Utah State linebacker AJ Vongphachanh. Photo courtesy of Utah State Athletics LOGAN – Even though Utah State’s 2021 offensive fireworks put on jointly by Deven Thompkins and Logan Bonner provided headlines all year for the Aggies, the old cliché “defense wins championships” applied just the same to the Mountain West and LA Bowl champions. Case in point, USU’s three most significant wins — at Washington State, at San Diego State and against Oregon State — saw its opponents average just 16.3 points per game (in the other 11 games that average was 26.6).  In the biggest games of the year (at least the ones the Aggies won) they performed on defense, sometimes more so than the offense. With that noted, it becomes clear that while the questions about USU’s offense (Can they replace the wide receivers? Who fills in on the offensive line? Who’s the backup running back?) are important, the biggest key to whether the Aggies can repeat as champions is how good the defense will be. Let’s take a quick look at a couple of case studies from Utah State football’s history to further drive this home. In 2012 and 2018 the Aggies had two of their best