What San Diego State’s players said after 6-3 win at Northern Illinois

It was a day for defense when San Diego State beat Northern Illinois 6-3 at DeKalb, and even giving up those three points didn’t sit well with cornerback Chris Johnson.

After all, the Aztecs were coming off a 34-0 whitewashing of California in which Johnson had a 97-yard pick-6. But it was a big win nonetheless for the Aztecs, who head into Mountain West play at 3-1, already having matched last year’s win total.

“We gave up three, which we're honestly pretty disappointed about,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to keep it at zero, is the goal every game, because the offense only has to kick one field goal and we essentially want to win the game like that. So that's our mentality.”

San Diego State got two field goals from Gabe Plascencia, including the game-winner from 25 yards as time expired.

The Aztecs have a short week as they prepare to host Colorado State on Friday night in the opener of their final season in the Mountain West Conference.

Here are the highlights of the players’ post-game news conference.

Plascencia on what was going through his mind during the winning kick

“For me, it's honestly just the team. I think about all the hard days that we had this summer, this spring, like, the winter workouts.. It’s just at the end of the day, it's me doing my job. I just wanted to do it for the 10 guys up front that were blocking for me, so it felt good.”

Plascencia on NIU trying to ice him

“For me, it’s just like, I’m going to kick the same kick anyway, so, mentally, I'm already in the right head space. This being my fifth year, I feel I've grown that maturity of kind of flushing everything out and just worrying about my kicking in that situation.

Johnson on the mentality of the defense coming into the game

“The mentality is just lights out, man, straight up. Sometimes the offense isn't gonna work. Sometimes it does. It has nothing to do with what we do. So, we gave up three, which we're honestly pretty disappointed about. We’re trying to keep it at zero, is the goal every game. Because offense only has to kick one field goal and we essentially want to win the game like that. So that's our mentality.”

Johnson on having interceptions in consecutive games

“Yeah, this one was just basic man coverage, the quarterback threw it and I made a play. That's it. No, really. D-line had him rolling out. flooding out of the pocket, so he just let one go. I made a play on it.”

Chris Johnson doing Chris Johnson things 🫡

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Johnson on the defense overcoming a penalty on special teams

“You know, really just everyone on defense told each other, stay calm, you know? It's not like we made them go three and out every drive. They put together a couple of long drives and we stopped him on a fourth down all the way down the field. So them getting a refresh on downs really didn't do anything to us.”

Plascencia on how the win helps moving forward

“I think it's huge. You know, having a dogfight like this, it really shows who we are, and I feel like we saw that today with our offense on that final drive. I don't hit that game-winning field goal without them getting us there. So, I'm really proud of the way we finished the game. It’s still a long season and we’re going into conference play, so there's a lot to learn and a lot of fits.”

No better feeling than coming home with a W 🔴⚫️#AztecFAST 🍢 x #BeTheA1pha 🐺 x #TheClimb 📈 pic.twitter.com/oYWZnAsGn8
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Johnson on building off this win

“For me, it's just kind of a tell for how the rest of the season is going to go, especially for the defense. We had troubles on offense throughout the game, but we didn't care. It didn't matter to us, you know what I mean? Every time the offense came out, we got y'all back, and we did. And we're trying to keep stacking like that. We’re a big family trying to hold everyone accountable.”