Dawgs bite Aggies in Seattle
Utah State held Washington to just 74 yards rushing, but the Huskies went to the air and beat the Aggies 31-17 in Seattle on Saturday.
“When you get a team that scores 30-something points, it’s a mixed bag,” said USU head coach Matt Wells. “There were times we were too soft in coverage. You’ve got to be able to get pressure on a quarterback. Highest of highest and lowest of lows, you’ve got to be more consistent against a good team on the road.”
USU trailed just 17-10 at half time, but Washington quarterback Jake Browning changed that in the third quarter.
Browning’s first throw of the second half was an interception, but the freshman bounced back in a big way. He passed for 177 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. Overall, Browning was 22-of-31 passing, with three touchdowns and 368 yards in the game.
Running back Dwayne Washington led the Huskies with five catches, 131 yards and two touchdowns.
“The energy was there,” said junior safety Devin Centers. “We didn’t want to get too hyped … It’s a great opportunity to look at ourselves and see our positives and our negatives, see what we need to adjust.”
In the first half, USU showed signs of life with under a minute to play. The Aggies put together a 10-play 75-yard scoring drive that brought them a touchdown. However, the USU offense was unable to score again in the game.
While the offense didn’t score, the Aggie defense had a 97-yard fumble return for a touchdown in the second half. Kyler Fackrell made a hit on Jeff Lindquist, and Jontrell Rocquemore picked up the ball and took it back to the end zone. The touchdown came at the 9:47 mark of the fourth quarter and was USU’s only score in the second half.
Utah State senior quarterback Chuckie Keeton was 17-of-33 passing for 171 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. The Aggies broke off a few big plays — one was a 49-yard pass to Hunter Sharp, another a 60-yard kick return by Sharp and a 20-yard run by Devante Mays.
Despite the big plays, Utah State had just 254 yards of offense compared to 442 for Washington.
“I know that we have it in us,” said running back LaJuan Hunt. “We’ve got to keep playing hard and keep the juices up for all four quarters. Once we do that, we will be a complete team, and we’ll be a different team than this week and last week.”
On defense USU held the UW offense to under three yards per carry on the ground. The Aggies were led in tackles by Nick Vigil, who had nine, and Torrey Green, who had seven tackles, one sack and three tackles for loss.
USU has a bye week before playing Colorado State on Oct. 3 in Logan for homecoming.
“It’s great timing,” Wells said. “It’ll come with reflection … It’s going to cause a lot of internal reflection … We have 14 days to internalize, reflect and come up with a good plan and get ready to go.”
– kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor