If you haven’t had a date in, say 11 years, you’re probably in no position to be waiting for a night out with Jessica Alba — or even the Prom Queen. You ask, she says yes no matter who she is, and you’re going.
Alston Umuolo's Touchdown Catch Jump-Started the Aztecs' Comeback (AP photo)
Haven’t caught a fish in a couple of years, you’re not throwing it back even if it is a minnow. If you haven’t eaten in days, it doesn’t matter if the cheese is a bit moldy on your ham sandwich.
And if you’re the San Diego State football team, and you win your fourth game of the season in ugly fashion — as the Aztecs did over winless New Mexico, 23-20, Saturday night at Qualcomm Stadium — you simply say thank you very much.
SDSU, last to a bowl game in 1998, is certainly in no position to be picky. And so it is that despite playing poorly for most of the night, the Aztecs and their fans should look upon this one as a thing of beauty.
Never mind that the hapless Lobos led throughout nearly the entire first half, and never mind that one of the nation’s poorest teams carried a 20-16 lead into the middle of the fourth quarter.
The fact is that San Diego State, and specifically quarterback Ryan Lindley, found a way to win it. And when it was you who used to be one of the nation’s poorest teams, style points don’t count.
Under first-year Head Coach Brady Hoke, the Aztecs had appeared to turn the corner a week ago in Fort Collins, Colo., putting together a nearly flawless second half to beat the Rams, 42-28. With New Mexico coming to town carrying the weight of an 0-7 start — and six of those losses coming by more than 17 points — the feeling in the air was that SDSU was preparing for a gimme.
But when you’re a program that hasn’t had a winning season yourself in more than a decade, there truly is no such thing. And early on it appeared as if the Aztecs were struggling to handle their newly-found role of heavy favorite.
Flat and almost bordering on asleep for the first quarter-and-a-half, SDSU found itself trailing, 10-0. But then New Mexico got greedy and went for a surprise onside kick. Not surprisingly, the slumbering Aztecs were not ready for it, but fortunately the Lobos failed to recover.
That seemed to awaken Lindley, who was coming off a career-high 459-yard, six-touchdown passing day at Colorado State. Moving quickly to take advantage of the good field position, Lindley hit three straight passes for 42 yards to get his team on the board. The final 18 yards were covered by a Lindley to tight-end Alston Umuolo strike.
New Mexico fumbled away the next two points as punter Adam Miller dropped a perfect snap in his own end zone and was tackled for a safety by SDSU’s Lance Barksdale.
Lindley followed with an 80-yard march just before halftime, culminating the excursion with a seven-yard TD toss on a fade to new receiving ace DeMarco Sampson with :18 seconds remaining.
Leading now, 16-10, one might have thought the Aztecs would pick up their intensity in the second half. But again they came out soft, and New Mexico controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, scoring on a field goal and touchdown in the third quarter to take a four-point lead into the fourth.
For the second consecutive week, SDSU was in need of a fourth-quarter rally. Whereas they scored the final three touchdowns to win at Colorado State last week, they required only one TD against the Lobos.
They got it on Lindley’s third scoring pass of the night, and second to Sampson, with 7:54 remaining. Sampson again scored on the fade route, reaching over top of two defenders to haul in the ball in the back left-corner of the end zone.
With star receiver Vincent Brown missing the game (and perhaps two or three more) because of thumb surgery, Sampson again came up big. His two TD receptions gave him seven scores over the last three weeks.
When it was over, SDSU having survived one last New Mexico charge when a fourth-down pass to the Aztecs 38 was overturned (correctly) by replay in the final minute, there was a sense of relief on the home sideline and in the stands.
But truly this is a team that should feel more of a sense of accomplishment. Whereas a 4-4 record (2-2 in conference) might seem rather ordinary to many teams, it marks another big step forward for a squad that hadn’t had a .500 record through eight games since 1998.
Moreover, the four wins this season have matched or exceeded the program’s win total for seven of the previous nine entire seasons.
Now, heading into November, San Diego State can realistically be thinking about a post-season Bowl berth, something that might have been hard to imagine when this season started.
There are four games left — home against TCU and Wyoming, on the road at Utah and UNLV — and with two wins they could finish 6-6, and be Bowl eligible.
If the Aztecs can get those two wins, nobody is going to care how they are achieved.
– Ello –
