FUMBLED AWAY
The visiting Utah Utes set the tone for their 48-0 romp over USU Saturday night in Romney Stadium very early – on the second play, in fact. Xavier Bowman slipped and fell and Leon Jackson III’s first pass of the night was intercepted by Eric Shyne, who took it 21 yards for six.
“They come out and get seven points that they didn’t have to work for,” Jackson said. “We just gave them seven points and that’s big; we put ourselves in a hole right out of the gate.”
It did not get any better for the Aggies as the game wore on. The Aggies, who totaled a mere 98 yards of total offense, turned the ball over a total of six times and were three for 13 on third down.
A visibly perturbed Head Coach Brent Guy said his team has to start over.
“We couldn’t get anything going offensively. We’ve got to start over again. I thought we went to Arkansas and made some improvements, but we went backwards tonight,” Guy said.
The Utes were up 17-0 in the first quarter off the Shyne touchdown, a 12-yard touchdown pass from Brett Ratliff to Derrick Richard and a 38-yard Louis Sakoda field goal. As the first half was winding down, it appeared USU would end the Offensive
Touchdown Watch (now dragging on into it’s third week) and make the score 17-7. It was not to be. Jackson III fumbled running the option and the Utes struck quickly, with Richard scoring on a 21-yard reception with three seconds left.
Jackson refused to make excuses afterwards, saying the problem for USU on offense is “having zero points.”
The Aggies never really threatened to score again. Ratliff, who finished 18-26 for 182 yards and led the Utes in rushing witheight carries for 62 yards, threw his third touchdown pass of the night to Marquis Wilson with 4:28 remaining in the third quarter.
Moments later, Utah’s Steve Sylvester tipped a Jackson pass to himself and took the interception back 45 yards for a physical touchdown to make it 38-0. On the next possession Bryan Black was playing quarterback for USU.
Black did connect on a nice 20-yard pass to Tarrell Richards for a USU first down, but on the ensuing play he was sacked and fumbled the ball. Black finished 2-3 for 25 yards. Mike Affleck also got into the game in relief of Jackson but had no better luck than his teammates, failing to complete a pass.
Jackson’s final numbers were 4-15 passing for 39 yards with two interceptions. He was under heavy pressure nearly every time he dropped back and was sacked three times, and adding insult to injury, his receivers repeatedly dropped passes that hit them on the hands when they were wide open.
Jake Hutton again led the charge for USU’s defense, which did not play poorly but spent too much time on the field and started too many drives in bad field position. Hutton notched 10 tackles on the night.
“I thought at first we were playing pretty well,” the sophomore said. “We just turned the ball over and they got up on us quick.”
Guy also said the turnovers were the biggest cause for the disheartening home-opener loss.
“We started this game probably top 10 in the country in turnover margin and probably finished in the bottom 10,” Guy said.
USU wide receivers Kevin Robinson and Tony Pennyman both ended streaks of consecutive games with at least two catches.
Pennyman did not play because he was kicked off the team on Wednesday and Robinson was simply shut out, though he did provide a few fleeting moments of excitement for the home crowd returning kicks. Robinson had 99 yards returning kicks, by far the most yardage gained by any Aggie. Marcus Cross’ 27 rushing yards were the next highest total.
On deck for USU is a trip to Lavell Edwards stadium in Provo to face their bitter rivals, the BYU Cougars. Guy said the goal
for the Aggies last non-conference game is “to try and make ourselves a better football team.”
Hutton said, “It’s not easy to forget something like this, but we have to do it. We play BYU next week and we just have to forget this and work hard.”
Jackson said the biggest obstacle for the Aggies right now is to score a touchdown.
“If we just punch it in once, I truly believe we can get that snowball effect going,” Jackson said. “We just need to get
some confidence and get that touchdown so the guys know we can do it.”