Utah State defensive backs versus San Jose State passing game


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LOGAN — So far this season, Utah State is 0-2 against teams in the Pac-12 with two heartbreakingly close losses.

Thankfully, the Aggies aren’t in the Pac-12, but instead they are in the Mountain West Conference where they are 1-0.

This week, Utah State faces off against a longtime Western Athletic Conference foe and current Mountain West Conference opponent in San Jose State on the road in California.

In the Aggies’ matchup against USC, Utah State played a consistent game in all three phases, but struggled most on offense — something that wasn't expected.

The Aggies put up only 285 yards of offense, which is a season-low. Additionally, quarterback Chuckie Keeton registered only 179 passing yards and 10 rushing yards.

Utah State won’t have to face one of the nation’s best defenses this week in the Bay Area. Instead, the Aggie offense will play against a Spartans unit that is ranked 69th in the country in team defense. So, the offense should recover quite nicely.

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The onus for Utah State will be placed on being sharp defensively and stopping a San Jose State passing attack that averages 293.3 yards per game.

So, the key matchup in the Utah State-San Jose State game will be between the Aggies’ defensive backs and the Spartans’ throwing game.

Why this matchup?

San Jose State’s offensive attack is heavily oriented toward the vertical passing game and getting the ball into the hands of its playmakers on the outside. In fact, the Spartans have 880 passing yards on the season compared to 224 rushing yards. So, it’s easy to see San Jose State’s bet being placed on simply wearing down a secondary into oblivion and taking advantage of mismatches.

Spartan quarterback David Fales is an extremely efficient quarterback, completing 60.9 percent of his passes while throwing six touchdowns. He also averages eight yards per completion.

Chandler Jones, a dynamic receiver who has caught four touchdown passes this season, is Fales’ favorite target.

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Utah State has done a respectable job against passing games so far this season, however the Aggies haven’t faced one as good as San Jose State’s. The highest-rated passing game the Aggies have faced is Utah (29th). The Aggies are giving up only 152 passing yards per game.

Who wins this matchup?

San Jose State’s passing attack has done well against power conference teams in its non-conference schedule. Fales put up decent performances against Stanford and Minnesota. SJSU's passing attack is built to power it through games, and the Spartans pick up yards through attrition.

The problem for their attack, though, is they don’t have enough presence in the rushing attack to force teams to use their safeties to stop the run.

A team averaging only 74.7 rushing yards is easy to predict and even easier to stop. All it takes is bringing a minimum of five pass rushers and dropping the other six players into zone coverage and letting them make the play happen.

Quite simply, the Aggies may still not be at a level where they can contend against the elites of college football, but they are head and shoulders above the second tier of college football, and they have the personnel to utilize this game plan with ease.

Both teams will score points, but the Aggies defense will perform just well enough to give its offense more opportunities to score and win the game to move to 2-0 in the Mountain West Conference.

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Jon Oglesby

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