Those boos you heard around Mission Valley Saturday night weren’t for Halloween.
They were for the Aztecs.
That was the crowd’s reaction at Snapdragon Stadium as San Diego State was shut out 6-0 by a Nevada Wolf Pack team that came in:
- With a record of 0-6, losers of 16 straight dating back to last season.
- As a nearly 12-point underdog.
- Having allowed 39.5 points per game, ranking them 132nd nationally.
“Unacceptable, the performance tonight,” said offensive lineman Cade Bennett. “We didn’t get the job done tonight.”
Coach Brady Hoke said he will review the game film and indicated some changes could be made on the field.
“I can’t explain it,” he said, of the loss. He added later: “Things don’t surprise me sometimes in football.”
The loss leaves the Aztecs at 3-5 overall, 1-3 in the Mountain West and in danger of not winning the six games required to qualify for a bowl game.
The game started feebly for the Aztecs and got worse from there.
The Wolf Pack scored first on a 39-yard field goal by Brandon Talton after an opening drive that consumed more than six minutes. The Aztecs had a couple of possessions, but did little with them and wound up being shut out in the first quarter, while generating just 64 total yards of offense.
SDSU had the ball at the start of the second quarter and drove down the field, but the drive fizzled when kicker Jack Browning missed a 34-yard field goal.
After that, there were more missed opportunities. The Aztecs’ defense would hold Nevada at bay, giving the offense good field position on two possessions, but nothing came of it.
San Diego State had one last chance, getting the ball on Nevada’s 44-yard line with less than three minutes to go, but they failed to convert a fourth and two, falling one yard short.
Nevada took over with less than a minute to go. A couple of runs by quarterback Brendon Lewis and a pass interference call against the Aztecs led to a 37-yard field goal that gave Nevada a 6-0 lead at halftime.
To tally up the Aztecs’ first half: Zero points. 107 total yards on offense. And 35 total passing yards for quarterback Jalen Mayden.
And the crowd knew it. As the Aztecs ran off the field, the boos rained down.
The second half began much like the first. The Aztecs turned the ball over on downs in their first possession, leading to more jeers.
After holding the Wolf Pack off and getting the ball back, they had to punt, and the crowd continued to express their displeasure. SDSU caught a break, however, when a long drive by Nevada ended with a failed field goal attempt.
However, by the time the third quarter ended, the Aztecs still were down 6-0. They had no first downs and only 39 total yards of offense in the third quarter.
But the Wolf Pack allowed the Aztecs to stay in the game thanks to their own poor offense.
After San Diego State punted, the Wolf Pack would go on to have a long drive that took about six minutes off the clock, but Talton missed another field goal.
The score was 6-0 with eight minutes left and the Aztecs still had a chance. As they started driving down field, a miracle comeback still was possible.
But with the ball at Nevada’s 23-yard line and only about a minute left, Mayden scrambled for a first down, but fumbled. That gave Nevada the ball with less than a minute to go and they ran out the clock.
The game ended with, what else? A final chorus of boos for SDSU.
