Glenn Connelly / Photo Editor

With a three-point loss to Wyoming last week, the San Diego State football team’s chances at a bowl game looked unlikely.

After this week’s 38-7 trouncing in Salt Lake City, it was official.

SDSU’s (4-7, 2-5 Mountain West Conference) loss to Utah (9-2, 6-1 MWC) on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium clinched its fifth consecutive losing season and 11th straight year without a bowl berth.

Sophomore quarterback Ryan Lindley was picked off during the Aztecs’ first drive of the game and the Utes needed just 18 seconds to capitalize with a touchdown by running back Eddie Wide. From there, Utah was in complete control on both sides of the ball, dominating the line of scrimmage, forcing quick throws by Lindley and piling on 31 more points and keeping SDSU scoreless before the half.

“Utah got up on us quickly,” head coach Brady Hoke said to www.goaztecs.com. “We gave up big plays and we had a couple of penalties on both sides of the ball that didn’t help us. We put ourselves back a little bit offensively and defensively and then we had some things go wrong. We have to do a better job of stopping the big plays defensively and have to get better as a team.”

While the Aztecs didn’t allow a point in the second half and eventually got on the board with a touchdown reception by freshman wideout Dominique Sandifer in the fourth quarter, the intensity the Utes played with in the first half was all Utah needed.

“I don’t think the team was unprepared,” Hoke said. “Our guys were ready to play, but we played a tremendous football team. Utah is an awfully good team. They have been cultivating that for a couple of years. They are well coached and play hard.”

Utah was playing with perhaps a little added fire after getting routed 55-28 against TCU in its previous game for its first MWC loss in more than a year.

“We responded well after last week,” Utes’ coach Kyle Whittingham said. “Our energy and passion was great in the first half and we executed well on offense, defense and special teams.”

Lindley had one of the worst days of his career, going 17 of 37 with two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. He did rack up 207 yards and score on the pass to Sandifer, but with SDSU forced to abandon the run early on, the Utah defense kept Lindley on the run and out of rhythm with his receivers.

Lindley’s counterpart, Ute quarterback Jordan Wynn, completed just 50 percent of his passes (14 of 28) but kept his team on the field by converting on third downs and amassing 195 yards, most of which were accumulated in the first half.

While the Aztecs’ rushing stats are far from dazzling (netting just 55 yards), junior running back Brandon Sullivan continued to show tremendous strides early in the game, breaking off multiple runs for more than 10 yards.

It’s now impossible for SDSU to get the six total wins needed to become bowl eligible. That means the Aztecs will once again have no postseason. The last time they played in a bowl game was 1998.

SDSU will once again hit the road this Saturday when it takes on UNLV at 6 p.m. in the final game of the year.