SAN DIEGO — There were a myriad of things working against the Boise State football team.

Injuries, a first-time starting quarterback on the road and an atmospheric river in Southern California already provided Boise State with some adversity.

Those factors, along with costly penalties on offense and the inability to stop the run, proved too much for the Broncos to overcome as they dropped a 17-7 loss to San Diego State on Saturday.

“In a game like that, we knew going in it was going to be a slugfest,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “Everyone’s going to have their opinion of what we should have done more. We’re going to look at it, we’re not going to run from it. We obviously got to have a better plan, we got to put our guys in better situations. Seven points, it’s going to be really hard to win a game scoring seven points. I’m not running from that. But it’s all three phases. You win and lose as a football team, and we didn’t do enough in all three phases.”

With the loss, Boise State (6-4, 4-2 Mountain West) fell out of first place in the Mountain West standings and lost control of its destiny as it pertains to making the conference championship game. With two weeks left in the regular season, the Broncos sit tied with Fresno State, New Mexico, UNLV and Hawaii for second in the league with San Diego State (8-2, 5-1) now alone in first place. Boise State has already beat New Mexico and UNLV this season but lost to Fresno State and does not play Hawaii this season.

“It’s obviously frustrating because we want to win games,” said running back Dylan Riley, who ran for 79 yards and scored Boise State’s only touchdown on a 9-yard run in the second quarter. “But at the same time, we got to keep working, get better every week and doing what we can.”

The game was one in which weather played a role, with an atmospheric river sweeping through the area on Saturday, causing rain throughout the day, including during parts of the game.

As a result, both teams relied heavily on the run game, with the two teams combining for 441 rushing yards and 121 passing yards. Unfortunately for the Broncos, 277 of those rushing yards came for the Aztecs.

“Conditions can be a part of that, because everything keeps getting wet and things like that,” said linebacker Boen Phelps. “But at the end of the day, it comes down to us being able to wrap up and make the plays that we can make.”

The Broncos also were starting quarterback Max Cutforth for the first time, as Maddux Madsen was out with a lower leg injury. Cutforth finished with 104 yards on 12-of-18 passing, but 94 of those yards came in the fourth quarter with the Broncos already trailing.

Instead, with a new quarterback and wet conditions, Boise State attacked the run game.

At one point, during a stretch that lasted from late in the first quarter to late in the third, Boise State ran the ball on 27 of 28 offensive plays.

Boise State is back home next week, hosting Colorado State at Albertsons Stadium.