SAN DIEGO — The Boise State football players and coaches didn’t walk away from Saturday night’s 52-35 defeat of San Diego State beaming.

They know the second half was ugly. They know the defense needs to play better. They know they need to deliver the knockout punch when the opportunity arises.

But those flaws won’t keep them up at night.

Losses do that.

That’s why the opening minutes at Qualcomm Stadium were so important, coming a week after losing the de facto Mountain West championship game to TCU on the last play.

The No. 10 Broncos scored three touchdowns set up by turnovers to take a 21-0 lead Saturday and cruised, maybe a little too much, the rest of the way.

“It was good,” senior quarterback Kellen Moore said. “Obviously those (losses) can linger for a little while. You don’t sleep well. You feel good when you can get back to practice and get back to work and you’re on to the next opponent.”

Moore clearly was prepared for the Aztecs and coach Rocky Long’s funky 3-3-5 defense.

He was 28-of-40 for 366 yards and four first-half touchdowns. He took one sack and threw an interception in the fourth quarter.

Moore was aggressive, attacking the Aztecs’ man coverage with deep balls — including a 42-yarder to Geraldo Boldewijn and a 41-yarder to Dallas Burroughs — and using senior slot receiver Tyler Shoemaker to strike in the red zone.

Shoemaker made three more touchdown catches — tying the school record with his 14th of the season in the final minute of the first half. He had a career-high 10 catches for 130 yards. Shoemaker tied former teammate Austin Pettis, who had 14 TD catches in 2009.

“It means a lot,” Shoemaker said. “Being here with those guys, Titus (Young) and Austin, seeing the things they’ve done, and kind of being able to step into that role this year has been very meaningful and it’s been a lot of fun.”

Doug Martin added 129 rushing yards and two TDs on 36 carries. He also had three catches — giving him 39 touches on the night. His previous career high for carries was 24.

Martin sprained his right ankle two weeks earlier against UNLV and missed most of six quarters. He still isn’t quite recovered, but with backup D.J. Harper sidelined he needed to carry a heavy load.

“I’d give myself about 90 percent,” Martin said of his health. “You’ve just got to work through it and fight hard and keep pushing.”

The Broncos built their early lead, which grew to 42-14 by halftime, with the trio of turnovers and Moore’s precise passing.

“Obviously, that cost us the game,” Long said. “Boise State is a great football team, so you don’t know how it’s going to come out, but when (three of their first four) drives are from inside the 25-yard line, sure that costs you the game. We didn’t even give ourselves a chance to compete, to make it a game.”

Defensive end Shea McClellin intercepted San Diego State quarterback Ryan Lindley’s first pass of the game to set up Shoemaker’s first TD.

“I was just doing my job and reading the quarterback’s eyes,” said McClellin, who has four career interceptions and two this year. “He threw it right to me. I should make that play every time.”

The special teams contributed the next two turnovers — a muffed punt and a fumbled kickoff. “It definitely restored some swagger for us, getting three turnovers,” McClellin said.

Said coach Chris Petersen: “It was good to start fast. I really thought we would start fast. I knew we’d play hard early on. I think there were people concerned about the hangover effect from the last game, and I wasn’t.”

Still, the Broncos weren’t happy with what transpired in the second half. The Aztecs have been dominant in the second half all year and they outscored the Broncos 21-10 with three fourth-quarter TDs. The Broncos helped them with two fourth-down penalties that kept drives alive, a fumble by Martin inside the San Diego State 10-yard line and an interception thrown by Moore.

“We talked about it all week long and maybe it was because our lead was so big,” Petersen said. “Sometimes you have the tendency to play too conservative and on our heels a little bit. … The turnovers, the penalties, playing a little too much on our heels — it was exactly opposite of how we’d like to play. If we don’t fumble going (into the end zone), it’s different, but we did. So we need to play better defense. We’re going to have to tighten things up, without question.”

That defense allowed 470 yards in the game, including career-first 100-yard games by running back Adam Muema (119 yards, three total TDs) and tight end Gavin Escobar (eight catches, 113 yards, two TDs).

It was the third time in four games that the Broncos surrendered at least 400 yards.

“We’ve lost some guys,” Petersen said, referring to the team’s top three cornerbacks. “That changes things a little bit. … We’ll get better. We’ll keep working.”

And, most likely, they’ll sleep a little better this week.

“We wanted to come out and show that that loss didn’t affect us at all and keep fighting,” Martin said.