By Aaron Johnson (@voz_aaron1) – Spear Reporter
Wide receiver Nick Nash catches one of his three touchdowns on the night – photo by Nicholas Orozco | The Spear
San Jose State’s offense got off to a start that head coach Ken Niumatalolo only could have envisioned in his nightmares on Thursday night.
“It’s like the worst start that we could have had, happened,” Niumatalolo said.
The first offensive play of SJSU’s 42-24 win over Sacramento State was a high snap from freshman center Tyler Chen over sophomore quarterback Emmett Brown’s head forcing him to throw it away and take an intentional grounding penalty.
Just two plays later Brown’s pass would be intercepted as he underthrew senior wide receiver Nick Nash on a deep ball after catching another high snap.
The next drive started with another bad snap from Chen resulting in a fumble recovered by Sacramento State at the SJSU 15-yard line.
Chen was replaced at center by junior lineman Hudson Mesa on the following drive.
Sacramento State took advantage of the turnovers getting off to a commanding 14-0 lead. This was big in part to the junior running back Elijah Tau-Tolliver who in the first half alone had 94 yards and two touchdowns.
SJSU would not let these early hiccups define them as the Spartans would start to play up to the standard that they expected.
The moment the momentum began to finally go in the Spartans’ favor was when Brown threw a screen pass to Nash who then dropped into his quarterback stance and hurled a touchdown to junior tight end Jacob Stewart.
Nash was the player of the game for the Spartans as he racked up 170 yards and two touchdowns on top of his 26-yard touchdown pass.
There was only one thing on Nash’s mind when the call for the play came in.
“Touchdown, that’s all that was going through my head,” Nash said. “This play is gold, I know it’s gonna work.”
In his first start, Brown was able to deal with the adversity and get the win.
“It’s been a couple years since I played,” Brown said. “Obviously some nerves to get back out there but I studied enough to know what I was going to do when I got back out there.”
Niumatalolo was impressed with Brown’s composure given the hand he was dealt early in the game.
“With the way the game started and for him to still come back, the sky is the limit for him,” Niumatalolo said.
Brown would finish the game 20-34 with 298 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He showed good chemistry with Nash targeting him 16 times.
SJSU senior wide receiver Justin Lockhart had four receptions for 42 yards and a touchdown in his first game back from a shoulder injury. Lockhart looks to complement Nash in the passing game and be a solid number-two option for Brown.
Another stand-out for the offense was junior running back Floyd Chalk IV. Rushing for 87 yards and two touchdowns including a 27-yard run to put the final nail in the coffin.
In the second half the defense only allowed one score and most importantly limited the run game. Tau-Toliver only had 16 rushing yards in the last two quarters.
Spartans’ senior safety Robert Rahimi flew all over the field racking nine total tackles. When it came to how the defense played in the second half, Rahimi said the Spartans were making it harder on themselves.
“It wasn’t really what (Sacramento State) were doing, it was more of what we were doing,” Rahimi said. “There were a lot of missed assignments in the first half.”
SJSU’s five takeaways were the most they had in a game since 2013 which also happened to be against Sacramento State.
“Our goal was four (takeaways), so getting five was outstanding,” Rahimi said.
On the other side of the ball, the SJSU offense had three turnovers.
Niumatalolo said ball security is the number one priority for the team to work on going into week two.
“If we turn the ball over like that against Air Force we won’t see it till next week,” Niumatalolo said.
SJSU looks to add another win on the season as the Spartans are scheduled to play Air Force at 4 p.m. Sept. 7 on the road at Falcon Stadium.
