USU vs UNLV: By the Numbers
89.7 – Quarterback rating by Jordan Love
Imagine this. You’re a freshman quarterback who has had very little opportunity to get into a game and prove yourself worthy of a starting job. A week ago, in the game which you were given the most playing time and free reign of the offense, you threw three interceptions and ultimately caused the team to lose a game many feel they should have won. Now, a week later, you get your first opportunity to start a game, and it’s a very important game against a conference opponent on the road. Things get off to a rough start for the team, and next thing you know you’re down 14-0 and your top receiver has left the game because of an injury.
This is the situation Jordan Love found himself in on Saturday. By every account, he was destined to fail. However, instead of sinking with the ship and going on to become the next target of every angry Aggie fans’ tweets and message board posts, he took command and played a near perfect game from that point on to lead Utah State to an enormous victory. Love (or should I say, Mr. Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Week?) put together a 316 yard passing performance, completing 19/27 for two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also showed us that though he might not be the ground threat that Kent Myers is, he knows how and when to turn on the jets, running the ball eight times for 42 yards. I personally want to see a larger sample size before I make any bold declarations of him being the future of the team or anything like that, but there’s no question Jordan Love was the hero of this game.
38 – Consecutive points by USU to close out the game
Midway through the second quarter, the Aggies had clawed and fought tooth and nail to get themselves back into the game after trailing by two touchdowns earlier. They had a nice looking drive going, trailing 21-14, when Eltoro Allen fumbled the ball near midfield and the Rebels produced a seemingly effortless drive the other way to score a touchdown and go up 28-14. Talk about a momentum killer. At that point, it was difficult to imagine Utah State being able to win the game. It would be easy to roll over and die, we’ve seen that too many times before. Instead, the Aggies went on to roll off 38 straight points and outgain the Rebels 352 yards to 148. Now look, I’m not going to completely ignore the fact that the momentum swing lined up almost perfectly with the exit of UNLV quarterback Armani Rogers (though it’s not as if the Aggies were without majorly impactful injuries of their own). Rogers was dicing up the USU defense. However, the resiliency we saw from this team and the heart that they played with while in a difficult spot deserves recognition. Furthermore, USU is now 3-1 in games following a loss. A Mountain West championship is likely not attainable for this team, but I do not expect to see a lack of effort in any of these last four games as they look to become bowl eligible.
300 – Rushing yards by UNLV at halftime
This statistic is…concerning to say the least. UNLV is a great running team don’t get me wrong. They rank 11th in the nation in rushing offense. But they average 281.3 yards per game and had eclipsed that total by halftime against Utah State. The good news for the Aggies is that they only allowed 75 rushing yards in the second half. Some would attribute that to the absence of Armani Rogers, who was accountable for 80 of those first half yards and was the commander of the offense, some would say Utah State just started to figure things out and play better. I tend to fall somewhat in the middle, believing both of those things played a big role in it. Now, obviously USU came away with the victory so none of that matters, however, my main point of concern is that two of the four remaining games for the Aggies come against very run-heavy triple option teams. Air Force currently ranks fifth in the nation in rushing yards per game, averaging 341.4, and New Mexico ranks 17th in the nation with 251.6. If the Aggies are going to have even a chance in either one of those games their defense needs to play infinitely better than they did in the first half against UNLV.
20 – Turnovers forced by Utah State this season
This number is both very exciting and concerning. Exciting when you realize Utah State currently ranks second in the nation in turnovers forced, and 20 turnovers in eight games is just ridiculous. Concerning when you realize they have just a +2 turnover margin because they have turned the ball over 18 times themselves. I’ve harped on this before in past columns, but the correlation between turnover margin and winning is uncanny. 15 of the teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25 also rank in the top 40 in the nation in turnover margin. Of course there are always outliers (like Wyoming being sixth at +9), but what this tells us is that the Aggies are just about what their 4-4 record says they are. Average. While this is somewhat discouraging, I suppose in many ways it’s also encouraging to know that if the team, specifically the offense, could just clean some things up and secure the ball better, they have a chance against just about anyone.
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