Old Wagon Wheel leaving Logan as Aggies fall to Cougars
The scene was set for Utah State football to bounce back from its disastrous loss at Air Force with a win against bitter rivals BYU. Instead, the Aggies lost 42-14 at home and gave up 639 yards of total offense.
It was announced prior to kickoff that All-American linebacker David Woodward wouldn’t be playing — after the game it was confirmed Woodward will miss the rest of the season. And defensively, that was just the first blow Utah State would take on the night.
Early on, it looked as if Utah State wouldn’t be able to stop BYU’s rushing attack, which is not what was expected when playing the 112-best running team in the nation. There was even a record broken after the first Aggie touchdown; senior kicker Dominik Eberle set the school scoring record at 310, taking over Robert Turbin’s previous record of 308. The Aggies were able to hold off the running game slightly, however, but fell apart in the passing attack when the second quarter got underway.
BYU was able to efficiently move its way down the field on multiple drives, going 71 and 93 yards on two scoring drives. Quarterback Jaren Hall was extremely efficient in the first half, hitting seven different receivers and throwing for 214 yards on 12-of-16 passing.
Utah State was making this a little easier for the Cougars by giving them space on the underneath routes on almost every play. The Aggies were forced into a lot of one-on-one matchups and were having a hard time tackling early in the game.
Utah State also fumbled the ball early in the first quarter on a Gerold Bright rush attempt and followed that up with two Jordan Love interceptions in the second quarter. Both times, Love was trying to find an open receiver that most likely would have resulted in a touchdown had the ball made it to the receiver. However, both balls were thrown into the teeth of the defense and the spying linebacker was able to come away with the pick. Underthrows were a problem on more than one play for Love, even when given enough time to sit in the pocket and pick out an open receiver. Although, not all of this came down to the quarterback. On multiple plays Love would be sitting in the pocket for 3-4 seconds with no one to throw to.
“Coach Sanford told Jordan [Love], when you see that open hole in the zone, hit it, don’t hesitate. Hesitation with this offense kills us, we’re a pace team, we can’t have no type of hesitation,” junior receiver Jordan Nathan said. “Honestly, we’re a mental team as well. We can’t have any penalties, any missed assignments, no turnovers ‘cause that’s gonna be bad for the offense.”
By the end of the first half, Utah State began to create momentum. Love pushed the Aggies down the field on an 11 play, 86 yard drive that lasted just 1:52. Senior running back Gerold Bright played a big part in getting the Aggies in the red zone and capitalized with a one-yard rush into the endzone to cut the deficit to 21-14. Love ended the first half with a respectable statline of 261 yards passing, completing 19-of-26 passes with a touchdown but also had the two picks.
BYU defensive lineman Devin Kaufusi (90) celebrates with linebacker Tyler Allgeier (25) after he recovered a Utah State fumble the game Saturday in Logan, Utah. (Eli Lucero/The Herald Journal via AP)
The momentum didn’t last, however as the defense wasn’t able to contain BYU coming out of the halftime break and allowed two straight seven-play scoring drives of 68 and 75 yards. Very simply put, Utah State head coach Gary Andersen attributed the swing in momentum to “turnovers and bad tackling.”
Just as BYU was pushing to make it three straight scoring drives, freshman cornerback Cam Lampkin intercepted a ball in the endzone and gave the Aggies some new life down 35-14 with just over two minutes left in the third quarter. A 52-yard bomb down the field to Nathan set Utah State up in the red zone to start the final quarter. Just a few plays later, Love connected with Siaosi Mariner for what seemed to be his second touchdown of the game. But an ineligible man downfield penalty took the points off the board and the Aggies came up short on fourth down, turning the ball back over to BYU with nothing to show for it.
“We had some mojo at times tonight, which was good to see. We got some things going, but we have to finish drives and we can’t turn it over,” Andersen said. “We got yards out there, so we saw significant improvement from the last couple of weeks on offense, but you didn’t see us finish drives because we turned it over or had a big sack. When we continually understand our deficiencies, then that’s a big part of it.”
On the following drive, Utah State blitzed heavily on second-and-long but overpersued the quarterback and Baylor Romney was able to find Lopini Katoa for a 77-yard screen pass. Four plays later, Katoa punched it in from 6 yards out and extended BYU’s lead up to 42-14. The drive stretched 10 plays and started at the Cougars’ own one-yard line, taking just five minutes to conclude, but sucking all the air out of the stadium in the process. Even when Utah State started to get a hold in the game, the defense let them down, which isn’t too hard to believe with leading tackler and All-American Woodward out of the game.
Utah State made a late push to close the gap, but were unsuccessful and the game effectively ended on Love’s third interception of the night.
As painful as this loss may be for Utah State, as the players sat through the sound of BYU celebrating in the locker room next to theirs, the season is still alive in some ways. Hopes of winning a Mountain West championship are probably squashed after four losses, and more importantly, the loss of Woodward for the remainder of the year. However, the Aggies will have four more games to prove they can overcome the rocky and unexpected start to the season and currently have just one loss in conference. The first of those chances will come Saturday Nov. 9 at Fresno State (3-4).
Twitter: @dren_sports