His two surgically repaired knees aching, center Joe Bernardi gingerly jogged to the sideline after
Tom Brandstater's second rushing touchdown gave Fresno State the late lead in Saturday's game.
Brandstater himself shuffled through two quarters, his hip and ankle ailing.
Banged up, broken and bruised, Fresno State limped and willed its way through New Mexico State for a 24-17 win, becoming bowl eligible for the ninth time in 10 seasons.
"Every week is a battle or a war, call it whatever you want,"
Bernardi said. "We have guys on that offensive line that will play through anything. They don't care what they're going through. The reason they go for it is because they want the team to succeed."
With 12 starters -- including three offensive linemen -- who have missed at least one game to injury and many more who are playing hurt, the Bulldogs (6-4, 3-3
Western Athletic Conference) snapped a two-game losing streak and revived their season in their last home game.
The Bulldogs had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel after last week's loss to Nevada, and came out to practice Tuesday as if they already were buried.
That quickly changed when coach Pat Hill sent his players back into the
locker room to put on their full pads for a half-hour of hitting drills.
Sophomore defensive end Chris Carter said the practice was one of the hardest and most physical he's gone through at Fresno State.
"As mad as I was ... it helped us re-establish our personality,"
he said.
The Bulldogs showed life on defense for the first time in three games Saturday. They stuffed an already sad Aggies running game for minus-9 yards and held a passing game to more than 100 yards below its 308 yards-per-game average.
The defense came up with the game's crucial stop when defensive tackle
Jon Monga (three sacks for a loss of 23 yards) sacked Chase Holbrook on fourth-and-6 for a loss of
9 with 3:18 to play.
"You could see his quickness coming back,"
Hill said of Monga.
