Many Yards but Too Few Points on a Long Evening for Santos

“No excuses,” repeated San Diego State quarterback Todd Santos. “We just blew it. That’s the bottom line.”

After the Aztecs’ 22-10 loss to Air Force Saturday night, Santos said his right wrist, broken four weeks ago against New Mexico, felt “great.”

No pain and no excuses.

There was just a lot of frustration for a quarterback who wore a custom taping job on his right wrist and completed 28 of 44 passes for 272 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Those statistics meant nothing to Santos. What concerned him was that his offense failed to score . . . enough.

Chance after chance went by the wayside as the Aztec offense converted only 5 of 13 third-down plays.

“We just couldn’t move the ball,” Santos said. “We had some great opportunities. It was totally our fault.”

What about those seven sacks ind the tremendous amount of pressure Santos faced in the second half?

“They (Air Force defensive front line) did a good job,” Santos said. “They (Air Force linemen) were twisting a lot out there. But we had a lot of opportunities and we didn’t convert.”

On the Aztecs’ first offensive drive, Santos moved his team from his 21-yard line to the Air Force seven before he threw an incomplete pass and was then sacked for a loss of four yards.

When kicker Kevin Rahill was wide on a 27-yard field goal attempt, the tone of the game seemed set.

“We should have put the ball in on that first drive,” Santos said.

On the next offensive series, Santos--just a little off all evening--overthrew a wide-open Kenny Moore on a bomb. Moore had Air Force beaten by 10 yards, but the ball went off his fingertips.

The Aztecs did score 10 points in the second quarter, but the touchdown came on a 33-yard drive after a fumble recovery.

In the second half, the Aztecs were held scoreless. For Santos, who had seven interceptions in his last two games against Air Force, the evening only got tougher.

Midway through the third quarter, Santos underthrew Alfred Jackson, who was behind the secondary. The ball was just short and batted away by cornerback Mike Toliver.

Asked if he will dream about those two long passes, Santos said: “The whole game will stick out.”

“We didn’t quite connect tonight,” said Aztec Coach Denny Stolz. “He (Santos) missed a few passes, but there was a rush that was bothering him more near the end.”

That rush smothered Santos and downed him for a safety with 5:50 to play. A very weary and frustrated Santos walked off the field after the safety.

“The whole game we couldn’t put it in the end zone,” Santos said.

When they finally got the ball in the end zone in the second half, it was the wrong end zone.