SAN MARCOS -- Saturday was set up to be a coronating for not only a homecoming court, but Texas State’s official evolution into a conference contender. Instead, San Marcos was hit with a check.

Troy took a 31-13 win over Texas State in a game that positions the Trojans in first place in the Sun Belt West and, if things hold firm, a chance to host the Sun Belt Championship Game. Both teams were 5-2 headed into Saturday night and the first half lived up to the billing of a heavyweight bout with Texas State holding a 10-7 lead at halftime.

The second half highlighted the differences between a true conference contender and a team still finding out how to handle expectations with the Trojans outscoring Texas State 24-3 to end the game.

“I’m gonna take this one, I didn’t have the guys ready to go,” Texas State head coach GJ Kinne said.

THREE THOUGHTS

The defense isn’t there…yet: Texas State had its best defensive performance of the season against Troy particularly in the first half. The front seven bottled up the nation’s second-leading rusher, Kimani Vidal, and held him to just 43 yards on 18 carries. Unfortunately, with Jonathan Patke’s defense keyed-in on one of the best running backs in the country, that left the secondary vulnerable to be picked apart in the passing game and that’s exactly what happened.

Troy quarterback Gunnar Watson finished with a career-high 392 yards and three touchdowns and didn't put a pass wrong in the second half. Texas State’s pass rush kept things interesting with the Bobcats recording three sacks, but the intermediate passing game was too potent and Watson went 16-of-19 for 212 in the second half alone.

“I thought we were there for the most part when the ball was in the air,” Kinne said of the secondary. “We just have to finish better a couple of those third downs and just have to finish better when the ball’s in the air. We played a lot of main coverage tonight and I thought our guys held up pretty well.”

Sloppy after a bye week: Coming off of a bye week, Texas State expected to be cleaner. The team was healthier with Ismail Mahdi being back to 100 percent and their last time out against UL-Monroe was a stop-and-start affair offensively that featured quarterback TJ Finley throwing a pick-six and the team needed a double-digit comeback to win.

Saturday’s game was unfortunately the sequel to that performance with Finley adding two more interceptions to his season tally.

“It looked like maybe he got hit or the ball got fluttered on one of the two,” Kinne said. “I’m not exactly sure on the second one, you just got to learn from it and move forward. He's really good quarterback, he played really well the times. We’ve just got to continue to get better.”

Mahdi also fumbled during a crucial sequence in the third quarter and Troy scored 24 points off of three turnovers if you include a turnover on downs in the fourth quarter. The Trojans finished with an average starting field position from their own 38 compared to Texas State starting at its own 24.

Texas State also finished with just six points from three redzone trips.

“You can't move the ball that well and not score more points in that so it's just going to come down to the red zone,” Kinne said.

Do teams have a blueprint vs Texas State’s offense?: It’s not time to panic, but Texas State’s now faced back-to-back teams that have successfully generated a pass rush on Finley.

The head coach has stressed the need for his quarterback to throw the ball away more. But in similar situations tonight, the ball was stil put in dangerous situations, one interception coming inside the five with a chance to go up 14-0. The deep ball was also abandoned as the game progressed for the second consecutive game after Finley had issues dealing with pressure. Is it a blip or a blueprint that flustering Finley in the pocket is a way to neutralize Texas State’s willingness to trust his deep-ball decision-making?

“They're very sound like in their gaps, they get what they're supposed to go,” offensive lineman Caleb Johnson said of Troy’s pass rush. “We’ve got to eliminate the little mistakes. I think all of our turnovers are really just little mistakes that we made.”

Troy is a Top 30 defense in the nation by most metrics so it could just mean that Texas State ran into a buzzsaw, but it’s something to watch going forward now that more teams have film on Kinne and Mack Leftwich’s system and their quarterbacks’ tendencies.