Aggies bowl eligible as defense holds off Wyoming
Utah State football (6-4) kept its hopes at winning a conference championship alive with a 26-21 win against Wyoming (6-4) Saturday night, narrowly avoiding a comeback by the Cowboys, leaning on its defense to snag an interception on the last drive of the game.
Junior quarterback Jordan Love seemed to find some of the form that made him so prolific in 2018 in Utah State’s road-win at Fresno State just a week ago. There was a slight resemblance of that form in this game too. It wasn’t pretty to begin with — two interceptions in the first 16 minutes — but after a change in tempo in the offense, Love was able to find his footing and channeled the heisman candidate from last season that was so impressive.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon only lasted two quarters and Love was forced to leave the game before the fourth quarter. Andersen stressed that he “can’t talk about that” in regards to Love’s possible injury and declined to comment any further, which leaves his availability only to speculation at this point.
Despite the loss of such an integral player, Utah State remained poised and found a way to earn the hard-fought win through the efforts of some more unheralded member of the squad.
“Bottom-line is, we’re 5-and-1 in conference,” Head coach Gary Andersen said. “We’ve had an opportunity to play two meaningful games in the month of November and we’ve won them both. Now we get an opportunity to play a third one.”
The first quarter gave off the impression that Utah State would be in for a battle of possession and field position with Wyoming, much like last year’s game in Laramie. 11 first downs, 194 total yards of offense and 24 points were all the Aggies were able to muster in the last meeting, but that should be expected when facing a school like Wyoming that tries to force teams into playing the ugliest version of football they can. And the Cowboys have been pretty successful with that as their tactic.
A 21-yard pass to junior receiver Taylor Compton on the opening play of the game was the highlight of Utah State’s offense through nearly 20 minutes. In total, the Aggies managed just 30 yards in the first quarter and weren’t showing signs of clicking on the offensive side of the ball. The Aggies put that behind them and trudged forward and found a way to exploit Wyoming’s aggressive coverage style. This was demonstrated most notably on an 80-yard touchdown pass and reception from Love to Siaosi Mariner that put the first points on the board for Utah State.
“We saw the defense in cover two and Tyler Hall, really good corner and really aggressive corner too, kind of jumped the arrow route and it kind of freed me up and made the safety be one-one-one and I had to go make a play and help my team win the game,” Mariner said.
If the first quarter was a let-down, the second quarter should be considered a resounding success. The Aggies amassed a total of 223 yards, 20 points and 10 first downs in the quarter alone. Utah State closed the time of possession gap to just five in advantage of Wyoming and was putting together a performance reminiscent of 2018’s stellar campaign. Mariner’s touchdown was followed by a 35-yard wheel route touchdown to running back Gerold Bright. If you had to point to one, this stretch was the turning point in the contest and even though Utah State’s offense slowed down in the later stages, this outburst proved to be enough to carry them across the finish line.
Having one of the most consistent kickers and special teams groups in the nation helps a team pull out a win in battle like the one Utah State faced tonight. The leader of that group, senior kicker Dominik Eberle who converted four-of-five field goals and set a Mountain West career conversions record at 61 made field goal attempts.
“He’s a very powerful weapon,” Andersen said. “Dom lines up there and has ice in his veins. Go back on this year in the conference games and see what he’s done making field goals. It happened again tonight, it happened at San Diego State, he wins the game last week.”
When Utah State’s offense wasn’t looking nearly as glamourous in the second half — 114 total yards in the third and fourth quarters — the defense stepped up to hold down the fort and retain the rifle in the Bridger Battle. But truthfully, the defense kept the Aggies alive throughout the entire game. Before tonight’s matchup, Wyoming had given up just five turnovers all season. The Aggies nearly matched that by creating four of their own Saturday night and putting massive amounts of pressure on quarterback Tyler Vander Waal. When asked if this was the best performance of the season from the defensive line, Andersen agreed saying “I would think so, yeah.”
With All-American linebacker David Woodward out for the season, players have had to step up, and no player filled that void better than redshirt-junior linebacker Eric Munoz. In his first start of the season, he had a performance a lot of players would dream of having in one game across their entire career. Munoz led the team with 13 tackles, was instrumental in putting pressure on Wyoming’s offensive line and had a pair of interceptions, including the one that effectively sealed the game for Utah State late in the fourth quarter.
“It felt good. Honestly, seeing the ball is kind of surreal when it’s coming right into your hands, because it’s such a gimme,” Munoz said. “It was kind of right to me, so it felt good to drop down on it and let the clock roll. It felt really good.”
For Munoz, this start meant more than just getting minutes on the field. It was a minor victory in what has been a majorly difficult process of getting to Utah State.
“Honestly, I was kind of getting choked up earlier,” Munoz said as he fought back tears. “It’s been a long time coming to be honest with you. This is the third school I’ve been to, redshirt-junior having to sit behind some guys has been tough, and then coming here and having to walk-on… god blessed me with an opportunity.”
Utah State will celebrate this win for the night, but face its toughest challenge to date in Mountain West play against no. 21 Boise State a week from today in what could be a winner-takes-all match of Mountain Division contenders.
Twitter: @dren_sports