By Agustin Gonzalez, Assistant Sports Editor
As Montezuma Mesa was buzzing with excitement after last week’s win, which made San Diego State bowl-eligible for the first time in 12 years, SDSU (7-2, 4-1 MWC) almost suffered an emotional letdown against a lesser Colorado State team on Saturday.
Instead, the Aztecs defense was able to overcome sloppy quarterback play, and running back Ronnie Hillman beat out CSU’s Pete Thomas in a matchup of the Mountain West Conference’s most dynamic freshmen in a 24-19 victory at Qualcomm.
Junior quarterback Ryan Lindley threw for two interceptions and his third-quarter fumble led to an 88-yard return for a touchdown by CSU (3-7, 2-4 MWC). SDSU as a whole turned the ball over five times in a flat offensive performance, but ended up righting the ship as the team won its fourth-straight game.
“I missed a lot of throws, and that’s on me,” Lindley said. “I told the guys at halftime that I was killing us, and that I needed to get it together, and I did. You never want to turn the ball over five times, but we got the ‘W’ and that’s all that counts.”
Thomas threw for 266 yards and a touchdown, but was overshadowed by fellow freshman Hillman. The Aztec running back ran for 151 yards and a score and passed the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
Junior linebacker Miles Burris, who finished with 10 tackles, two sacks and a couple of forced fumbles, led an SDSU defense that completely shut down the Rams’ running game. CSU had only 31 yards on 34 carries and didn’t record a single rushing touchdown.
“(The Aztec) defense is crazy in the first place,” Rams’ fullback Zac Pauga said. “Then it seemed like they knocked it up a notch when we got down into the red zone, and we just didn’t match their intensity.”
CSU scored on the opening possession of the game to jump out to a 3-0 lead. After a Walter Kazee fumble and a Lindley interception led to turnovers on back-to-back drives for the Aztecs, a field goal put the Rams up 6-0 with five minutes left in the second quarter.
SDSU was able to make one more drive down the field before halftime, and that’s all it needed. Senior running back Brandon Sullivan punched it in from a yard out to give the Aztecs a 7-6 lead going into the second half.
“We had confidence the entire game,” Sullivan said. “We realized we were making a lot of mistakes and had plays that weren’t going our way, but we went into halftime and made some adjustments so that we could come out in the second half and execute as best we could.”
And execute they did. On the first series of the third quarter, SDSU marched 58 yards down the field and finished with an Abel Perez field goal.
The Aztecs’ next couple of series, however, didn’t end so well. Lindley’s underthrown pass to an open DeMarco Sampson was picked off, and after getting the ball back following an interception by senior defensive back Andrew Preston, Lindley fumbled the ball at the Rams’ 2-yard line. CSU’s Mychal Sisson returned the fumble 88 yards for the score and a 13-10 lead.
That’s when Hillman put SDSU’s hopes for a win on his back. On first down at the Rams’ 26 yard-line, Hillman juked a CSU defender and dove for the pylon and a touchdown. After more effective running by Hillman in the fourth quarter, Lindley was able to find Sullivan for a nine-yard scoring strike with 8:05 left.
Down 24-13, the Rams attempted a gutsy comeback. Thomas threw a touchdown to Pauga with 2:43 remaining and CSU tried for a two-point conversion, which was originally ruled good. After further review, however, the call was overturned and the Rams’ comeback fell short.
The Aztecs rank among the top 40 nationally in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense and total defense, and are the only unranked team to do so.
SDSU has a chance to find out how good it really is when the team travels to Fort Worth this Saturday to take on No. 3 TCU. Although the Aztecs will be heavy underdogs, head coach Brady Hoke has high expectations for the team, especially after such a sloppy performance against CSU.
“We don’t look at how things work, we look at the expectations we have,” Hoke said. “Our expectations are much higher so we have to continue to cultivate the execution we want to play with, the fundamentals, the effort, the toughness and all those things that build a successful program.”
