Are Bulldogs vulnerable against deep passes, and can San Jose State take advantage?

Fresno State has a date in the Mountain West championship game on Dec. 1 against the winner of a game Saturday between Boise State and Utah State.

If Boise State wins that game, the Bulldogs will make another trip to Idaho. If Utah State wins, Fresno State will be headed to Logan.

But before the Bulldogs get to play for a title and a ring they have a game Saturday against San Jose State to close the regular season, the final home game for 27 seniors, many of whom made it through a 1-11 season in 2016 and two years later will be playing for a conference championship for a second year in a row.

That’s James Bailey and George Helmuth, KeeSean Johnson and Jamire Jordan, Micah St. Andrew and Christian Cronk, Patrick Belony and Trent Soechting …

The seniors will be leaving the program in better shape than it was when they arrived on campus and are one win away from back-to-back 10-win seasons, something that has happened just once in school history.

That is likely to happen against the 1-10 Spartans. Fresno State is a 31-point favorite.

Here are some things to watch:

Defending the deep ball

Fresno State has allowed only 24 explosive pass plays of 20 or more yards this season, the fewest in the MW and tied for 13th fewest in the nation.

But six of those plays have come in the Bulldogs’ past two games — at Boise State, which is very good at throwing the football, and against San Diego State, which is not.

Five of those six have come on first-down plays against busts in the secondary, and the Aztecs took their shots despite the fact they were a run-heavy team on first downs much of the season. San Diego State had rushed the ball on 76.7 percent of its first-down plays and against the Bulldogs threw it only five times on first downs compared to 18 rushing plays, but the Aztecs also hit three passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns.

“That was the most I’ve seen them chuck it in a long time, but obviously they saw something there that they felt they could take a shot on,” coach Jeff Tedford said.

“Sometimes you do that against teams that are overly aggressive and try to stop the run. You take your shots deep, and those weren’t even close. Those guys were running wide open. We didn’t have anybody even close to them.”

Will San Jose State see the same things?

The Spartans are not as run-heavy on first down as San Diego State or Boise State, and have not had nearly the same success rushing the ball. But if a defense is loading the box, they have shown the ability to hit some plays down field.

San Jose State has played three quarterbacks this season with Josh Love, Montel Aaron and Michael Carrillo, and has hit the majority of its explosive pass plays on first down.

▪ First down: 81 for 151, 1,358 yards at 9.0 YPA.

▪ Second down: 83 for 133, 746 yards at 5.6 YPA.

▪ Third down: 68 for 115, 718 yards at 6.2 YPA.

In the Spartans’ loss to Nevada last week, they hit four pass plays of 20 or more yards, and the Wolf Pack has allowed only 36 this season, fourth in the conference.

Fresno State, though, isn’t likely to need its safeties in the box to defend a Spartans’ run game that has struggled all season.

San Jose State is averaging just 2.0 yards per rush, last in the MW and in the nation, and has topped 100 yards rushing as a team just twice.

Will Bulldogs tighten RB rotation?

The Bulldogs gave sophomore running back Ronnie Rivers the ball 17 times in the second half of their 23-14 victory over San Diego State, and only once this season has a Fresno State carried the ball more times in a full game.

That was Jordan Mims, who had 21 rushing plays in the victory at UCLA.

Rivers, who missed the first three games while working his way back from a foot injury suffered in the spring, definitely gave the run game a spark. He gained 74 of his 78 yards in the second half, averaging 4.4 yards per play.

The Bulldogs utilized a four-back rotation through the middle of the season, but the team has trended toward Rivers and Mims down the stretch.

Josh Hokit has rushed it just two, two and three times over the past three games. O’Neal rushed it three times at UNLV, did not play due to injury at Boise State and did not have a carry against San Diego State.

Fresno State has played four of the top six rushing defenses in the conference: San Diego State (first), Nevada (third), Boise State (fifth) and Wyoming (sixth).

Rivers in those games had 38 plays for 145 yards, 3.8 yards per play with three touchdowns. Mims had 33 plays for 98 yards, 3.0 yards per play with one score.

Six is one too many

The Bulldogs defense has taken apart most of the Mountain West opponents on their schedule, allowing just three point three times, in victories over Nevada, Wyoming and UNLV, and seven points in a win at New Mexico.

In doing so, Fresno State has a chance to become only the third MW team to hold its conference opponents to less than 10 points per game.

Fresno State has allowed 74 points in its first seven Mountain West games.

The top scoring defenses in MW history:

▪ 2008 TCU: 68 PA, 8.5 PPG, 199.9 YPGA

▪ 2010 TCU: 75 PA, 9.4 PPG, 194.5 YPGA

▪ 2009 TCU: 90 PA, 11.3 PPG, 230.0 YPGA

▪ 2015 San Diego State: 90 PA, 11.3 PPG, 227.4 YPGA

San Jose State is averaging 22.0 points per game, 10th in the conference. It has faced two of the top five scoring defenses in the Mountain West — Fresno State will be the third — and lost 16-13 to San Diego State (second) and 24-9 to Wyoming (fifth).