Utah State secured its fourth win of the season, getting one win closer to its primary goal (at this point of the year) of becoming bowl eligible. The win over New Mexico was expected, but never guaranteed and Saturday’s contest showed just how the Aggies have to fight these days to get wins. Bowl eligibility won’t come easy for this team, but USU has also shown at least some ability to fight through insane levels of adversity and come away with surprising wins.
Comeback wins are the only way
Come-from-behind wins are just the thing at Utah State under Blake Anderson. Saturday was the 11th win of Anderson’s tenure in games where the Aggies trailed at some point. All four of USU’s wins this year have come in games where the Aggies trailed. Even the players are fully aware of just how much of a trend this really has become.
“Sometimes we just get off to slow starts, especially at home,” safety Hunter Reynolds said. “I think it’s kind of been a two-year thing too. Last year, got down I think in every game we played. It’s just one of those things where we’ve got to come out with more energy, more passion, more juice to start the game.”
Legas running for his life
Quarterback Cooper Legas faced significant pressure for much of the night in what was one of Utah State’s worst pass-blocking games of the year according to Pro Football Focus’ grading model, Saturday was the second-worst pass-blocking game of the year ahead of only the Alabama loss). Legas faced pressure on 35 percent of his dropbacks per PFF. He he was sacked four times and scrambled five additional times to get away from pressuring defensive linemen and linebackers.
Briggs great game when Tyler went out
Robert Briggs has shown bright flashes of stardom in limited snaps at running back. He ran for 85 yards and a touchdown against UConn on just 10 carriers, with smaller efforts like 46 yards against BYU and 38 yards at Colorado State. He only reached 10 carries in a game three times before Saturday but he was called into action when USU’s coaching staff decided to hold Calvin Tyler Jr. out due to a possible concussion.
All 19 of Briggs’ carries came after Tyler’s last snap of the day and the freshman RB made the most of his chances. He ran for 12 yards on his first carry (granted it was with one second left in the first half and was ultimately meaningless). Then on the opening drive of the second half, Briggs played a crucial role, running for 34 yards on USU’s 88-yard touchdown drive (the one capped of by Connor Coles’ touchdown on the fake field goal).
Back to more penalties
Utah State escaped its own penalty-ridden ways last time out against Wyoming, where the Aggies were penalized just one time. Things went back to normal, so to speak, as USU went back to committing penalties with a vengeance. At the end of last week (where the Aggies had a bye) they’d climbed up to 119th in total penalties after ranking 130th the week prior to the Wyoming game.
But on Saturday Utah State decided they’d had enough of clean football and committed 12 penalties for a loss of 109 yards. The Aggies plummeted back down the leaderboard of fewest penalties and now rank 128th of 131 teams.
By The Stats:
- Utah State had a touchdown in all three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams – in Saturday’s win. It’s the first time since Sept. 28, 2019 vs Colorado State when Savon Scarver returned a kickoff 100 yards and David Woodward returned a fumble eight yards for a score in addition to the
- Robert Briggs now has 341 rushing yards as a freshman, fifth-most by freshman since 2000. At his current pace of 37.9 yards per game, he’d project to finish with 455 rushing yards. That would ranked fourth-most by a freshman since 2000. The USU record for rushing yards by a freshman is 795, set in 1992 by Abu Wilson.
- Coles’ touchdown on a fake field goal is the first TD by USU out of a field goal formation since 2017 when holder DJ Nelson kept the ball and ran four yards for a touchdown in a game against Wyoming.
- Utah State held the Lobos to 42 yards passing for the entire game. It’s the lowest USU has held a team to since Air Force had just 24 passing yards against the Aggies in 2016. It’s just the fifth time USU’s held a team to 42 or fewer passing yards since 2000, along with the 2016 Air Force game, 2017 at Air Force (33 yards), 2016 vs San Diego State (14), and 2013 vs Weber State (34).
- The Aggies had zero turnovers for the entire game. It’s just the second time this season and first since the team’s second game of the season at Alabama. In the six intervening games USU averaged 2.8 turnovers per game and had multiple turnovers in four of those six games.
- Terrell Vaughn caught five passes for 83 yards and a touchdown on Saturday. It’s the seventh straight game that Vaughn has caught at least four passes which is not only the longest streak for any Aggie on the team this season, but it’s also the most games of four-plus catches for anyone on the team.
- Since joining the starting lineup in USU’s fourth game of the season, Terrell Vaughn has averaged 5.2 catches per game, 54.0 yards per game and has the most receiving touchdowns (4) of anyone on the team in that span.
- Cooper Legas has thrown a touchdown pass in each of his first four career starts at USU. He’s the first Aggie QB to do so since Adam Kennedy in 2011.
