USU vs UNLV: By the Numbers
7 – Sacks by the Utah State defense
Since the beginning of last season, there have been 50 times in which a team recorded seven or more sacks in a game. So in a season-and-a-half, those teams have gone 47-3. I know a lot of the talk in this game, and really this season, has been about the Aggie offense and how ridiculous they were, but teams don’t lose very often when their defense played how USU’s defense played on Saturday. 3.0 of these seven sacks came from sophomore linebacker David Woodward, who has been ridiculous this season. He currently ranks 11th in the nation in total tackles per game, and became the first player in college football to record three or more sacks and ten or more tackles in a game this season (that great stat courtesy of our Daniel Hansen).
Utah State also recorded 11 tackles for a loss, another crazy number. This season that has been done by a team 62 times, three of those times were Utah State. The Aggies now rank 13th in the nation in TFL’s and in sacks per game.
18 – Utah State players which have scored touchdowns
With Henry Colombi and Baron Gajkowski getting on the board with touchdowns in Saturday games, that brings this year’s total of players who have found the endzone to a ridiculous 18. The depth and number of playmakers on this team is amazing. For comparison’s sake, I looked at how many players had scored touchdowns on some of the other top-scoring teams this season. Alabama, who leads the nation, has had 15. Houston, Appalachian State and Oklahoma, who are third, fourth and fifth in scoring, have had 17, 14 and 13 players score touchdowns respectively. Of course, it also helps that USU is fifth in the nation in defensive touchdowns scored.
8.3 – UNLV average distance to go on third down
Okay, I’ve got to rave about the Utah State defense a little bit more. The Rebels were forced into 21 third downs in this game, on which, they only converted eight times. 38.1% is a solid third down conversion rate for a defense, and one which Aggie fans should be thrilled with. A big part of this was creating tough scenarios for the UNLV offense on third down. Now, the Rebels did pick up an average of 6.4 yards on first down plays, certainly a place where the Aggies have some room to improve, but when first down went for a minimal gain, the USU defense was very stout on second and third downs.
7.4 – Yards per play in the second half for USU
One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from Aggie fans about this game is how much the team “let their foot off the gas” in the second half, which I think is a little bit silly. Sure, the playbook turned a little bit more vanilla and the second half wasn’t nearly as exciting, especially with how the final 20 minutes of the first half went. But despite turning to primarily backups a couple of drives into the second half while UNLV was still playing their top guys, Utah State still outgained the Rebels 238-219 despite only running 32 plays to UNLV’s 45. Now, of course the most important thing is the score, and the Aggies were outscored 21-17 in the second half, but having your team’s backups barely edged by the opponents starters isn’t the worst problem to have.
– jadencrockettjohnson@gmail.com
Twitter: @jadenjohnson00