San Diego State football is taking a hard look at itself—but staying positive—after back-to-back losses to UCLA and James Madison.
Head coach Sean Lewis and senior linebacker Tano Letuli both pointed to slow starts as a primary concern. The Aztecs have been held scoreless on offense in each of the past two first halves, including a 19-0 deficit against James Madison.
Lewis said the losses are not the fault of any one player or position group.
"There were opportunities that we missed. They made plays, and they got the win, but the lens that I look at it through — I felt like we gave the game to them," Lewis said.
Letuli echoed that assessment.
"We are losing games. The two games we've lost, we've lost those ourselves. It's our assignment, it's our alignment, it's knowing our job, and it's actually going out there on Saturday and doing it," Letuli said.
Letuli said the slow starts have to be addressed immediately.
"It's definitely a problem for us the last two games. As a whole outfit, as a group, we're not starting fast enough. We can't be giving teams certain leads for us to be chasing in a hole the rest of the game. That's not how we want to be playing football," Letuli said.
Lewis said the inconsistency is spread across all three phases of the game.
"We talk about being consistently good and occasionally great. In all three phases right now, we're occasionally great but not consistently good, so we need to become consistent," Lewis said.
The Aztecs face a quick turnaround, traveling to face Toledo for a 9 a.m. kickoff Saturday. Lewis said he is focused on the process rather than the results.
"I'll let you guys talk about the results, and I'm going to obsess about the process, and how we can do that better today, as we move through the week, and when we step into the arena on game day on Saturday," Lewis said.
San Diego State does not want to enter its Pac-12 opener against Texas State next week at Snapdragon Stadium on a three-game losing streak.
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