Football debrief: The good, the bad and the ugly
The Good: There wasn’t much. Linebackers Bobby Wagner and Kyle Gallagher once again paced the Aggies in stops, teaming up for a combined 26 tackles. On the offensive side of the ball, quarterback Diondre Borel made his 27th-straight start, which leads the team. Borel’s start on Saturday was also his 27th career start, making him among only four active Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) quarterbacks to have begun their career and subsequently start 25 or more games consecutively .
The Bad: 195 total yards of offense says it all. The Aggies couldn’t move the ball effectively against a Louisiana Tech defense, which came into the game ranked among the worst teams in the nation in yards given up per-contest, with the Aggies failing to protect quarterback Diondre Borel. Aggie wide receivers were particularly prone to drops. Xavier Martin and Dontel Watkins, a week removed from national coming out parties against BYU, dropped several balls in key situations.
The Ugly: Defensively, USU allowed 427 yards to the Bulldogs. The number in and of itself means a lot more given the fact that Tech was playing with their backup quarterback at the helm, and that coach Sonny Dykes’ team committed a ghastly eight penalties for 93 yards. The loss drops Gary Andersen’s Aggies to a 1-9 record on the road since the start of the 2009 season.
Trend Watch: Utah State has not won back-to-back games under Gary Andersen since the former U of U defensive coordinator took over as head coach in Logan. Saturday’s game also marks the third time this season that the Aggies have been held scoreless in the first quarter. The other two games in which USU was held scoreless in the opening quarter (Oklahoma and San Diego State) were also losses and also came on the road.
Player of the Game: Louisiana Tech running back Lennon Creer ran all over the Aggies, finishing the game with 120 yards and two scores on just 18 carries (6.7 average).
That About Says It: “You can tell we stopped the long plays. Obviously, that’s the difference between giving up 600 yards in a game and giving up less than 200 yards in a game. We spent this week focusing on missed tackles. We thought that was a big problem in the Hawaii game and wanted to fix that.” – Louisiana Tech LB Adrian Cole
What it Means: At 2-4, the Aggies enter their bye week a banged-up bunch. Injuries have hurt the team, but questions about focus and intensity level persist. The Aggies need to get back to basics and play fundamentally sound football if the team is going to have a shot at upsetting Hawaii on Oct. 23, and will need to rattle off at least four conference wins during the second half of the season to achieve its goal of making it to a bowl game. That’s easier said than done with two WAC teams (Boise State and Nevada) currently ranked in the top 25 and an underrated Hawaii team (4-2, 2-0 WAC) playing its best football of the year right now.
– adamnettina@gmail.com