SAN DIEGO — Riding a five-game winning streak, BYU was looking to put an exclamation point on its regular-season in its regular-season finale at San Diego State Saturday night.
But the Cougars simply couldn’t score enough points against a stingy Aztec defense.
After exploding for a season-high 56 points a week ago against a feeble UMass team, BYU’s offense was bottled up most of the night against San Diego State, which earned a 13-3 victory.
“We got way more yards and more first downs, but they had more points,” said coach Kalani Sitake. “We turned the ball over. We basically lost the special teams battle and offensively we weren’t able to put points on the board.”
With that, the Aztecs (9-3) snapped BYU’s five-game winning streak and the Cougars concluded their regular season with a whimper.
SDSU also ended a six-game losing streak to the Cougars (7-5), dating back to 2005, before a crowd of 28,180 at SDCCU Stadium.
But it wasn’t just the defense that rose to the occasion against BYU.
San Diego State redshirt freshman quarterback Carson Baker not only made his first collegiate start but also took his first collegiate snaps Saturday. Baker completed 19 of 24 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown.
BYU sophomore QB Zach Wilson completed 31 of 53 passes for 316 yards and two interceptions.
The Cougars out-gained the Aztecs in total yardage, 416-269.
“We were moving the ball, we just weren’t scoring points,” Sitake said.
The defensive-minded Aztecs entered the night ranked No. 3 nationally in rush defense, allowing 71 yards per game. SDSU was also No. 6 in scoring defense, yielding 13.7 points per game. BYU rushed for 78 yards Saturday.
Last week, freshman running back Jackson McChesney ran for 228 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries to break the program’s freshman record for single-game rushing yards. McChesney’s effort was the sixth-best all-time at BYU.
Against SDSU, McChesney was dressed but he had zero carries.
All night, the Aztec defense made big plays at crucial times.
SDSU seized a 10-3 lead with 5:24 remaining in the third quarter on a 44-yard field goal by Matt Araiza.
Later in that quarter, BYU attempted a flea flicker, but the ball was knocked out of Wilson’s hand by Tariq Thompson, who recovered the fumble near midfield.
The Cougars forced an SDSU punt on its next possession and the BYU offense drove deep into Aztec territory. But the Cougars couldn’t find their way into the end zone, and Skyler Southam’s 26-yard field goal attempt smacked the left upright with 10 minutes remaining. Once again, BYU’s offense came up empty.
“It’s just trying to find a way to get into the end zone,” Sitake said. “It’s not indicative of what we can do.”
“We’ve got to get in the end zone,” Wilson said.
San Diego State responded with a long drive of its own, culminating with a 27-yard field goal by Araiza that pushed the Aztecs’ lead to 13-3 with 5:40 left.
The Cougars tried to mount a comeback with another drive, but Thompson intercepted Wilson to end that drive with 4:43 remaining.
BYU drove again in the waning moments of the game but with 12 seconds left, Southam missed a 26-yard field goal attempt.
The Cougars struck first in the first quarter when Southam booted a 24-yard field goal.
But that was all the scoring that the BYU offense could produce in the first half. Penalties and an interception doomed several drives. The Cougars went 0 of 6 on third down conversions over the first two quarters.
Wilson struggled for much of the first half, completing 10 of 17 passes for 127 yards and a pick, and the Cougars failed to get their run game going.
Meanwhile, Baker completed 13 of 17 passes for 82 yards and a touchdown in the first half.
The game’s only TD of the first half came when Baker connected with tight end Daniel Bellinger on a 25-yard pass to make it 7-3 for SDSU at halftime.
BYU will play in the Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24 in Honolulu.