Sunday, September 16, 2018

Mountain West Recap Week 3

The Mountain West feasted on the PAC 12 with three wins including an upset of a ranked opponent.
Image result for arizona st san diego st footballSan Diego St 28-No. 23 Arizona St 21
If you didn't stay up until past 2:00 a.m. to watch the finish of Arizona State (2-1) and San Diego St (2-1), then you missed one of the more bizarre finishes of the day.
As I struggled to keep my eyes open, I was left aghast at the final moments where the Aztecs held onto a 28-14 lead. The Sun Devils scored on a Manny Wilkins touchdown, but failed to recover the onside kick. San Diego State just had to run the clock out, but Chase Jasmin was stripped and ASU recovered the fumble to stay alive. There is some debate about whether Jasmin was down, but officials gave the ball to the Sun Devils.
ASU moved the ball out to the fifty where Wilkins threw a high arcing pass on fourth and ten that found the arms of Frank Darby and it looked as though he made a ridiculous catch despite taking a blow to the head. While reviewing for targeting, the officials upheld the targeting call, but overturned the catch, which my dry sleepy eyes could not believe.
Because of the penalty the Sun Devils got one last heave to the end zone, but it was knocked down and the Aztecs secured the win. Juwan Washington had 138 yards on 27 carries with a touchdown and despite the fumble, Jasmin had a good day with 112 yards and a score.


San Diego State welcomes the legends that are the Eastern Michigan Eagles (2-1).
Image result for fresno st ucla footballFresno St 38-UCLA 14
Well Chip Kelly's first season at UCLA (0-3) isn't going any better as the Bulldogs (2-1) held the Bruins to just 270 total yards.
Marcus McMaryion threw for 270 yards and a touchdown, but it was the four rushing touchdowns he had in the red zone that made the difference. The Bulldogs defense forced four turnovers to keep UCLA winless.
Fresno State will take the week off before welcoming the Toledo Rockets on Sept. 29.
Image result for oregon st beavers nevada footballNevada 37-Oregon St 35
The Wolfpack (2-1) shook off a blowout loss at Vanderbilt last week to hold off Oregon State (1-2).
Both teams got off to a fast start as they raced to a 30-21 halftime score. The two big moments came on Beaver turnovers. Conor Blount was picked off to give Nevada a short field and extend its lead to 16-7. Two drives later Blount was sacked and stripped by Asauni Rufus and Malik Reed recovered in the end zone that made it 30-7 at that point.
The Beavers would rally at that point, bringing it to a 30-28 score with 11:40 left in the game, but Ty Gangi led the Wolfpack right down the field for a score. Oregon State would miss a field goal, but forced an interception and used the short field to score a touchdown to make it 37-35.
The Beavers got the ball back and had a chance to win the game, but Jordan Choukair missed a 34-yard field goal as time expired.
Nevada will head to Toledo to take on the Rockets (1-1) next.
Image result for new mexico lobos new mexico state aggies footballNew Mexico 42-New Mexico St 25
The Lobos (2-1) picked off New Mexico State (0-4) quarterbacks five times, including a pick-six to both start and finish the scoring.
New Mexico actually trailed 17-7 after the first quarter, but poured it on by outscoring the Aggies 35-8 from that point on to win the Rio Grande Rivalry for the first time since 2015. Ahmari Davis had 74 yards on 21 carries with four touchdowns to lead the Lobo offense.
New Mexico takes the week off before welcoming the newest member of the FBC, Liberty, on Sept. 29.
Image result for tennessee tech utah st footballUtah St 73-Tennessee Tech 12
Utah St (2-1) ran for 320 yards and seven touchdowns as a team with Darwin Thompson leading the way with 107 and a score. Jordan Love accounted for three total touchdowns as the Aggies outgained Tennessee Tech (0-3) 611-227.
Utah State will host a well rested Air Force (1-1) squad.
Image result for wofford wyoming footballWyomingn 17-Wofford 10
Wyoming (2-2) needed a Tyler Vander Waal touchdown pass to Raghib Ismail Jr. with 17 seconds left to avoid the upset at the hands of Wofford (2-1).
The Cowboys defense sealed the victory with a their third turnover of the game. Vander Waal had 224 yards passing and two touchdowns to lead the way for Wyoming.
The Cowboys take a week off before opening Mountain West play against defending champ Boise St (2-1).
Image result for boise st oklahoma stNo.24 Oklahoma St 44-No. 17 Boise St 21
Brett Rypien threw for 380 yards and three touchdowns, but they weren't nearly enough to knock off Oklahoma St (3-0) on the road.
The turning point in the game came when the Broncos (2-1) trailed 20-14 in the third quarter, but the Cowboys turned around and scored in less than three minutes to push the lead back to 13. That lead grew when Boise State was forced to punt and Joel Velazquez had his punt blocked and returned for a touchdown that put Oklahoma St up 34-21.
Boise State will be off next week before traveling to Wyoming (2-2) on Sept. 29.
Image result for prairie view am unlv footballUNLV 46-Prairie View A&M 17
The Rebels (2-1) pounced on the Panthers (1-3) 34-0 in the first half to cruise past their FCS foe.
Armani Rogers had 130 yards passing with a score and added 122 yards on 17 carries with four touchdowns to lead UNLV. Lexington Thomas also crossed the 100-yard rushing mark (124) and added a score.
The Rebels travel to Arkansas St (2-1) next.
Image result for san jose st oregon footballNo. 23 Oregon 35-San Jose St 22
The Spartans (0-3) for their part weren't a complete pushover, forcing two turnovers and scoring in three of the four quarters.
However, Justin Herbert and the Oregon Ducks (3-0) proved to be too much and San Jose State has now dropped 13 of its last 14 and 14 of 16 since the 2017 season.
They get a bye week before welcoming Hawai'i on Sept. 29.
Image result for hawaii army footballArmy 28-Hawai'i 21
No offense was rolling better than Hawai'i (3-1), but the Army (2-1) defense did enough to hold down Cole McDonald and the Rainbow Warriors.
McDonald threw for 321 yards and two touchdowns, but the Army offense held the ball for over 41 minutes and ran for 303 yards and four scores. Trailing 28-14, McDonald found John Ursua for his second touchdown, this time an 80-yard strike.
On the final drive McDonald was unable to find the end zone as Cole Christiansen broke up the pass intended for Ursua.
Hawai'i returns to the islands for a showdown with Duquesne (3-1), whose lone loss was a 63-15 drubbing by UMass.
Image result for colorado st florida footballFlorida 48-Colorado St 10
The good news is that the Rams (1-3) got a $2 million check to lose this game thanks to Jim McElwain no longer coaching either team. The check was a way to complete the buyout of then Colorado St coach McElwain's contract. So the Gators (2-1) may have won the battle, but the Rams athletic department won the war.
K.J. Carta-Samuels managed just 217 yards passing with a touchdown in the loss.
The Rams welcome Illinois St (2-0) next.

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