It was a long afternoon for San Diego State football this past Saturday, as the Ohio State University Buckeyes defeated the Aztecs 42-7.
The Aztecs received the first half kickoff and were unable to do anything with the ball. The team’s first drive consisted of two incomplete passes from junior starting quarterback Adam Dingwell and a short run from junior running back Adam Muema. The Aztecs punted to the Buckeyes, who consequently drove down the field with relative ease and scored a touchdown on a 7-yard carry by freshman running back Dontre Wilson.
On that same Ohio State drive, the Buckeyes’ electric playmaking junior quarterback Braxton Miller was injured after being sandwiched between junior defensive back King Holder and junior middle linebacker Jake Fely on a fourth-and-one scramble at the Aztecs’ 12-yard line. Miller lost his helmet on the play and was down on the turf for a few minutes before getting up and walking off the field under his own power. Multiple sources reported Miller suffered a left knee injury, and he did not return to the game.
The Aztecs’ second offensive possession was just one play. Dingwell forced a throw deep down the left sideline that was intercepted by Ohio State junior cornerback Doran Grant. Dingwell would not see another snap the rest of the game, completing zero of five pass attempts for no yards and the interception.
Dingwell was subsequently replaced by junior quarterback Quinn Kaehler, who finished the game completing 22 of 36 pass attempts for 216 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Kaehler led a nice-looking 62-yard drive at the end of the first half, but it stalled at the OSU 2-yard line and the Aztecs were unable to score before time expired.
[quote]”Anytime an offense struggles moving the ball, the quarterback has something to do with that,” head coach Rocky Long said after the game. “We thought Adam (Dingwell) wasn’t playing very well so we put Quinn in and he played a little bit better.”[/quote]
To say the SDSU offense struggled against the Buckeye defense would be an understatement. Through the first half, the Aztecs posted 99 total offensive yards compared to OSU’s 309. SDSU finished the game with 64 rush yards and 216 pass yards.
[quote]”They just annihilated us in the first half,” Long said. “That should have been a good football game.”[/quote]
A large part of OSU’s offensive dominance was the stellar play of senior second-string quarterback Kenny Guiton. Guiton connected with senior wide receiver Corey Brown twice for touchdowns, both of which were beautifully thrown balls in the corner of the end zone. The first, a 27-yard touchdown, sailed across the Aztecs’ double-coverage and into Brown’s hands for the score.
For a second-straight week, the Aztec cornerbacks were beaten early and often. Brown proved to be Guiton’s favorite target throughout the day, accounting for nearly half of Guiton’s 152 pass yards. Brown beat double-coverage on both of his touchdown receptions.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Aztec secondary. Guiton under threw one of his receivers deep down the right sideline in the second quarter and SDSU freshman defensive back Damontae Kazee twisted his body around and made an athletic one-handed interception. Another noteworthy statistic belongs to senior wide receiver Colin Lockett, who now has the most kickoff return yards in school history.
The Aztecs played much better in the second half of the game. The defense held OSU to just one touchdown and the Aztecs’ lone score of the contest came in the third quarter when Kaehler hit senior fullback Chad Young for a two-yard score.
[quote]”In the second half, Coach Long told us it was seven to seven at the end of the game. We scored one touchdown and they scored one touchdown,” senior defensive back Nat Berhe said. “The scheme was perfect, but it’s on the players. We have to come ready to work.”[/quote]
SDSU is on a bye week and will return on Sept. 21 at Qualcomm Stadium to face the Oregon State Beavers.
