By Nick Austin – Spear Reporter | Quarterback Walker Eget and the SJSU offense getting ready for a play during the matchup against UNLV on Nov. 22 (Photo by Nick Orozco – Co-Executive Editor of The Spear)
To start the season, San Jose State football had a record of 4-1 with its only loss coming in double-overtime to Washington State in which both teams scored 50+ points.
However, the Spartans’ are 1-3 in their last four games and are 6-5 on the year.
Two of those losses came against ranked opponents in No. 13 Boise State and No. 24 UNLV. SJSU had leads in both of those games with legitimate chances at winning them.
SJSU was tied with Boise State 21-21 when on a fourth down run sophomore quarterback Walker Eget fumbled the ball when he was hit by a defender.
“[Turnovers] is a big thing I’ve been struggling with, and I need to really change that this week,” Eget said at the postgame press conference after SJSU’s loss to Boise State. “The score would be a lot different if we didn’t lose the turnover battle.”
This fumble allowed Boise State to gain the momentum necessary to get their Heisman Trophy candidate running back, junior Ashton Jeanty, going late in the game.
Games are never lost or won on one or two plays, but this play highlights an issue with the Spartans over the last four games: high turnovers, especially when it occurs at inopportune times during the game.
SJSU has committed 10 turnovers against its last four opponents. During this same span SJSU has forced six turnovers which comes out to a negative four turnover margin.
When compared to the Spartans’ first four games, they committed 10 turnovers but forced 12.
Earlier in the season the team was still turning the ball over at the same rate, but the defense was able to force more turnovers as well.
It’d be a valid excuse to chalk both UNLV and Boise State as scheduled losses considering how well both teams have performed this year, but I don’t want to do that. The expected outcome of both games was on the verge of not taking place due to how well SJSU was playing early on.
In both losses against UNLV and Boise State, the Spartans failed to get out of their own way. You can’t win a football game if you’re turning the ball over at a consistent rate.
This isn’t just on the quarterback either. Offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann’s “spread-n-shred” offense has shown all year to be an offense that relies on the pass and with that, interceptions will naturally follow.
With that being said, the turnover by Eget against UNLV and the overall play of the offense are less on the team and more due to the bad weather that played a major part in the outcome of that game.
The defense was able to keep pace with the turnovers made by the offense and even create more turnovers than the offense was giving up during most games at the beginning of the year.
However that slim turnover advantage has slipped away and now, as SJSU has faced tougher opponents and more potent offenses, the flaw of this team, the turnovers, has begun to rear its ugly head.
“That was my number one message going into the game, we have to take care of the football,” head coach Ken Niumatalolo said after the Boise State loss. “It cost us.”
Scoring has also been down as well. In the Spartans’ 4-1 start, they averaged 35.4 points per game. In this 1-3 stretch, the team has averaged less than half that at only 15 points per game.
However, scoring doesn’t appear to be SJSU’s biggest issue as they have faced some stout defenses in UNLV, Fresno State and Boise State during their 1-3 stretch.
This is not an issue that will get fixed before the season ends but it is important to highlight a constant trend of this team throughout the year as they have made their way through a variety of opponents, all with different defensive strengths and defensive rankings.
For SJSU to not only win against Stanford in its final regular season game of the year and its eventual Bowl Game appearance, the defense will need to nullify the turnover issue that has persisted with this Spartans’ offense all year.
