SAN DIEGO — The nightmare scenario unfolded just past the five o’clock hour, deep in Idaho State territory and a thousand miles away from where the last one happened. So much about this situation was different — Tyler Vander Waal suffered an injury last season, at home, and because of an awkward fall — but because of the ramifications that will ring through the halls of the program like a bell’s gong, so much felt similar.

Everything occurred with alarming quickness. One second Vander Waal was dropping back to pass. The next, he was being flattened by San Diego State lineman Daniel Okpoko, and in the next second, he was being carted off. When he left, the Bengals didn’t just lose their starting quarterback. They lost one of the players who engineered their team’s only score, which doomed ISU in a 38-7 loss to San Diego Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium.

“San Diego State is going to win a bunch of games in the Mountain West and our kids went toe-to-toe with them,” Idaho State coach Charlie Ragle said. “This team in here has a competitive spirit that’s gonna be tough to beat, and if we can clean some things up, we’re gonna have a heck of a year that I think most people didn’t anticipate from the Bengals.”

Vander Waal’s injury was to his left, non-throwing shoulder, the same one that he injured last season, which occurred in Week 3 and kept him out of the rest of the season. After the game, Ragle said he doesn’t know details on the injury — “But obviously, it was severe because he wasn’t able to come back,” Ragle said. “So I’ll find out here on Monday.”

When he took the hit, Vander Waal laid on his back for some five minutes, slamming his foot on the ground in frustration. Soon, officials drove a cart out around the 20 yard line, Vander Waal took a seat, teammates came over to wish him well, and he was wheeled off. In came backup Hunter Hays, who looked like a capable replacement, but ISU played deep in its own territory too often and the visitors failed to convert on a pair of fourth-down opportunities in the red zone. All told, it added up to a forgettable day for the Bengals, whose best trait early in the season appeared to be their passing game.

Instead, that has evaporated, at least for the time being. Hays exited the game after the third quarter, yielding to third-stringer Sagan Gronauer, which Ragle explained this way: “We figured, hey, (Hays) is the starting quarterback now. We’ve got to get our backup now, which is Sagan, some reps. So at that point we felt the score was a little bit out of reach. We know we’ve got nine games to play and maybe beyond that. So we’ve got to prepare for that.”

ISU may say otherwise, but the truth is that this trip to southern California turned into a mess for the Bengals. Instead of making the trip, accepting a six-figure paycheck and heading back to Pocatello with no injuries — which is how Idaho State’s game at UNLV unfolded two weeks ago — they suffered a major injury to their starting quarterback, saw their backup pulled and had their special teams units exposed in ways it wasn’t in Las Vegas — with a former Power 5 special teams coordinator serving as head coach.

All of this comes with an important caveat: It was a money game for Idaho State. San Diego State has players with size and skill that the Bengals do not. To some extent, this result was always expected. When ISU returns home next week to play Central Arkansas, when the Bengals kick off conference play, it’s fair to expect them to shore up some of these issues.

But when you lose your starting quarterback in a game you were expected to lose by 37, which was the betting line for this contest, your problems grow exponentially.

This wasn’t always a blowout, though. Idaho State scored on its second play from scrimmage, when Vander Waal connected on a slant route to Xavier Guillory, who outran everyone into the end zone, a 75-yard touchdown pass. The Bengals looked juiced. Who expected them to lead at all — let alone on the second play of the game?

That’s when things unraveled for the visitors. When fourth down came up on their next possession, Ian Hershey punted to SDSU receiver Jordan Byrd, who dodged tackles and raced 66 yards for a touchdown, wagging his finger as he crossed the plane, almost taunting Idaho State: Oh no you don’t.

From there, ISU had little to write home about. Idaho State went into halftime facing a 21-7 deficit, which wasn’t entirely overwhelming and Ragle raved about the way his team stayed in striking distance, but the Bengals couldn’t engineer momentum starting drives deep in their own territory, and they failed to convert on two fourth-down opportunities in the red zone.

The interesting part is this: Idaho State’s defense was far from perfect, but the group gave its offense chances. The Bengals produced stops on each of the Aztecs’ first two series, which was an improvement on two weeks ago, when they did not generate a stop in the first half against UNLV. Then San Diego State had to punt on each of its final three drives of the first half.

“In general, we just had really high energy all over the field,” defensive lineman Terrance Jones said. “Everybody was just running, no one stopped. Everybody was competing. Everybody had a high spirit for the game today.”

In between, though, the Bengals sputtered on offense, which was why they couldn’t take advantage.

So in the end, we have this: This ISU season remains young, remains open for optimism, but the complexion changed here during a game against San Diego State, where Vander Waal suffered an injury that will resonate as familiar for all the wrong reasons.