Questionable play calls, tough breaks, Bulldogs find another way to lose to end season
The Fresno State Bulldogs were in control of their fate with a chance to make a run to the Mountain West Conference championship game for the third year in a row.
The Bulldogs instead found ways to lose four games in a row, all close the last of those a 17-16 season-ending crusher at San Jose State on Saturday at CEFCU Stadium.
Before that, a 35-28 loss to Nevada.
Before that, a 17-7 loss at San Diego State.
Before that, a 37-35 loss to Utah State.
There were some questionable tactical decisions in all of those games and like coach Jeff Tedford said about the final series in that loss to Nevada, if they played it differently and it didn’t work then he’d be defending that decision just the same. But the Bulldogs gave away their best chance of beating the Spartans and retaining that Valley Trophy with another one just before halftime.
Up 16-3 inside of one minute to play, the Bulldogs had a 3rd-and-goal from the San Jose State 8-yard line. Quarterback Jorge Reyna hit Jared Rice with an inside screen, the tight end taking the football down inside the 1.
There were 41 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs had a timeout.
But the Bulldogs rushed to the line and Reyna was stopped cold on a quarterback sneak.
“We felt like we got a bad mark,” Tedford said. “One referee came in and put it on the half-yard line and that’s what we saw from upstairs, so we called a quarterback sneak from the half-yard line and then the other referee came running in at the end and put it on the 2-yard line, which is really unfortunate and they admitted to me that they had poor communication on the play. But those are costly things. If we think it’s on the half-yard line, we’re going to hurry up and run a quarterback sneak in there and all of a sudden they run in and put it on the 2-yard line.
“That was unfortunate because, obviously, we would not have run a quarterback sneak from the 2-yard line.”
Given that, the Bulldogs could have used their final time out.
They didn’t.
“We were in a hurry-up situation and there’s a lot of bodies moving around in there at that time and I’m not sure … (Reyna) is just doing what he’s told to do,” Tedford said. “It wasn’t his fault. It was just miscommunication. We thought we were on the half-yard line and we weren’t.”
San Jose State has not been good against 3rd-and-short or red-zone rushing plays and the Bulldogs appeared to get a poor spot from the official. But even from the half-yard line, a quarterback sneak leaves a lot to be desired given the injuries that have knocked every starter across the offensive line out of the lineup.
In that four-game losing streak, Fresno State ran 18 plays on 3rd-and-short or 4th-and-short and made only six first downs.
The Bulldogs put the ball in the air on seven of those plays, four resulting in a first down. They rushed it 11 times, with two first downs and one of them was a run by tight end Cam Sutton.
San Jose State had nine defenders in the box, two outside covering wideouts.
A touchdown would have put the Bulldogs up 23-3 heading into the locker room with all the momentum and the first possession of the second half.
They, instead, finished the season 4-8 and 2-6 in conference play, a year after a 12-2 record and a Mountain West championship.
“Nowhere where we expect to be,” Tedford said. “Each game is a little bit different. Every game is competitive and you have to find a way to win close games and we weren’t able to do that.
“For one reason or the other, it didn’t happen, so we have to learn from these things and gain some experience from it and go back to the drawing board. One thing I can’t fault this team for, ever, and that’s their competitive instincts. They give it everything they have every game. There have been a lot of close games and it’s just unfortunate it hasn’t gone our way. Other people found a way to win and we haven’t.”
By the numbers
11 – Consecutive failed third-down conversions for Fresno State. The Bulldogs hit on their first third-down attempt, but finished 1 of 12. It was their first game with only one third-down conversion since a 41-21 victory over Nevada in 2017.
4 – Average yards to go for Fresno State to convert a third down. They had a 3rd-and-3 or fewer six times and didn’t make a single one.
177 – Rushing yards for Ronnie Rivers, who finished the season with 899 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns. Fresno State has not had a 1,000-yard rusher since Marteze Waller in 2014.
113 – Career receptions for senior Jared Rice, who set school records for receptions (113) and receiving yards (1,365) by a tight end and tied the record for receiving touchdowns by a tight end (11).
5 – Explosive pass plays of 20 or more yards by the Spartans. In eight conference games, the Bulldogs allowed 26 pass plays of 20 or more yards. A year ago, they allowed 29 in 14 games.
187 – Total yards for the Bulldogs in the first quarter.
165 – Total yards for the Bulldogs the rest of the game – they had 76 in the second quarter, 61 in the third and just 28 in the fourth. Fresno State gained 50 or fewer yards in 10 quarters this season.
10 – Starting offensive line combinations in 12 games for Fresno State. Against San Jose State, Nick Abbs made the first start of his career at right guard with Nick Aibuedefe at left tackle, Jace Fuamatu at left guard, Tyrone Sampson at center and Dontae Bull at right tackle.
8 – Tackles for loss for the Bulldogs’ defense, matching a season high.
108 – Points allowed by the Bulldogs this season in the fourth quarter. They allowed 82 in the first quarter, 96 in the second, 65 in the third and 10 in overtime periods.