Aggies struggle to put away quality teams
Making key plays in key moments has plagued the Utah State Aggie football team twice this season. Special teams has also plagued the Aggies, and it did Saturday night as USU dropped a heart-breaking double-overtime loss, 35-34, to the Colorado State Rams at Merlin Olsen Field at Romney Stadium.
“Obviously this was a heart-breaking loss, no question about it. I don’t have much further answers other than that,” USU head coach Gary Andersen said. “You lose a turnover battle, 4-1, you’re not going to win games, period. If that’s the case, you’re going to have a hard time winning games.”
Instead of being 3-0, the Aggies find themselves 1-2 after not being able to convert a two-point conversion in overtime, but it was special teams and turnovers that ended up costing the Aggies the game, along with their first 2-1 record since 1997.
“We’re up 10, four minutes to go, and we tense up on the onside kick; and all of the sudden we don’t execute what we’re supposed to do,” junior running back Robert Turbin said, referring to USU’s loss at Auburn. “Tonight, we’re up eight points, a touchdown and two-point conversion, and we can’t field a punt. For whatever reason it is, we get in those moments.”
USU’s trouble holding onto the ball began late in the first quarter, when Colorado State freshman defensive back forced true freshman Chuckie Keeton to fumble on the CSU 32-yard line.
That fumble was a momentum killer, as the Aggies were driving and seemed to have at least a score within their grasp.
The USU defense, which played well until it began to tire, came up big against the Rams on the ensuing drive as senior linebacker Levi Koskan sacked CSU sophomore quarterback Pete Thomas, for a nine-yard loss, and forced the Rams to punt.
Senior wide receiver Eric Moats muffed the punt from junior punter Pete Kontodiakos, and CSU recovered the ball on USU’s 35-yard line. Colorado State failed to capitalize on the possession, but the turnovers, especially on special teams, would continue to haunt the Aggies.
“Just too many mistakes on our side,” Turbin said. “We just couldn’t control the ball through the turnovers, and when you do that, you aren’t going to win many football games. I think we all learned this tonight.”
The Aggies came out firing in the second half, and seemed to have built momentum with a quick-hitting touchdown drive and another defensive stop, but senior running back Michael Smith fumbled the ball on USU’s 13-yard line, and sophomore Shaquil Barrett scooped the ball and found paydirt to narrow the defecit, 14-10.
USU’s final turnover of the game proved to be the most costly. With a 21-13 lead, the Aggies forced CSU to punt from the Aggie 49-yard line, with 2:17 left in the game. A first down would have won the game for USU, but Moats muffed the punt again, and CSU recovered and capitalized with a touchdown and a two-point conversion.
“Those are tough things to deal with, tough things to deal with the kids, tough things to deal with the coaches,” Andersen said. “I think about those critical plays. There’s always something easy to look at and say, ‘You could have done this — could’ve, should’ve,’ and obviously we didn’t.”
For two consecutive games against FBS opponents, the Aggies have not been able to close out their opponents in winnable situations, but Andersen insists that his team is close to turning the tables.
“We can say a lot of things about it, but at the end of the day, we’ll get the thing flipped when we get the thing flipped,” Andersen said. “There is no magic wizard that’s going to walk in and make you a good football team. That’s what I told the kids at the end of the day. This thing will flip in our favor when we flip it in our favor.”
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu