Injury-riddled Aggies fall to Wyoming 28-14

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Utah State Football came up short on Saturday night falling to Wyoming 28-14. 

“Proud of the fight, disappointed in the execution and the outcome,” head coach Blake Anderson said. 

Just like last year, the Cowboys were able to enforce their will on the ground all night. Running backs D.Q. James and Titus Swen combined for 280 yards with Swen scoring three touchdowns. 

“It was tough,” linebacker AJ Vongphachanh said. “We just couldn’t get it done on critical downs.”

Unlike last year, the Aggies were able to stay within one score for most of the game until the defense ran out of gas. 

“Felt like that we played these guys much better than we did a year ago defensively,” Anderson said. “Keep the score down and put ourselves in a position to (in the) second half have opportunities to drive down and go ahead, just couldn’t make enough plays to get it done.”

The Aggies had four drives in the second half where they trailed by 10 or less, but could only score in one of them. USU struggled to get their offense going under the leadership of true freshman quarterback Bishop Davenport in his first career start. 

The USU rushing attack was especially limited in the first half as they were kept to a meager 10 yards on 16 attempts. One of the few positive rush plays USU had in the first half was a five-yard touchdown run by Davenport for the Aggies’ first score. 

In the third quarter, running back Calvin Tyler Jr. had a huge turnaround. He went from a total of 11 yards on 5 carries in the first half to 56 yards on four carries in just one drive in the third quarter, which was capped off with a season-long 31-yard touchdown run that cut the Cowboy lead to 17-14. That was the closest Utah State would get as Wyoming hit a field goal and scored a touchdown to win the game 28-14. 

Part of USU’s difficulties on offense was the offensive line’s challenge to block an aggressive Wyoming defense. Davenport was sacked six times and the Cowboys racked up 11 tackles-for-loss. 

“Did not protect the quarterback extremely well,” Anderson said. “We needed to keep him cleaner than we did.” 

Additionally, when Davenport had time to throw, he struggled to connect with his receivers for significant gains, with his longest pass going for 16 yards. Anderson said that the struggles in the passing game were on both sides with receivers failing to make competitive catches and Davenport missing some throws. Davenport finished with 17 completions on 26 attempts for 104 yards with an interception. 

Another problem was injuries. By the end of the game, the Aggies were missing more than 10 players due to injury. 

Despite player health being a major concern going into the game, the Aggies’ health got even worse. Linebacker MJ Tafisi left the game in the first quarter after his and Swen’s helmets collided while Tafisi tackled Swen.

Linebackers Max Alford and Sione Moa stepped up for Tafisi which was “big time,” according to Vongphachanh. Moa even had his first-career sack that forced a Cowboy punt giving the offense an opportunity when they trailed 20-14 early in the fourth quarter. 

“I’m really proud of him just stepping up when we needed him really bad,” Vongphachanh said. “MJ went down pretty early on and then he came in knowing what to do, you know, making the calls correctly and he stepped up big.”

Anderson mentioned post-game that the team will need more freshmen to grow up fast if injured players can’t get healthy. 

During the postgame press conference, Anderson reaffirmed Utah State’s goal to make a bowl game. This will be challenging for the Aggies who will need at least one win over San Jose State or Boise State, teams that are at the top of the conference, in order to achieve the goal. 

“I desperately want to get this team bowl eligible and that’s going to be a challenge,” Anderson said. “Who knows? Maybe you get some help and you go into that last game and it’s worth something.” 

The Aggies have a bye week to heal up from their injuries before they host New Mexico on Nov. 5 at 1:30 p.m.

Featured image by Heidi Bingham from the Colorado State game.