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LOGAN — Lost in Chuckie-mania from Saturday was the defensive line's performance, sans Connor Williams. Williams missed Saturday's game due to a foot injury suffered in the second quarter of the Utah game and will quite possibly miss this Saturday's game against Weber State. But the defensive line didn't miss a beat against the Falcons' rushing attack.
"The three d-linemen that played really well were Ricky (Ali'ifua), AJ (Pataiali'i), and Paul (Piukula); those three guys set the tone," head coach Matt Wells said at his press conference on Monday.
While they won't blow you away on the stat sheet, Piukula with five tackles and Ali'ifua with one tackle for loss, their ability to absorb blocks and maintain gap assignments cleared the way for the players behind them.
"Those three guys are a huge part of the reason why Zach (Vigil) and Jake (Doughty) played so well."
Doughty led the team in tackles for the second week in a row with 11 and Vigil finished with nine, including one and a half tackles for loss. Vigil's solo tackle for loss came on a key third and short play that forced the Falcons defense to try a fake punt; the punt failed and the Aggies scored soon after. Vigil had a clear path to make that play because of the defensive line.
"When you're playing an option offense, you have got to play really, really good at inside linebacker; and to do that, you've got to have d-linemen that have gap control, that can take up and eat up two offensive linemen at the same time."
Those three guys are a huge part of the reason why Zach (Vigil) and Jake (Doughty) played so well.
–Matt Wells
With the fundamental gap control the line displayed, Utah State's defense didn't allow any Air Force player to rush for over 50 yards — Jaleel Awini finished with 48 — and didn't allow a single running play to go for more than 11 yards.
The most impressive defensive showing, came in the third quarter. After Ronald Butler's touchdown that put Utah State up 31-13, the Falcons' rushing log looked a little something, like this:
- loss of 1
- loss of 1
- rush for 7 yards
- rush for 1 yard
- rush for no gain
Is allowing six rushing yards in three series considered good defense? My limited knowledge of the game tells me, yes.
"There were some plays in the third quarter that flipped the momentum and made the victory inevitable," Wells added.
Those plays he's talking about, like the fourth down stop on the fake punt, were due in large part to the way the defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage; and, subsequently, led to the 21 points the offense scored in that quarter, making the win "inevitable."
With an already deep linebacking corp, the coaches and fans have to be thrilled about the talent and depth the defensive linemen have shown through two games thus far.
