Defense Travels as San Diego State Overcomes NIU 6-3, with walk-off game winner

DeKalb, Illinois – A win is a win.

According to the Mountain West’s YouTube channel, San Diego State earned a 38-20 victory over Northern Illinois. Fake news. Sons of Montezuma was on hand there at Huskie Stadium to witness this grind it out game. This was about as ugly a defensive battle as you will see.

Here are our quick takeaways on what went down in DeKalb.

Plascencia Hits 18th straight

In reality, SDSU Kicker Gabriel Plascencia hit the 25 yard field goal as time expired giving the Aztecs the victory. Final score, SDSU-6 NIU-3.

While the game lacked in so many areas, miss me with any negativity about how ugly that game was. The Aztecs have now won as many games as all last season—but have done so in just four games this year. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it haters!

SDSU having now beaten NIU for the seventh time in their history marked some important feats and unlocked some possible achievements. The Aztecs have only suffered one hiccup against a MAC team when they fell to Central Michigan last season. This year the Aztecs did whatever they had to do to reverse that slip up.

A big instrument in ensuring that happened was in the form of Gabriel Plascencia’s foot. The senior placekicker did not participate in last season’s loss on the road. Now rightly regarded as one of College football’s most consistent performers, Plascencia continues to create his legacy with each game.

Before opening kick-off, Gabriel Plascencia’s father Gabriel Sr. predicted to Sons of Montezuma that Gabriel would kick the game winner today. Just a fantastic show of confidence and positivity for this team.

Defense Travels

For the 8th straight quarter the Aztecs defense has not allowed a touchdown scored against them. That my friends is beautiful football.

All afternoon Rob Aurich’s squad shut down the NIU passing game and QB Josh Holst, holding the passer to just 8 of 14 completions and only 49 yards. Pure domination. When backup QB Brady Davidson entered in for his only two passing attempts, one was picked off by Chris Johnson along the sidelines for a big play by the senior standout.

The Aztecs sacked NIU four times on the game and led by linebacker Owen Chambliss’ 11 tackles and 1 sack, the defensive front was all over the place. Chambliss’ ability to fly to the ball from sideline to sideline has been a big factor this season so far.

The Aztecs hounded Huskie quarterbacks and running backs alike holding NIU to 122 yards on the ground. Definitely a big key towards winning the game.

Offensive Offense

But now we get to the elephant in the room. Knowing the toughness NIU prides itself on in their own defensive performance is enough to try and rationalize a low output by the Aztecs.

QB Jayden Denegal’s 13/20 for 110 yards and 2 INTs was a frustrating performance for Aztecs fans to knock too hard. Especially when you realize backup QB Bert Emanuel Jr.’s brief time in the game brought with it an even larger sense of not being able to pass the ball.

For a few minutes there the Aztecs went without QB1 Denegal behind center, when he was removed from the game with an apparent injury. The Aztecs allowed just one sack on the afternoon, but the game was not without it’s mistakes for the Aztecs with or without Denegal in the game.

One deep pass wasn’t completed to WR Jacob Bostick in a for sure touchdown scoring scenario. One of Denegal’s INT was a miscommunication on a route with a wideout. The errant pass wasn’t close and would’ve put the Aztecs again in scoring position. Once again, points left on the board.

Are there multiple items to clean up in the offense? Undeniably yes. While last weekend saw Sean Lewis orchestrate his offense very wisely in the flow of the defensive heavy performance, this day was not on par.

Lucky Sutton’s 88 yards for a 5.2 average yard per carry is unsatisfying when you see he earned that on only 17 touches. When he is in the game and active, good things usually happen. Not utilizing Sutton more often is a problem for this Aztecs offense that for some reason Lewis has either not figured out yet or has other purposes behind.

Several 3rd & 4th and short instances came and went without Lucky #7 touching the ball for the obvious pickup. Though the SDSU running back stable is very talented, in order to keep the chains moving Sutton must be that bell cow back this team needs him to be.

SDSU also had some costly penalties that also held the team back. Forcing the Huskies to punt late in the game only to get flagged for a facemask, when the punter was taken down before he could kick, would’ve set the offense up inside the red zone immediately. It was not to be.

In conclusion this team still got the job done and in all three phases no matter how ugly it was. When Plascencia’s game winner went through the uprights, several Aztec lineman jumped for joy and others ran onto the field. The win still counts the same, still raises up the emotions in us all.

The Aztec faithful fans, family and supporters met at the 50 yard line behind the players bench and the team victoriously sang the fight song with them.

Standing at 3-1, the Aztecs come back home in a short turn around week for a Friday night matchup vs Colorado State (1-3). This will be an opportunity to continue going streaking towards bowl eligibility and their first in conference matchup.