5 things we learned from SDSU’s 31-10 season opening loss to Stanford.

5 things we learned from SDSU’s 31-10 season opening loss to Stanford.

1 - Juwan Washington is going to be every bit as good as Aztec fans have been hoping. 158 yards on 24 carries vs a Pac-12 defense is no joke and sign of great things to come this season which is nice because…

2 - Christian Chapman continues getting better as a passer. No turnovers may be more important than no TD’s in a dissecting a loss like this, there were plenty of chances for Chapman to start wildly chucking balls all over late in the game where he instead made smart and accurate throws. The safety was rough but life on the run is never easy for a quarterback. There has been a long debate about exactly how much Chapman can be trusted to and I would say that this game boosts that confidence index upward. Speaking of confidence…

3 - The defense was able to shut down Bryce Love. He was held to just 47 total yards, a sign that there is a high level of both game planning from the coaching staff and execution from the players present on the defense this season. While this did not translate to a win it should give hope that this team will be ready for some of the major challenges left on the schedule including Boise State and Fresno State. And yet this was still a three score loss so…

4 - There are still concerns on the defensive side. JJ Arcega-Whiteside had a amazing day fro Stanford and sometimes it can be just wring place wrong time for a defense, but it looked bad that he made catches against 5 different members of the SDSU defense in various forms of coverage. It may have been a day of overcompensating to stop Bryce Love but if the big play potential is always lurking this could be a long year for the SDSU defense.

5 - Losing to a ranked team somehow doesn’t hurt so bad to start the season. The world of college football is very driven by the strength of schedule argument and while no loss is fun I believe that if Stanford continues an upward trend all season this loss can become an overlook able blemish on a resume for bowl season.

If you want to watch any of the highlights you can find the pac 12 feed recap here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW6MunY6Hog&feature=onebox

The Aztecs return to action next week at home vs Sacramento State (who at the time of this being published are waxing the University of Saint Francis, who is an NAIA school from Illinois, 48 - 7 in the start of the fourth quarter)