Takeaways: Special teams prove costly in San Jose State loss

San Jose State falls behind early, giving up a TD return on the opening kick in 27-17 loss to San Diego State.

SAN JOSE — Punching the air, throwing his headset and screaming towards the field, Spartans head coach Brent Brennan looked like Jim Harbaugh without the khakis on the sideline Saturday night.

Brennan, along with the rest of the San Jose State football team, were beside themselves when officials overturned what they believed was a muffed punt from San Diego State (6-1, 3-1 Mountain West) late in the third quarter.

The game-shifting play served as a microcosm of the problems for the Spartans (3-4, 1-3), who experienced a rough night on special teams against the Aztecs, greatly contributing to a 27-17 homecoming loss at CEFCU Stadium.

“All of those plays are big,” Brennan said through a hoarse voice likely strained from his yelling. “A play like that, with a potential turnover in a game within reach is huge. It’s the way it went for us.”

Here are three takeaways from the Spartans’ second loss in a row.

Special teams flop

San Diego State’s 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the game foreshadowed a very poor night in the special teams category for San Jose State. While the Spartans failed to place San Diego State of inside its own 10 on six punts over the course of the game, Aztecs punter Brandon Heicklen pinned San Jose State inside the 2-yard line five three times.

“We got pinned down there a couple of times, and we had to respond,” starting quarterback Josh Love said. “Obviously we didn’t do our job.”

Even though the Spartans were able to drive 99 yards and score an on one of those possessions, the other two resulted in a three-and-out and a game-sealing interception for San Diego State, which sits in first place in the West division.

What may have hurt the most, though, was having what many Spartans players believe should have been a turnover with 3:30 remaining in the third quarter overturned.

“That was ridiculous,” Love said when asked about the seemingly muffed punt that was negated after officials ruled that a San Diego State player was pushed into the ball. “We would have been on the 37 yard line, and then you’re told ‘it’s not your ball.’ I don’t know what happened.”

Rather than being set up in scoring position to make it one-possession game, San Jose State was forced to watch as the Aztecs scored another touchdown six plays later for a 27-10 lead.

Defensive line wilts

San Diego State’s defense stole most of the headlines coming into Saturday as the fourth-best team in the nation against the run this year, giving up just 64 yards on the ground per game. But in the first half against the Aztecs, it was San Jose State’s defensive line that controlled the line of scrimmage.

With five tackles for loss and two quarterback sacks, the Spartans appeared to be the most dominant force of the game. Until the second half came. Of the Aztecs’ 260 rushing yards on the night, 173 of them came after halftime as the Spartans struggled to contain San Diego State’s running attack.

“In that second half, it was us getting in the backfield and not tackling,” Brennan said. “That’s disappointing because I thought we played really good defense at times.”

“They picked up their rushing game in the second half,” Spartans defensive lineman Cade Hall said. “It was a really tough, physical game, and I think the D-line has some stuff to fix.”

Part of what led to San Jose State’s fading effort up front was the fact that the Aztecs nearly doubled the time of possession and sustained two drives of 11 plays or more. One of them came as a 77-yard drive that consisted of 20 plays — the most in a drive seen in the NCAA this season.

“I think that’s really hard,” Brennan said. “That’s one of those things where obviously they get fatigued because they’re on the field for too long.”

Inaccurate Love

With a poor running game — sitting as the fifth-worst rushing team in the nation at 89.8 yards per game — San Jose State knew its chance beat San Diego State for the first time since 2012 was to air the ball out. That meant the ball would be in the hands of Love, who threw for more than 400 yards in each of his past two games.

In the early stages of Saturday night’s game, San Jose State drew up big shots down field, looking to exploit one of the only weaknesses of the Aztecs’ defense — their secondary. But Love’s passes didn’t come out as crisp as expected. Many of his deep throws sailed high and in front of his intended receivers, who had beaten their defenders down the field.

“The toughest ball in all of football to complete is the deep ball,” Brennnan said. “We knew we were going to take our shots. Some of it was a combination of good coverage and some of it a combination of Josh getting pressured and not being able to step into the throw and cut it loose.”

Although Love had a clean pocket on some of his pass attempts, tight defense led to coverage sacks as the pocket collapsed. On other occasions, Love was hit hard, keeping him from following through with his passes, resulting in inaccurate placements.

This was the case on the final offensive play of the night for the Spartans as Love was hit throwing, leading to a game-sealing interception for San Diego State.

Love finished the game with 218 yards on 19-of-36 passing, a touchdown and an interception.

“I have to put it where our guys can get a chance,” Love said. “I have to be better at that.”