Blake Anderson on the USU sideline during their game vs Air Force on Oct. 8, 2022. Photo by Lorene Hale.
When examining Saturday’s loss to Wyoming, you get the feeling pretty quickly that that game was very much like Utah State’s matchups with Alabama and Weber State. The Aggies struggled on offense and eventually buckled on defense.
Luckily for the USU faithful, there was one key difference in that the Aggies actually put up a solid fight and had a chance to win all the way into the fourth quarter. It makes this loss at least somewhat easier to stomach. But it doesn’t change the fact that this loss holds some familiarity.
The sources of those struggles on offense in all three games came from virtually the same places – an inability to complete passes down the field and no run game.
According to PFF, in the Alabama and Weber State games, the Aggies had an 11.81 NFL passer rating (using the NFL method because the NCAA one is stupid) on throws that went more than 10 yards down the field. In other words, USU as 4-for-30 on said passes for 73 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. That compares perfectly fine with the 0.0 passer rating Bishop Davenport posted on his passes of 10-plus yards (1-of-10 for 10 yards, no TDs, one INT).
The inability to gain chunks of yards with downfield throws plagued the Aggies in the first quarter of the season. And finding a way to do so was part of the boost that got USU out of the rut. Going back to passer rating on those throws of 10-plus yards, Utah State QBs had a combined passer rating of 80.79 in the games against UNLV, BYU and Air Force.
A reversion to the dark days of Weeks 2 and 3 aren’t nearly as much cause for alarm as those weeks were when we all went through them. Having to play one’s fourth-string quarterback is supposed to have negative consequences because, well, there’s a reason your fourth-string QB is your fourth-string QB.
This throw is probably the quickest and easiest example to cite.
Deeper out routes can be incredibly hard to hit, especially from the far hash. This one isn’t super deep (just barely 10 yards past the line of scrimmage), but it’s still hard for Davenport to be accurate.
What should be encouraging is the speed Davenport puts on this ball. These out routes will 100 percent be in his wheelhouse down the road, just as they were for Jordan Love. Davenport just needs to tighten up his accuracy and he’ll be good to go here. And in fact, the Aggies went back to this route, shortening how far downfield Vaughn was downfield before cutting toward the sideline, and Davenport was able to hit it.
When Cooper Legas comes back to the lineup there should be a return to what we saw in the weeks prior to Legas’ injury – a solid passing attack complimenting a solid run game.
Speaking of that run game, the Aggies once again showed an inability to run against Wyoming. At least excluding the one drive. That one drive came in the third quarter and featured a seven-play, 62-yard drive that had only run plays. It also contained USU’s four longest runs of the game (five, six, 14 and 31 yards). Suffice it to say it also included the best blocking execution of the night.
Aside from that one drive, Utah State averaged 1.79 yards per carry, which as this week’s From the Notebook outlined, is not exactly great.
Wyoming brought in a really good game plan to counter Utah State’s read-option looks and combined it with dominant play by its defensive line. One of the staple play-calls for the Cowboys’ defense was to send an outside linebacker (or sometimes the “striker” as USU would call it) on a blitz. This blitzer’s job was to get up the field and make the QB hand the ball off. If he didn’t, well here’s one example.
If done properly, this defensive look paralyzes the read-option by turning the two-on-one the play is supposed to create with the QB and RB vs the DE and changes it into a two-on-two that favors the defense. And on plays were USU passed the ball, it functioned perfectly well as a pass-rushing blitz.
Wyoming ran this look – or some form of it – at least 15 times, maybe a few more depending on one’s interpretation. The Aggies gained 41 yards on these plays (2.7 per play) and most of those came on two plays (a 14-yard run and 16-yard pass). So, on 13 of those cases, the Aggies gained just 10 net yards (0.77 per play).
Utah State did have a couple of successful runs against this look, so it’s not a kryptonite for the run game. A lot of adjusting to these looks in the future (assuming teams are smart and at least consider trying this look against USU) should keep the run game well intact. And so long as the passing game returns to form, the offense should recover from this game just fine. And having another very well-timed bye week should go a long way in facilitating this return to form.
