Utah State was in the same stadium and on the same field as USC late Saturday evening. But for all intents and purposes, the Aggies and Trojans were not playing the same game. USU was simply not up to the task of competing with the now No. 11 team in the country according to the AP Top 25 Poll.
The Aggies’ offense had two drives that even entered USC territory (one of the pair being in garbage time) and the defense didn’t force a punt until the Trojans had long since pulled their starters off the field.
It’s not encouraging then, that Utah State’s next opponent is the No. 12 team in the country, the University of Utah. Worse yet is that many of the same traits USC showed that caused significant problems — suffocating defense, great QB play, size in the trenches — are traits that largely define the Utes. The Aggies are going to welcome an opponent to Merlin Olsen Field that will be quite similar to the one that just routed them by 48 points and pitched a shutout.
Probably the most concerning thing about the team is Dreiling’s insistence after the game that the Aggies’ offense is “so hard to stop because their so explosive.” Perhaps the record books show different, but last I checked, offenses that are “hard to stop” don’t get shut out. The best defense may be able to slow them, but never truly stopped them.
USC stopped the Utah State offense dead in its tracks for 60 minutes.
A big part of Utah State’s struggles came from a pass attack that couldn’t get going. Bryson Barnes filled in for an injured Spencer Petras, completed 18 of 27 passes for 103 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. The completion percentage was OK, but the 3.8 yards per attempt simply was not, and it ranked 125th out of 135 QBs last week that attempted as least 10 passes.
The anemic passing game came about largely from an inordinate amount of pressure Barnes faced from the USC pass rush. Although Utah State ranks a rather healthy 59th on the season in sacks allowed per game, it’s mostly a story of two different games. Robert Morris didn’t bring down either of Petras or Barnes, but USC dragged Barnes down for a sack on three occasions. Per PFF, Barnes was under pressure on 11 of his 31 total dropbacks this past Saturday.
In both of his games so far, Barnes has not handled being under pressure very well. His season-to-date passing numbers when pressured (16 total dropbacks under pressure) are completing 5 of 12 passes for four yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions, and he’s been sacked three times and scrambled once for 11 yards.
To give Utah State’s offensive line some credit, they’ve not been giving up these pressures on basic four-man rushes. Of the 11 pressures USC generated, 10 happened on blitzes. When USC brought only a four-man rush, Barnes completed 10 of 13 passes for 65 yards, though even that undersells his accuracy as one incompletion was a pass he had to throw away, another was dropped by the receiver and a third was batted at the line (and was eventually intercepted).
Dreiling placed much of the blame for inordinate pressure on the offense spending too much time in second- or third-and-long situations. The Aggies had 11 third down attempts in the game and in seven of those situations they needed at least six yards (four times they needed 10+ yards). The Trojans dialed up blitzes, delayed rushers or stunts on virtually every occasion, and despite needing extra time for receivers to get open further downfield, they almost never got it.
“Obviously, it’s hard versus anybody, whether it’s USC or any high school in Cache Valley here. If it’s third and long a lot, they’re going to be teeing off and they’re going to have a great pass rush,” Dreiling said. “So it’s not more so the O-line not holding up versus the pressure. It’s more so offensively being able to stay ahead of the sticks so we don’t get in that situation. Then you throw in the fact that USC maybe has a couple of the best pass rushes in the country. It’s just, it’s tough.”
When given time, Barnes hit his receivers and the offense was able to move a bit, especially when the offense had some room to work with. The opening drives of the first and third quarters showed some of that. The Trojans weren’t as willing to blitz on 1st & 10 or on second downs when the Aggies could threaten pass or run. On USU’s game-opening drive, Barnes took advantage with completions of 12 and 13 yards to Jalen Royals. The third quarter also started with USU gaining multiple first downs, one on a seven-yard catch by Kyrese White and another on a 16-yard completion to Broc Lane.
Inevitably, though, the Aggies would face a third and long and USC would eventually capitalize by forcing a bad throw or sacking Barnes to kill a drive.
So how can Utah State handled blitzes that will surely be coming from Utah? The solution the Aggies seemed to go with, and likely planned from the start of the game, was quick passes. Per PFF tracking, Barnes had the second-quickest time to throw among QBs for the week at just 2.06 seconds, and that can be a viable strategy to avoiding pressure while still remaining efficient. Look no further than Miller Moss, who was the one QB to have a quicker time to throw last week and he went 21 of 30 for 229 yards.
The other solution is to find the hole in the defense created by bringing extra pressure. But defenses do a lot or work to hide these openings and/or use the pressure to force the ball to where they have defenders, and USC was very successful in doing that to the Aggies. The following play is a good example. Barnes is pressured on a five-man rush. If he had enough time, Kyrese White was entering the space where the extra rusher came from and could have made a big gain. But Barnes had to dump it off right as he might have seen White open, and his eventual target, Faison, is pretty much exactly what USC wanted as they had him well covered and dropped him for virtually no gain.
Finding ways to get the ball to receivers even when the blitz is coming will be vital against a team like Utah which could look at USC’s dominance as a gameplan blueprint. The Utes also have some of the “best pass rushes in the country” as Dreiling may put it, so the challenge will be similar and the Aggies must be up to it.
Of course, another factor in this equation is whether Petras plays. He’d potentially be a more steady presence with a bigger arm, quicker release and better vision of the field. Would it make that much of a difference? It’s hard to tell. The only sample size we have from Petras at USU is a quarter and a half against an FCS team. One would simply assume since he was the clear starter over Barnes that he’s a better option.
Petras sat out the USC game due to the ankle injury that shortened his time against Robert Morris. It was serious enough that Utah State seemed to quickly rule him out of playing against USC as Barnes insinuated in the post-game presser on Saturday that he’d known he would start since Sunday, Sept. 1, nearly a week before the game. That went contrary to the “day-to-day” tag Dreiling gave Petras last Monday in his pre-USC press conference.
In this week’s Zoom call presser, Dreiling said Petras has “a legit chance of playing,” seemingly an upgrade from last week but not a commitment that the veteran Iowa transfer would see the field against the Utes.
There’s obviously more than one aspect of failure in a 48-0 loss, and after a week where the defense earned praise for its dominant second half against Robert Morris, they then turned around and didn’t really ever find their footing against USC.
One could cite a lot of stats to showcase USU’s failures on defense. There’s the 544 yards allowed and obviously the 48 points. USC averaged 6.7 yards per rush, had five rushing scores, didn’t allow a sack and overall only had two plays go for negative yards (excluding kneel-downs). But really, the one stat that shows everything is this one: the Trojans possessed the ball 11 times, and on only three occasions did they fail to score. One was the victory formation in the fourth quarter, the other was a punt in the fourth quarter when the backups had come in, and the other was on a fumble which was forced in the middle of what would otherwise have been a 34-yard gain for USC.
Suffice to say the defense didn’t really ever get results in this game, only small victories when they forced field goals a couple of times in the first half.
If there is a positive to the defense’s performance, it’s that USC didn’t have a ton of explosive plays, the kind you often see in these lopsided victories. All of USC’s touchdowns were of nine yards or less. The Trojans had six explosive plays (passes of 20+ yards and runs of 15+ yards) which was fewer than the 11 USU had in scoring fewer points in its win over Robert Morris. The Aggies made the Trojans put together long drives and earn every yard. Against a team that’s looking more and more like a Big 10 contender, USU may not be able to hold. Against Colorado State, or Wyoming, or UNLV? The Aggies may be able to handle that, though only time will tell on that.
As much as Utah State would wish otherwise, this loss, in this fashion, proves they’re not a great team. Great teams don’t get shut out and they don’t lose by 48 points, no matter the opponent. Dreiling can praise USC to the moon and back, but that doesn’t change the fact that a good USU team would have at least showed competitiveness. What the Aggies can do is show they’re at least a good team. Good teams can get blown out by elite teams, it happens in college football where there is such a lack of parity. Good teams can compete for Group of Five conference titles. The season isn’t over because they lost one game in ugly fashion.
Dreiling, Barnes and others that have spoken with the media emphasized how the team never gave up and played with the same competitiveness in the first series as they did the last. Well, the best way to show that such statements are true would be to show a little bit of that competitive fire by not getting shut out a second straight week.