Terrible starts have plagued the San Diego State football team all season. Saturday’s game against Boise State was no different.
Senior quarterback Ryan Lindley threw an interception on SDSU’s first possession of the game, junior defensive back Leon McFadden fumbled the first Boise State punt of the game and senior defensive back Brandon Davis fumbled the ball on the Aztecs’ second kickoff return.
All those miscues led to a 21-point deficit, which proved to be too large for the Aztecs to overcome.
Boise State scored 21 more points in the second quarter to build a four-touchdown lead at halftime and won easily, 52-35.
Bronco busting
The script has been familiar for much of the past 10 years. It was the same on Saturday. Boise State played the role of Boise State, and SDSU played the role of the hopeless team that happened to be in the Broncos’ way.
Senior quarterback Kellen Moore played like the Heisman Trophy contender he is and picked apart the Aztecs’ defense.
Moore finished the night completing 28-of-40 passes for 366 yards and four touchdowns.
Three of those touchdowns went to senior wide receiver Tyler Shoemaker, who had 10 receptions for 130 yards.
Senior running back Doug Martin led the Broncos on the group with 129 yards on 36 carries.
BSU head coach Chris Petersen was excited there was no letdown to start the game after his team’s loss last week to TCU.
“It’s good to start fast. I really thought we would start fast. I knew we’d play hard early on,” Petersen said after the game. “I think there were people who were concerned that we’d have a hangover effect from the last game.”
Muema makes his mark
Freshman running back Adam Muema has been hardly heard from this season, but now that there have been injuries to the top two running backs, Muema has been thrust into the spotlight.
He made the most of his opportunity against the Broncos. The freshman ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, including an 81-yard scoring scamper in the first quarter.
He also recorded a 1-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Head coach Rocky Long said Muema did a good job of staying tough against BSU.
“Adam did pretty good. He broke that long one, which makes the statistics look good,” Long said. “He hung in there. He got hit a few times pretty hard. He got beat up pretty good, but then he came back in the second half and hung in there, too.”
Extra points
Despite the loss, Lindley played well. The senior completed 30-of-51 passes for 350 yards and three touchdowns.
He managed to find sophomore tight end Gavin Escobar many times during the game. Escobar recorded eight catches for 113 yards and two touchdowns. The eight catches were a career high for Escobar.
Sophomore wide receiver Colin Lockett got in on the act as well. He had eight catches of his own for 149 yards.
The attendance for the game was 52,256, the largest November crowd since 1991.
Sophomore running back Ronnie Hillman didn’t start the game. He finished the game with three carries for 8 yards.
Larry Parker recorded his sixth interception of the season. The six picks are tied for fifth-most in the SDSU single season record books.
Wyoming became bowl eligible with its win against New Mexico, a scary proposition for the Aztecs, who are in a fight with Air Force and the Cowboys for the last few bowl slots in the Mountain West Conference.
There have been some rumblings that SDSU might not even make a bowl game with eight wins.
