Aztecs Pass Luginbill’s Test, Win : College football: Coach, concerned with passing game, watches Lowery throw for three touchdowns in SDSU’s 49-21 victory over New Mexico. Faulk gets 200 yards, two touchdowns.

New Mexico’s football field was chewed down to its skin in nearly a dozen spots because of grubworm outbreak.

The San Diego State offense ground up the rest of it during a relentless 49-21 drubbing of the Lobos on Saturday night despite a game plan designed--if you can believe this--to take the ball out of Marshall Faulk’s hands.

Aztec Coach Al Luginbill had warned during the week that the Aztec offense, heretofore one-dimensional, might bypass Faulk in search of the passing game.

He was not kidding.

Although Faulk gained 200 yards on 25 carries in front of a University Stadium crowd of 23,186, it was one of his quieter evenings. Instead, Aztec quarterback David Lowery equaled a season-high with 39 pass attempts, completing 28 for 291 yards and three touchdowns. It was the first time Lowery passed for more than 200 yards this season.

By the end of the evening, it looked as if the grubworms had started in on the Lobos. Ten different Aztec receivers caught passes, Wayne Pittman carried 12 times for 93 yards--most of them coming on a 38-yard run on a fake punt--and back-up quarterback Tim Gutierrez even completed two of two passes for 26 yards.

Perhaps nobody was happier for the return of SDSU’s passing attack than Lowery, whose still-sore back was bathed in productivity.

“Now we don’t have to go out there and say, ‘We’ve got to do good’ for once,” Lowery said.

Added receiver Keith Williams, who caught four passes for 22 yards: “It was bound to happen if we all concentrated and were on the same page as David.”

Luginbill attempted to convince his team all week that their backs were up against the wall, but SDSU’s redshirts might have been competitive with this New Mexico bunch.

The Lobos’ evening was marked by key penalties (nine for 50 yards) and broken coverages. Darnay Scott caught seven passes for 100 yards. The Lobos were outgained 597 total yards to 259, and Winslow Oliver, who entered the game as the nation’s fourth-leading rusher with an average of 137 yards per game, was held to 49 yards.

And the Lobo defense was shredded for 317 passing yards.

“They had an extra guy keying on Marshall,” Lowery said. “We were throwing to the uncovered guy.”

The Aztecs (2-1-1, 2-0 in the Western Athletic Conference) seemed to use Faulk just enough to win and move into a tie with Hawaii for first place in the WAC. They only allowed him back-to-back carries three times during the first three quarters.

“It gave me a little breather,” Faulk said. “Pass blocking is harder than running the ball, but you don’t use as much energy.

“We had wide-open holes at the beginning of the game instead of at the end of the game.”

Faulk broke loose for a 53-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, giving SDSU a 14-0 lead, and for an 11-yard score in the third, padding the Aztec lead to 35-14.

It was the ninth consecutive game in which Faulk gained more than 100 yards, and it was his fifth 200-yard game in 14 career outings.

He now has 2,266 career yards, moving him into third place on the all-time SDSU list, past David “Deacon” Turner’s 2,234, accomplished in 1976-1977.

And the Heisman Trophy dreams continue.

“Our team is going to have to screw this up for Marshall Faulk not to be the best player in the country,” Luginbill said. “But now people are going to have to defend the whole field. We served notice of that today.”

The Lobos are simply happy their visit with Faulk is finished.

“Marshall Faulk can read a hole before it’s there,” said Lobo linebacker Jesse Becton, whose helmet fractured three of Faulk’s ribs in last season’s meeting. “He’s a great back. I’m going to be glad to watch him in the pros--to say I’ve played against him.”

New Mexico trailed at halftime, 21-7, and fell behind 49-14 before scoring a touchdown on a 16-yard pass play as time expired in the fourth quarter.

“We were not tired or down from the Air Force game,” said Lobo Coach Dennis Franchione, recalling New Mexico’s blowing a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter a week earlier. “San Diego State was a very good team with more speed than we’ve seen in practice.”

As mystifying as it seemed, though, the Aztecs stayed true to their word and all but took the ball out of Faulk’s hands. It was like going to see Pavarotti and getting Metallica. Grace for glitz.

Faulk carried the ball only once in SDSU’s first two series, and, appropriately enough, the Aztecs failed to move the ball each time. Their first series ended with a punt and their second ended when Lobo defensive tackle Willie Barry stripped Darnay Scott and recovered the fumble.

But the Lobo offense was as ineffective as Halloween candy in November. They bumbled their way through penalty after penalty, accumulating seven by halftime.

The Aztecs finally broke the ice with 1:49 left in the first quarter when Lowery hit Williams with a four-yard touchdown pass. The drive covered 35 yards in seven plays, and Faulk carried on only two of them.

After holding New Mexico on the next series, the Aztecs scored again. Despite the emphasis on the passing game, Faulk took advantage of two of his three carries during the six-play drive: He burst through right tackle for a 14-yard gain and, three plays later, he sliced through the middle, cut right and rambled 53 yards for a touchdown.

The Aztecs then scored on their third consecutive possession when Lowery passed 22 yards to DeAndre Maxwell with 7:09 left in the half. It was Maxwell’s first college touchdown.

But with 5:32 left in the half, SDSU ahead, 21-0, the Aztecs insisted again on passing rather than running--and this time it cost them. On the first play, Charles Butler picked off a Lowery pass intended for Ray Peterson and returned it 52 yards to the Aztec four.

Four plays later, Stoney Case passed six yards to Turhon O’Bannon to make it 21-7.

That’s the way it stood at halftime, despite SDSU’s huge statistical advantage. The Aztecs had 248 total yards to New Mexico’s 89 and 13 first downs to the Lobos’ three.

Faulk, meanwhile, had 124 yards rushing on only 12 carries.

SDSU increased its lead to 28-7 when Pittman ran 12 yards for a touchdown four minutes into the second half and, although the Lobos trimmed it to 28-14 when Case ran 42 yards on the next series, it was all New Mexico would get until the game’s final seconds.

Williams caught a three-yard touchdown pass and Pittman scored on a one-yard run to finish SDSU’s scoring.

And in a matter of an evening, some of the pain of last week’s 35-7 pounding by UCLA was alleviated.

“A lot better this week, huh?” Lowery asked rhetorically in the SDSU locker room.

He didn’t wait for an answer.