Post-training camp grades: Defense

Part 3 of 3: Defense

Offense wins games, but defense wins championships, yada yada yada...

Look at USU football in the Andersen/Wells era though. The offense was very good from the start back in 2009 with the likes of Robert Turbin, Diondre Borel, and Stanley Morrison racking up stellar numbers and putting up points. 2010 wasn't as great with the injuries to pretty much everyone who mattered. But in 2011, the offense was back at it.

As good as the offense was though, USU only racked up a combined record of 15-22 from 2009-11. Put in an elite defense, and the 2012 Aggies win 11 games and a WAC championship. No other evidence is really needed. So let's get at the grades after camp.

Another Saturday, another Aggie blowout

Roadrunner shouldn't be smiling

In the last three games, USU has won by margins of 22, 34 and 31, with the most recent coming Saturday on the road at UTSA.

And once again, this one was never really in doubt. Utah State kicked off to the Roadrunners, forced them to a three-and-out, blocked their punt, and scored two plays later.

The tone was set at that point, and another blowout was on.

The Roadrunners gave themselves a glimmer of hope after a great interception of a Chuckie Keeton pass deep over the middle, which resulted in a field goal drive and only the second time USU has given up 1st quarter points this year.

Utah State's defense locked down after that though, holding UTSA to three-and-outs on each of its next two possessions, and giving up pretty much nothing throughout the rest of the first half. In the meantime, USU's offense put points on the board in each of its next SIX drives to take the game from a score of 7-3 to 41-3.

Good Aggies 41, bad Aggies 7

It's funny how a year ago, reaching bowl eligibility was as big of news we've seen for Utah State football in years. This time around, it feels much more like everyone is waiting to see just how high this program can go this season.

With a blowout game like this one, there's not a whole ton to say. Utah State came out and took care of business from the start, and really wasted no time doing so.

It took all of one play for Kerwynn Williams to take a screen pass 76-yards for a touchdown.

Next drive out, USU took a bit longer to score, but still reached the end zone eventually on another big play. That time it was Chuck Jacobs with one of those "Bitch, get off me" type of moments as he and the NMSU defended battled for the ball. Defender fell down, Jacobs made the catch, 14-0 good guys.

The first Aggie drive of the 2nd quarter was another one play drive for 76 yards, this time with Chuckie Keeton breaking out for the big play on the ground.

DEFENSE
Didn't seem much like the defense had a real sense of urgency Saturday, and who can really blame them? They took care of business when they needed to, and that's what really matters.

It didn't seem like USU was blitzing a whole ton, which is alright in these games you know you're going to win. As much as we would have loved to see 14 sacks this week, settling for just a 34-point win will suffice.

Still, it seems like this defense is better at defending the pass when they send some more guys on the pass rush rather than committing to coverage. This is going to be especially crucial against Louisiana Tech, where nobody seems to be able to cover against them. Best bet there will probably be to never give them any time to throw. Obviously easier said than done, but it's something to keep in mind for that game.

KICKING
Can't help but have a whole lot of "what ifs" after seeing Nick Diaz nail 53-yard and 48-yard field goals on Saturday. I'm going to trust that Josh Thompson really did outplay everyone else in practice to earn the job, but after seeing Diaz kick on Saturday, the gap couldn't have been wide enough to keep Diaz out of seeing action until the eighth game of the year.

If Diaz can be at all dependable in the kicking game, especially from 45 yards an out, that could end up being a difference maker in other games this year.

NOTES

• Kerwynn Williams isn't going to stop this reign of terror on the WAC. His numbers to finish this season are going to be pretty eye-popping. Another great game by him.
• Kelvin Lee with a solid showing in garbage time (5 carries for 46 yards). He's gong to have a much bigger role next season, so it's refreshing to see encouraging signs from him there.
• 21 first downs allowed to NMSU... That's not good.
• Kyler Fackrell adds to his legend with a blocked field goal Saturday to go along with eight tackles.
• Will Davis finally holds on to an interception!!! And it was a big one too coming in the end zone. Solid return too on that play. More of these please! Also, solid work on two tackles for loss.
• Tavaris McMillian looks like he's finally turning things on too. Only four tackles, but a pass break-up and a sack make for a solid afternoon for him.
• Great games again by both Zach Vigil and Jake Doughty. These guys both came here as walk-ons and are second and third leading tacklers on the best defense USU has seen in generations. Incredible what these two have made for themselves at USU.
• USU scores again on its first possession of the 3rd quarter (pumps fist).
• 82-3... That's the combined scoring in the 1st quarter of games this year for Utah State... Unreal.
• 45-20 is USU's scoring advantage in the 4th quarter of games this year. Last year the Aggies got outscored 94-89 in the 4th quarter, and most of those games were close ones that didn't have backups getting their cracks at playing time like we've seen in this year's blowouts.
• And while we're comparing this year to last year a little bit, the Aggies have 30 sacks already in 2012. The 2011 team only had 25 total. 

Player of the Game: Chuckie Keeton

The kid just keeps on getting better. Keeton completed 16-of-26 attempts for 257 yards and two touchdowns through the air. On the ground, he racked up 81 yards and two more touchdowns. The numbers speak for themselves, but even above that, he was just calm and in control for the entire game Saturday.

Football: Highs, Lows and I Don't Knows - 10/11

Talking any more about that game last Friday is something I don't think I'm alone in dreading. But part of moving forward is getting better on where we were previously lacking, and hopefully keeping up what we've been great at.

So let's just get into it, and please excuse the inordinate amount of Lows this week, but really they're kind of relevant.

THE HIGHS

Linebackers - Kyler Fackrell was the WAC's Defensive Player of the Week, which speaks for itself, as if his 10 tackles and interception weren't enough. Zach Vigil added 10 tackles too. Jake Doughty, Bojay Filimoeatu and Tavaris McMillian all were solid too, reaffirming what we already knew about this unit.

Safeties - McKade Brady finally got a fair crack at BYU this year and finished with a game-high 14 tackles. Brian Suite racked up nine stops of his own, again, reaffirming what we already knew about this unit.

THE LOWS

The defensive line - I doubt I'm alone in hoping that the USU defensive line takes last Friday personal. The only place to go from that game is up. Aside from not really getting any push all game, USU didn't register a single tackle for loss on Friday. And that was against a BYU offensive line that has been pounded by injuries this year.

Dropped passes - Too damn many of them... I hate to single a guy out, but Chuck Jacobs has got to get the routine down of catching THEN running. He's going to cause tons of problems for opposing teams when he has the ball in the open field, but it seems like he's trying to look upfield before he's secured the ball. Rough game for everyone though, not just Jacobs.

Matt Wells - Maybe I was overly ambitious in the whole idea of Wells bringing the best of both worlds of what Dave Baldwin did well, while patching Baldwin's holes. Wells has still been good at keeping most games out of reach from other teams. Every team in the country is going to struggle scoring at Wisconsin or at BYU like the Aggies did, but we shouldn't have struggled THAT bad. Hopefully this is just part of the learning curve for him taking over a whole offense for the first time this year.

Second half turnovers - This shit has got to stop... Another turnover on the first possession of the third quarter, and a really costly interception on the Cam Webb pass. That kind of stuff will take USU right out of almost any tough game. Some serious refocusing needs to be done there.

THE I DON'T KNOWS

Chuckie under pressure - It's sometimes easy to forget that only now does Keeton have a whole season's worth of games under his belt after missing half of last year. Still, like at Wisconsin, Keeton was all over the place with a lot of throws against BYU. Obviously it's not easy out there, especially against such tough defenses who are good at pressuring quarterbacks. Still, the team needs a few more of these passes under pressure to be completions rather than balls that the receivers can barely adjust to, if at all. Still young though, and he should continue to improve.

The running game - I mean... What happened? I expected BYU to hold USU to maybe only 80 yards or so on the ground. Held to 41 though?? Something like that kind of has to fall on the whole offense, and really is maybe the most head-scratching thing about Matt Wells' calling. Was there really no hole in that defense that we could have exploited for a few more yards on the ground?

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.

Football: Highs, Lows and I Don't Knows - 9/25

We all know that the past few decades of Aggie football had been some dark times until Gary Andersen arrived.

Just how bad were they though? Let's use three wins as a measuring stick, since that was often as good as it got for USU football since the turn of the century before Andersen came around. And even since GA has arrived, the third win has taken its sweet time to get here. Below is the date in which Utah State finally got its third win of the season for each year over the last 12 years...

2000: Oct. 21
2001: Nov. 10
2002: Nov. 9
2003: Nov. 1
2004: Nov. 20
2005: Nov. 26
2006: 3rd win?
2007: Seriously, what 3rd win?
2008: Nov. 29
2009: Nov. 14
2010: Nov. 6
2011: Nov. 5
2012: Sep. 22

This marks the first time since 2000 that the team's third win has come prior to the month of November. And if you want to know when the last time USU won its third game in September prior to last weekend, you have to go all the way back to 1978.

So close... Again...

It’s almost like every Utah State fan knew deep down that if the Aggies were going to win that game, they couldn’t let it come down to kicking. None of the kickers on the roster have shown any consistency, or really even capability to make kicks from anywhere outside of a PAT, and even that is never a guarantee.

As amazing as this team’s defense has been so far this season, and as good as the offense has managed to be despite playing back-to-back games against teams who could very well end up playing each other in the Rose Bowl, we’re one solid special teams performance away from being 3-0

Before I go on though, let’s get one thing clear: DO NOT be the kind of asshole that goes and harasses Josh Thompson at wherever he lives, or dishes out hate on Facebook or Twitter. Yeah, he hasn't been very good at kicker, we’re all well aware of that by now, and to talk about that among company online or whatever is totally ok. He can’t be loving life right now as is, and having some overly-reactive stranger who goes out of their way to tell him he sucks won’t do him or the team any good. Plus, it just kinda makes you look like an asshat if you’re that guy. Just respect the guy’s space. He's still a member of this team, and who knows, maybe he'll come through with some kind of epic heroics later this season (a winning field goal at BYU would suffice Josh).