Aggies cough up five turnovers, lose to Wyoming 28-23
Utah State lost Saturday to Josh Allen and the visiting Wyoming Cowboys 28-23, in a matchup defined almost entirely by Aggie mistakes. Offensive inconsistency and five USU turnovers spoiled a hard-fought defensive effort, dropping the Aggies to 1-2 in the Mountain West and 3-4 overall.
“It’s a hurt locker room right now,” said USU head coach Matt Wells. “It’s a matter of learning, it’s a matter of moving on. There’s a lot of hurt right now. Just too many mistakes to win that thing going down the stretch.”
The Aggies saw both starting quarterback Kent Myers and backup QB Jordan Love under center throughout the contest, each showing their own spurts of excellence but ultimately dragged down — quite literally in Myers’ case — by critical miscues.
After a first quarter spent trading field goals, Love took the field and seemed to awaken a slumping offense with a 22-yard pass to tight end Carson Terrell. A solid drive ensued, taking USU into Wyoming territory down 9-6. In desperate need of a spark, the Aggies dialed up a reverse to junior Aaren Vaughns who proceeded to let loose his first career pass — a 29-yard dime to Braelon Roberts in the end zone.
Flashy, fun, effective; words that hadn’t been used to describe the Aggies’ trifling offense all year suddenly inflated Maverik Stadium’s sizable homecoming crowd. Love took the field a second time with a chance to strengthen his hold on the starting QB position, this time with muddled results.
The freshman found Ron’quavion Tarver in the end zone for a would-be touchdown nullified by an offensive pass interference flag, then immediatley tried Tarver again. Sophomore tight end Dax Raymond had a chance to make a play on the ball and leapt alongside Tarver, colliding into him for an incompletion. On third and 22, Love threw a dart off Savon Scarver’s palms to bring out the field goal unit.
“You’d like to score right there before halftime,” Wells said. “We had a penalty and a couple drops and that was frustrating.”
No one moment in the second half swung momentum more than Kevin Prosser’s 28-yard pick-six off of Love, tying the game 16-16 and spoiling Love’s confidence for the remainder of the evening. The freshman threw three picks before being benched for Myers in the third quarter.
“We had Jordan scheduled to come in late in the first quarter or early in the second,” Wells said. “He played well and I chose to stay with him. I thought he continued to play good and then didn’t. I thought that maybe bringing Kent back in would spark the offense. That’s how it went.”
While special teams hero DJ Nelson returned again for a potential game-saving touchdown in the fourth — a fake field goal Wyoming never saw coming — the Cowboys got the job done when it mattered most. A late-game drive by Allen, capped by a 28-yard pass to CJ Johnson, put Wyoming up by three with 3:45 on the clock.
The game’s finale was left up to an Aggie offense that hadn’t found a rhythm all year, and the result was fittingly sloppy — a fumble by running back LaJuan Hunt as he crossed the 50, a last-ditch effort to regain possession, and a game-sealing sack by Wyoming’s star defensive end Carl Granderson.
“I think it comes down to not throwing picks and not putting the ball on the ground, and that doesn’t come down to the end of the game,” Wells said. “That’s the reality of it. We practice a lot of close, competitive situations throughout training camp and throughout the year, and this is the first one we’ve really come down to. I don’t think not being in one yet hurt us, we just didn’t execute.”
The Cowboys escape with a big-time win in terms of what Cowboys head coach Craig Bohl calls a “renewed rivalry,” as well as an improved conference standing at 2-0 in the Mountain West and 4-2 overall. The Aggies, losers of their last two in a row, take to the road next week at UNLV.