards out and into the end zone. 35-7, SDSU.

Momentum, lead, dominance, etcetera, etcetera: SDSU!

Fast forward through half time and into the 3rd quarter, the red and black defense delivered the pain to force a 3 and out to the Arizona offense. For the first possession for San Diego State on offense in the 2nd half, you can hear the fair weather Aztec “fan” in your head complaining about a lack of perfection, but wisely, the offense ran three capable plays (2 on the ground, 1 from the air, going incomplete), but taking time off the clock. 

For those who were sober enough to recall how this program went back-to-back Mountain West Conference Champions in 2015 and 2016, it was greatly credited to wise clock management. Call it ugly, call it boring, call it what you will. It’s a formula that mentally discombobulates your opposition, and wins games.

In less than a handful of total possessions between the two teams in the 3rd quarter, SDSU added 3 more points to the scoreboard after taking 3 minutes and 22 seconds off the game clock with a Matt Araiza field goal from 32 yards out.

38-7, all SDSU.

To summarize the 3rd quarter, San Diego State played fairly conservative on offense with running plenty of game clock off to scoreboard, while the Wildcats struggled to get much of anything close to the first down marker. Mark it up as 2 straight quarters delivering an Easter egg to the Arizona offense, by priority delivery via the SDSU defense.

For a young secondary, there’s got to be some love to recognize for what they’ve been able to accomplish so far in this young 2021 season. They’ve had help with the front line of the Aztec defense applying pressure to the New Mexico State and U of A quarterbacks, but the same can be said for the secondary doing their job, which has allowed the defensive line tremendous opportunity to terrorize the signal callers.

This defense still has yet to be greatly tested to their limits with a greater level of opposition, but give credit where credit has been rightfully earned.

In the final chapter of the evening, we go to the 4th quarter:

The San Diego State offense, with a safe lead of 31 points, brought in the #2 at quarterback, Lucas Johnson. Not much of a workload was instilled on Johnson, but nonetheless, it’s game time. Seasons are about endurance, and as much as Kawhi Leonard gets criticized for it, it’s proper logic to incorporate “load management”.

With help by a horse-collar tackle on the Aztec defense, U of A got some help to find themselves deep into SDSU territory, which awarded them a too little, too late touchdown to bring the score to 38-14, SDSU.

Not too much to comment here. The offense did their work by milking the clock and maintaining possession of the football. These are the little things that some fans don’t recognize in the box score. These are the efforts that share the workload through a long season.

This was a team effort. This was a win from players to the entire coaching staff. Call it what you will in terms of how good or bad Arizona has been. This was a great win for SDSU football. The streak of U of A vs Aztec football is gone. The steamroller of Montezuma continues to pave the freeways leading to Pac 12 cities all red and black!

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