SDSU Defensive Scouting Report Heading into Matchup with BYU

Due to injuries and early heart-wrenching losses, SDSU is very light up the middle. The Aztecs have good sideline-to-sideline speed but a hard time standing toe-to-toe with their opponents in the trenches.

After some bad losses in recent weeks, this SDSU team is coming into Provo with desperation in its eyes. If our offense or defense comes out and lays an egg on its first series, it could end up being a long day. BYU instead must comes out and blast SDSU straight in the chest; they won’t be able to withstand the disappointment, and the day will be ours.

Don’t get me wrong, SDSU has some guys who can play. Both corners are good players who have good feet and good hips and stay tight in coverage—its safeties, on the other hand, aren’t the best in coverage. The Aztecs also have good all-around team speed, but their linebackers and defensive backs often take bad angles and end up in difficult positions to make plays.

I feel for this team, but I won’t feel sorry for them until the ninth of November.

The SDSU defense scheme is a 4-3, but they often have a fifth outside linebacker on the line to help in protecting the defenses edge. When the Aztecs need to stop the run they will bring their safeties into the box and rely on their corners abilities to hold up in coverage. SDSU will also brings numerous zone blitzes if they feel the run support is lacking.

Their defense is at its best when they can stretch play horizontally allowing them to use correct angles and momentum to make tackles and plays.

I am watching the UNM game for the second time as I write this, and it really must have been the worst defensive game I have ever seen. It’s like watching a really nasty injury; you don’t want to but when the moment of impact comes you just have to peek between your fingers to see the damage.

To be completely honest, their defense is like Swiss cheese. SDSU’s best players are their two corners, but they will only be effective if their defensive front gets their pass rush working. I just don’t see that happening due to our size and ability advantage.

AP Photo by Denis Poroy

In passing situations, the Aztecs' go-to coverage is cover-two, and in 3rd-and-long situations they will be in a nickel package with five underneath players and three over-the-top players. This type of max coverage forces the offense to take a short throw and have the ball-carrier weave their way through the defense in order to pick up the first down.

The only way SDSU can stop our offense is if we completely break down. Their defense is good enough to get a couple of stops, but as long as our offense comes out blazing points shouldn’t be hard to come by.

My worst nightmare has the Cougars coming out completely flat, turning the ball over early and our defense being unable to stop the run.

Wait a second, that scenario seems all too familiar.

Do you know what I would like to see from our offense? I would like to see a demoralizing run game, which is complemented with play-action passes with Max Hall on the edge, whipping the ball around on the run. Than Fui and Harvey—yes I said that in the right order; Harvey needs to rest up and get back to 100 percent—softened SDSU’s middle up enough that the Aztecs have to devote every body they have to stopping the run.

As they put more and more players in the box, we then begin to use Dennis and Andrew. When the Aztec defense then feels inadequate to the task of stopping our tight ends, we begin using our wide receivers, and so on and so forth.

It’s a simple formula, but I think if we can start scoring early this fragile team will lose what confidence they have and they’ll begin making more and more mistakes.

I wish San Diego State the best on Sunday, Nov. 9, but until then I would ask that the Cougs start playing like they want a piece of the MWC Championship. With the Utes' win over TCU, we still have a waaayyyy outside shot at the BCS and we could still share a portion of the MWC title.

If our team can show some improvement over the next two game we could enter the Black-out stadium to play the most significant rivalry game in the Holy Wars' long history.

(Let’s just not forget to beat the Cadets in Colorado Springs first.)