A string of missed alternatives on its remaining two drives helped ship San Jose State to its fourth one-score lack of the season Friday night time in a 30-25 street defeat to Utah State.
The Spartans (2-5, 1-2 Mountain West Convention) misplaced for the third time of their final 4 video games when one drive ended on a failed fourth-and-1 play and their final, penalty-filled drive ended with Walker Eget’s desperation go from midfield falling incomplete.
Utah State (4-3, 2-1 MWC) used two discipline targets within the final six minutes from kicker Tanner Rinker, in addition to a landing go and scoring run by quarterback Bryson Barnes, for the win in Logan, Utah, which dropped the Spartans’ street report to 0-4.
The Spartans didn’t enter the competition in optimum place with each NCAA-leading receiver Danny Scudero and quarterback Eget questionable to play. Eget put up some stable numbers, finishing 27 of 49 passes for 340 yards and two landing passes.
Nevertheless, Scudero, who got here into the sport main the nation with 50 receptions, 845 yards receiving and eight touchdowns, was held to 6 catches for 25 yards.
Leland Smith was the Spartans’ main receiver with a career-high 116 yards receiving, which included a 45-yard landing.
With Utah State main 27-25 with lower than 4 minutes to go, San Jose State confronted fourth-and-1 on their very own 47. Nevertheless, operating again Steve Chavez-Soto, who had a game-high 102 yards on 11 carries, was stuffed for no achieve.
San Jose State’s protection was in a position to maintain Utah State to a discipline purpose – Rinker hit from 44 yards simply 4 minutes after nailing a 45-yarder – and the Spartans had yet one more likelihood trailing 30-25 with 1:53 left within the recreation.
However three false begin penalties doomed the offensive drive and Eget’s fourth-and-2 go to Cooper Boch was damaged up by Utah State’s Brevin Hamblin as time expired.
With Eget and Scudero banged up, the Spartans had a heavy emphasis on the run recreation. Working backs Lamar Radcliffe and Chavez-Soto mixed for 176 yards dashing on 24 carries, a mean of seven.3 yards per carry that was boosted by Chavez-Soto’s 66-yard landing run.
Radcliffe additionally scored a landing on a 15-yard display screen go from Eget.
The banged-up Scudero left each of the Spartans’ first two offensive drives after absorbing arduous hits from Aggies defenders. Each occasions, Scudero wanted medical consideration on the sphere. Nonetheless, the previous Archbishop Mitty star returned to the sport.
Scudero took one other large hit within the remaining 4 minutes of the sport, which led to him leaving the sphere as soon as extra.
In the course of the week, Spartans kickers Denis Lynch and Matthias Brown waged a battle to see who would kick towards Utah State. Each wound up getting an opportunity to kick. Lynch went 2-for-2 on discipline purpose makes an attempt. Brown dealt with the conversion kicks, however he missed his first strive, which was why San Jose State trailed 10-9 as a substitute of being tied at 10-all at halftime.
The Spartans’ protection has struggled to shut out drives on fourth down and struggled to restrict huge performs once more Friday.
On their first offensive drive of the sport, the Aggies transformed a fourth-and-4 on a 30-yard go from Barnes to operating again Javen Jacobs. This led to a 2-yard finish round landing to large receiver Braden Pegan.
After this nonetheless, SJSU’s protection compelled three consecutive three-and-outs after which held the Aggies to a turnover on downs after stopping them on a fourth-and-4, conserving a struggling offense within the recreation.
The second half didn’t begin effectively for the Spartans’ protection, although, as a damaged protection allowed former Spartan Anthony Garcia to be open for a 74-yard landing catch.
The Spartans can have a bye-week subsequent weekend and can return residence after two straight video games on the street to tackle Hawai’i (5-2, 2-1) at CEFCU Stadium on Nov. 1 at 7:30.
