Aztecs Are Clueless Until It’s Too Late

By the time the San Diego State defense figured out what to do against Stanford Saturday afternoon, the game essentially was over.

The fact that that moment came with almost three quarters still to be played shows how quickly and helplessly the Aztecs fell behind the Cardinal.

Before the defense could adjust, Stanford had scored four touchdowns on its way to a 31-10 victory in front of an estimated crowd of 26,000 at Stanford Stadium.

“Everything was happening so fast in the first quarter,” said Ed Schmidt, SDSU’s defensive coordinator. “Just as quickly as we were trying to make an adjustment, we were back on the field.”

Actually, what the Cardinal (1-1) did has become a familiar pattern against an Aztec team that looks again as if it might be one of the worst defensive teams in the country.

The Aztecs (1-2) gave up 406 yards and let fullback Jon Volpe run them out of the game in the first half.

Volpe, a redshirt sophomore, finished with a career-high 165 yards and 3 touchdowns on a 31 carries. Most of Volpe’s yardage came in the first half, when he gained 136 yards on 19 carries and scored on runs of 4, 1 and 6 yards as the Cardinal took a 28-3 lead.

Not bad for a player who stands only 5-feet 7-inches and had to take several rest breaks because of a flu that has slowed him for several days.

“It was really fatiguing in the first half,” Volpe said. “I had been fighting through it, but it was a hot day (sunny and 78 degrees at kickoff), and it just got to me. But the way our offensive line was blocking in the first half, anyone could have run through those holes.”

That was only half the problem in stopping Volpe; the other half was finding him.

“He’s so short that I had a hard time seeing him coming through the line,” said defensive lineman Brad Burton, who played with a padded cast over his right hand to protect a dislocated index finger. “And I would suspect that our deeper guys had the same problem because they are farther away from it than I am.”

It was not the first time Volpe had gotten the better of the Aztecs. He had his previous career best of 126 yards in a 44-40 victory in San Diego last year. This time, he was especially effective with a series of draw and counter plays that left the Aztec defense out of position and far behind.

“The counter plays all depend on the defense,” Volpe said. “Their defensive line followed our guard and tackle, and that set it up.”

SDSU did not have much success stopping quarterback Brian Johnson, either. He completed 12 of 21 passes for 163 yards and scored the Cardinal’s second touchdown on a 1-yard sneak.

Not until the Aztecs scrapped their usual 3-4 defense did they slow down the Cardinal. They elected to play a variation of their nickle defense with four down linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs.

“It’s not like we drew it in the sand, but it was not something practiced as that defense,” Schmidt said. “We played elements of three different defenses, all of which were in, but the defense itself wasn’t in the game plan.”

It was the latest of a series of adjustments Schmidt has had to make as he juggles a defense short on healthy, experienced players. He began the game with a revamped line of Steve Blyth, Mitch Burton and Pio Sagapolutele, all making their first start.

“We made some assumptions going in that we could stand up to them with our young linemen in the 3-4, but we couldn’t do it,” Schmidt said. “It’s just a shame we didn’t learn that a little quicker than we did.”

Not all the Aztecs’ problems were caused by the defense. The offense, which had been so potent in a 39-36 victory over Air Force last Sunday, sputtered early.

Brad Platt, after relatively strong performances in his first two starts at quarterback, had a nightmarish afternoon. He completed 19 of 36 passes for 196 yards but was sacked 4 times and threw 3 interceptions after having thrown only 1 in his first two games.

One of those interceptions came with 2 seconds left in the first half on a fourth and goal at the Stanford 7. Platt tried to find tailback Paul Hewitt at the goal line, but outside linebacker Rob Hinckley stepped in for for his second interception of the game.

“I just stunk,” Platt said. “I got out of my game a little bit. They brought some heat (blitzing), and I knew they would. Todd (Santos) had 536 yards passing against them last year, and our offense is as good, if not better, than last year, so they had to do something.”

Platt’s troubles were especially costly in the first half, when the Aztec defense was having difficulties of its own keeping the Cardinal out of the end zone. After the Aztecs took a 3-0 lead on Tyler Ackerson’s career-best 50-yard field goal, Platt struggled. He threw eight consecutive incompletions, including Hinckley’s first interception, which set up the Cardinal’s fourth touchdown on a 6-yard run by Volpe.

“Brad . . . played a little lost and was a little cold,” SDSU Coach Denny Stolz said.

Hewitt was held to 37 yards on 12 carries after rushing for a career-high 259 yards and 4 touchdowns against Air Force. He did not appear to have his usual sharpness, possibly because of a sprained ankle that kept him out of practice for three days last week. He did, however, score SDSU’s only touchdown and his 29th in 15 games on a 2-yard run with 8:32 left in the third quarter.

By then, even though its offense had begun to sputter, Stanford remained well in control on the strength of its first-half cushion. The Aztecs’ improved defensive play in the second half did more to encourage them than it did to cause the Cardinal to wonder what went wrong.

After giving up an average of 35.7 points per game last season and allowing an average of 42 in its first three this season, the Aztecs are looking for any positive defensive signs. Maybe that was why they were so heartened by limiting Stanford to a field goal in a second half that also included two season firsts. Todd Coomes got the the Aztecs’ first sack, Casey Copeland their first interception.

“I’m optimistic this could be the start of something special,” said Brad Burton, who used his cast to block a third-quarter field-goal try. “We didn’t seem to turn it up to start the game, but in the second half we played with a lot more emotion.

“We showed how good our defense can be.”

That still leaves considerable room for improvement, and with an open date Saturday before a home game against Oregon Oct. 1, the Aztecs plan to use the time to improve and, maybe just as important, get healthy.