Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
If it had only been BYU's defense out on the field during the Utah State game Friday evening, the cheers still would have been just as loud.
Because that's what you get when the Cougar defense, now known around the country as the "Zion Curtain," steps up to the plate — a whole lot of cheering.
The 6-3 win over the Aggies caps off the 12th-straight game with the opposing team held to under 300 yards, and the 13th-straight quarter without a touchdown from the other team's offense.
“We knew we could be good from the beginning of the season," said junior linebacker Spencer Hadley. "We knew we could limit teams to very few points. I believed in our defense from the beginning. To us, it’s a result of a lot of hard work paying off.”
One of the many stars of the Cougar defense was senior linebacker Ezekiel Ansah, who ended the night with five tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks and two quarterback hurries.
"Ziggy (Ansah) is a remarkable story," BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "For this season to go by without a knowledge that three years ago he didn’t know how to put on his gear, and now literally being the talk of the West Coast by almost every NFL team and scout that comes through … you could make a movie.”
Fellow linebacker Kyle Van Noy, another big presence for the Cougars against USU, credited Ansah with plenty of the pressure on the Aggies' quarterback, Chuckie Keeton.
"We hit him," Van Noy said. "I don’t think any team was able to hit Utah State’s quarterback the way we hit him. Ziggy had him all night. He didn’t just hit him, he wrapped him up, swallowed him and dumped him on his head.”
Prior to the game, much talk was given to Utah State about being the best team in the state. But now with BYU's win over USU (now 4-2), which beat Utah (2-3), and which beat BYU (4-2), it seems as if the victory triangle will be the lasting word of this season between big universities in the state of Utah.
“Personally, I didn’t know a lot of the things that were said going into this game," Hadley said. "We are trained in practice to take it one play at a time. They don’t gain a yard on this play or they don’t score on the next play. I don’t pay attention to what is said, but we knew going in that Utah State had a great team, but like I said, I didn’t know people have been saying Utah State was the best team in the state, and I don’t care.”
The Cougar defense brought comfort with it every time it stepped on the field, and even the offensive side admitted it.
"As a quarterback, it's phenomenal (having our defense out on the field)," said freshman quarterback Taysom Hill. "I love it. Our defense has been playing really well all year, and it takes a lot of pressure off of you as an offense and as a quarterback. So it's a big blessing to have a defense as good as ours."
And the defense is happy to oblige.
"I play defense," Van Noy said. "I would probably be more happy if it was 2-0. I enjoy playing football, I enjoy low-scoring games where the defense is on the line and we're on the field at the end of the game. Something that we can control when we're on the field is to have the offense with the ball at the end of the game trying to score on us."
Mendenhall, defensive coordinator as well as head coach, said he sees his defense as a resilient group of young men who want to go out and play and welcome any situation they're put into.
The duel against the Aggies marks the third game in a row with BYU's opponent scoring under 10 points.
“Touchdowns are not good," Van Noy said. "We train every day to stop offenses from scoring. We feel our secret is we try harder than other teams. We know we are going to run for it on Monday, so we might as well stop them during the game.”
Utah State head coach Gary Andersen credited BYU's defense, and still considers the game a well-played one despite the loss.
“You look at the stats and we played against a tremendous defense, obviously," Andersen said. “Defensively we knew it was going to be a battle. We were going to have to play extremely well to get us into a position to have an opportunity to win the game. We did play well.”
BYU's next test will be even mightier. Oregon State University is currently ranked No. 14, with three wins and zero losses.
