Grading Utah State's 34-20 home win over UNLV


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LOGAN — In playing a game that finished with the fourth-string quarterback, a true freshman who had eyes on redshirting his first season of college football, Utah State expunged last week’s loss with a dominating 34-20 win over UNLV at Romney Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

But quarterback Kent Myers may be called upon to lead the team for a portion of his true freshman year, and Utah State’s defense will have more pressure heaped upon it with a couple of critical injuries accrued in the victory.

The Rebels (2-6, 1-3 MWC) weren’t as much of an enemy as the Aggies’ hopes for the rest of the season. Still, in a one-game scenario, Utah State (5-3, 2-1) played as complete of a game as it has all year.

Offense: B- -----------

For an offense playing its third starting quarterback of the season, anything in the ‘B’ range is pretty good. Craig Harrison was sufficient on offense, finishing with 13-of-23 pass completions for 221 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 39 yards. Nick Vigil handled the ball most of the way out of the gate, carrying the rock 10 times for 49 yards in the first half and finishing with 51 yards on 11 carries.

JoJo Natson earned the first 100-yard receiving game of his career, eclipsing the mark on his third catch early in the third quarter and steamrolling to 124 yards and a touchdown on six receptions. Joe Hill also scored two touchdowns, as many as he has in the rest of the season combined.

The synchronicity and crispness of the offense wasn’t always there, but that is to be expected for a signal caller in his first start since late 2013. The challenge continues after losing Harrison, who went down on the final play of the third quarter with a knee injury, and introducing true freshman quarterback Kent Myers, who completed 3-of-5 passes for 45 yards with a long 32-yard throw to Hunter Sharp on one of his first attempts.

Defense: A

There may not be enough space in this section to account for all the good Utah State’s defense did, but suffice it to say, the opposition side of the ball showed up to Romney Stadium on a Saturday afternoon in a Cache Valley autumn during the second weekend of the deer hunt.

B.J. Larsen started the defense right early with a 13-yard sack on UNLV quarterback Blake Decker to force a three-and-out on the game’s opening possession, and the senior finished with two of Utah State’s six sacks on the day. Brian Suite and Deshane Hine each hauled in an interception from Decker, and LT Filiaga paved the road with nine tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.

Special Teams: A-

Maybe it wasn’t a perfect day for special teams, but it was as close as the unit has been all year — and pretty dang close.

Jaron Bentrude’s first punt was a season-long 56 yards in the first quarter, and the special teams unit held UNLV to 49 total yards on kick and punt returns. Natson had three solid punt returns, and room for a long in the third quarter that the officials called back due to Natson’s rule misinterpretation for a fair catch. The junior returner also fumbled a punt returner, but it went out of bounds before anyone could recover it.

Perhaps most important for scoring purposes, Nick Diaz again went 2-for-2 on field goal attempts, including a 49-yarder midway through the third quarter that helped the Aggies pull away from a 17-14 halftime advantage.

The Aggies also blocked a PAT and a 44-yard field goal attempt by UNLV’s Jonathan Leiva as time expired in the third quarter.

Team: A-

About the only thing that mars the complete-game effort by the Aggies are the injuries to Harrison and Vigil, the latest in a long string of adversity that includes ailments to quarterbacks Chuckie Keeton and Darell Garretson, linebacker Kyler Fackrell, wide receiver Brandon Swindall and a number of other players.

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