Wallin’s last sack took seventeen seconds with the yards

The field goal did not end the game

Cooper DiLeva’s 53-yard field goal put San Diego State ahead of Fresno State with 57 seconds remaining. Kai Wallin then sacked the Bulldogs’ quarterback on first down. Fresno State, without a timeout, lost six yards and seventeen seconds before its next snap.

The Aztecs won 26–23 on October 17. DiLeva supplied the winning points; Wallin made the opponent’s reply substantially harder. The last sack was valuable in two currencies, and the clock could not be recovered by simply gaining the lost yards back.

Three sacks created three different delays

Wallin finished with three sacks for fifteen yards. An earlier sack changed second-and-eleven into third-and-eighteen; an incompletion and punt followed. Another fourth-quarter sack created third-and-twelve, again followed by an incompletion and punt.

Those sequences show why the sack total belongs beside what happened afterward. A loss of yardage creates an advantage the defense still has to finish. San Diego State did not allow the subsequent passing downs to erase Wallin’s work. On the final possession, the absence of a Fresno State timeout added another cost: the offense had to organize itself while the opportunity was shrinking.

The finish had a whole-game foundation

San Diego State recorded six sacks and allowed 276 total yards, both season-best defensive marks. DiLeva made four field goals, while Lucky Sutton rushed for 110 yards and Javion Kinnard added 77. The Aztecs produced 384 total yards.

Wallin and DiLeva received Pac-12 weekly honors on October 19. At 3–4 overall and 2–1 in conference play, San Diego State now travels to Colorado State.

The next opponent will not necessarily supply the same late clock situation. The transferable work is more specific than asking Wallin for another three sacks: force difficult downs, cover the necessary distance afterward and avoid returning the advantage through an easy completion. Saturday’s final sack matters because it belonged to that connected process. The pressure reached the quarterback, and the rest of the defense kept the result useful long enough for DiLeva’s kick to stand.