Head coaches always love to say they played lights out after a tough Saturday of college football. In the case of No. 19 Stanford and San Diego State they mean it quite literally.
With just under four minutes left in the fourth quarter, the banks of lighting at decrepit old Qualcomm Stadium simply went out in a close, tense four point game. The inexplicable timeout was reminiscent of Super Bowl XLVII’s outage -- only with slightly less on the line for either side. That brief moment of darkness turned out to be a moment of clarity for the Aztecs however, and allowed them to game plan an 11 play, 75 yard go-ahead scoring drive that sealed a 20-17 victory and made the team an immediate Group of Five bid contender.
Well, the lights have GONE OUT in San Diego.
— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) September 17, 2017
.@Aztec_Football was driving down 4 with just under 4 minutes to play. pic.twitter.com/HXimAHo5Z4
We played lights out tonight. pic.twitter.com/lum1vgiEHE
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) September 17, 2017
We're using our phones for light... pic.twitter.com/0hMwQn1nHL
— Jason Woodmansee (@jasonwoodmansee) September 17, 2017
The outage overshadowed the much anticipated duel between star tailbacks Bryce Love and Rashaad Penny, who both lived up to the hype as they carried their respective teams offensively deep into the night. Given the conservative nature of both head coaches, there was little issue with running the ball often and playing stout defense between two good teams but it certainly made for a rather unexciting contest when all was said and done.
Cardinal quarterback Keller Chryst was largely ineffective and had his worst outing as a starter, finishing with just eight completions for an unremarkable 56 yards and the game-sealing interception with 48 seconds left. If not for Love running behind that bruising offensive line (184 yards and two scores), things could have been even worse for the one-time title dark horse.
As good as Love was though, his counterpart for the Aztecs was just as good in a second consecutive Pac-12 win. Penny wound up with 206 all-purpose yards and one touchdown, the bulk coming on 175 ground-churning rushing yards. Quarterback Christian Chapman was efficient to bring balance to the offense -- 187 yards and the game-winning touchdown toss -- and put SDSU firmly in the mix for the Group of Five bid at the end of the year with a pair of major victories.