Lights Out at our White Out

Not so much the white shirts that are beautiful, but more so the packed house!

A whole lot of Saturday's game seemed to be very up and down. And by that I really just mean that USU sucked in the first and third quarters, while dominating in the second and fourth.

Sloppy and frustrating as it may have been though, I'd much rather have us playing great in the fourth quarter instead of letting the games get uncomfortably close and choking it away in the final minutes.

This may sound cocky, but I really do feel like tonight was another one of those "we got this" kinds of games where we are good enough to bail ourselves out of any situation and didn't really open up the playbook much. We have a huge in-state game next week and don't want to show too much, and I don't think we did.


Considering that the Aggies really only seemed concerned with doing damage in two quarters Saturday, I'd say that game went down rather well. The first quarter didn't have much of anything for either team, so let's just skip recapping that.

In the second quarter though, the Aggies finally got their shit together. The drive that was underway at quarters' end finished with a Josh Thompson field goal (crazy, right??). After that, USU actually trailed in a game for only the second time this whole season when UNLV rode one big play and some penalties to the end zone to go up 7-3.

After that though, the rest of the second quarter was all Aggies.

Following the UNLV touchdown, the Aggies marched 75 yards down the field to take back the lead on a touchdown pass to D.J. Tialavea. Then after the Aggie defense held UNLV to a three-and-out, the second play after the Rebels punted ended with Chuck Jacobs going beast mode for a 50-yard touchdown catch.

Cap off the quarter with another field goal by Thompson and the Aggies took a 20-7 lead into the half.

THIRD QUARTER
Every concern I still have for USU football seemed to be highlighted in this quarter. On the season now, the Aggies have been outscored 35 to 14 in the third quarter of games. That can only really be described as "clown shoes".

That NEEDS to change. Doing things like fumbling on the first play from scrimmage in the second half, deep in your own territory, or throwing interceptions when it looks like you're driving again, are things that can blow it in big games. It was the second straight week that the Aggies had turnovers on back-to-back drives in the third quarter.

Holding the Rebels to field goals both times they got deep into USU territory was a relief, but still... Both Colorado State and UNLV have won the third quarter rather convincingly against Utah State over the last two games. That is very bad.

FOURTH QUARTER
The first play was a 74-yard touchdown catch by Kerwynn Williams. Then the defense held UNLV to a three-and-out. Then the offense drove down and scored again, this time with a 17-yard toss to Jacobs for his second touchdown of the day.

Game over. Thanks for playing.

NOTES

• Utah State has dominated the first half of games, outscoring opponents 85-16. Despite the crappy third quarters, a 35-20 edge in scoring in the fourth quarter has been good enough to hold on for four wins so far this year. Patch up that third quarter and things get really dangerous.
   
• HUGE ups to the third down conversions on that last drive. One was a 65-yard pass completion to Joe Hill on 3rd-and-7.  The other came on 3rd-and-13 with the touchdown pass to Jacobs. Making those plays in the fourth quarter will get you to heaven.
• Kerwynn Williams is just a straight-up weapon!! With 113 yards rushing and 147 yards receiving, he ripped apart another Mountain West Conference defense. Don't really foresee any WAC defenses slowing him down a whole lot.
• I know he only had three catches for 33 yards, but Kellen Bartlett is awesome. Really is an excellent receiving threat as a tight end. D.J. Tialavea is pretty damn solid too. Solid touchdown catch for my old teammate from bowling class.
• Josh Thompson getting it done in the kicking game the last two games in a row now EXCEPT!!!.... the missed extra point was uncool of you Josh. Remember what I said two weeks ago... A game-winning field goal at BYU by you, and Wisconsin is forgiven in my book.
• Jake Doughty took all that national love from both Jim Rome and Sportscenter and went out and had his best game of the year with 13 tackles.
• Just gonna say, officiating was a shit show tonight. That was NFL replacement ref-worthy.
• Oh, Zach Vigil had double-digit tackles... AGAIN!
• Kyler Fackrell had five tackles, three QB hurries and a safety, if you need him.
• The offensive line got some solid praise in the post game tonight, which is encouraging. Also interesting to see that when Tyler Larsen limped off the field, Jamie Markosian slid down to center, Eric Schultz went over to left guard and Logan Malohifo'ou came in to take over at right tackle. Awful lot of shuffling for one guy, but they held strong.

Player of the Game: Chuckie Keeton

When a guy throws for more than 400 yards, with four touchdowns added in, this is a no-brainer. Kerwynn Williams could have been a pick here too I guess, but Keeton was solid Saturday night. He was just a big play machine, and he did well in checking down and finding the safe throw when the big play wasn't there. And even a few times those check downs to running backs ended in big plays. Mostly though, it was just a hell of a game for No. 16 in white.