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SAN JOSE, Calif. — At Monday's press conference, head coach Matt Wells told the media that by midnight, Friday night, he wanted to be 2-0 in the Mountain West Conference; he got his wish. Behind a four touchdown performance by Chuckie Keeton (three passing, one rushing) and four turnovers forced by the defense, the Aggies once again took care of business on San Jose State's home field.
This is Utah State's fifth straight win over the Spartan's, the longest win streak the Aggies currently have against any team. Here are few observations from tonight's game:
Defense picks up where it left off with USC
I remember standing outside the Aggies's locker room after the Utah game for Zach's Vigil's post game comments; he simply called the unit's performance, "unacceptable." Since then, I would say their performance has been more than "acceptable."
In their four games since Utah, the first team defense has only allowed four touchdowns (I'm not counting the second half touchdown against Air Force, that TD was against the back-ups; or the Weber State TD because it was a fumble return).
They are also, for the season, holding opponents to a paltry 31 percent conversion percentage on third down. They continue to hold teams under four yards per carry in the rushing game; San Jose State was only able to manage 2.9 yards per carry and their leading rusher, Jason Simpson, was held to 48 yards on 15 carries.
Red Zone efficiency on both sides
Staying with the defensive theme, Utah State has excelled at keeping teams out of the end zone when they enter the red zone. Teams have seen the red zone 13 times in games against the Aggies and only five times have they scored touchdowns, six times they have kicked field goals, and twice Utah State has kept them from scoring completely (actually not quite; one was the goal line stand against Utah and at USC, the Trojans got to the red zone before running out the clock to win the game).
The point is, much like last season, they're not letting teams score touchdowns when they get down there.
Tonight was no exception; the Spartans got to the red zone four times and only scored one touchdown.
On the other side, Utah State's offense is finding a lot of success when they enter the red zone. Tonight, they made seven red zone visits and came away with four touchdowns; on the season, here's the impressive part, they have made it to the red zone 27 times and have come away with 20 touchdowns. Fairly efficient in my opinion.
Aggies get first interception and then some.
It took five games but the Aggies finally got their first interception on defense. Maurice Alexander picked off David Fales in the second quarter, and they didn't stop. Nevin Lawson notched his third career interception in the third quarter; this was also Lawson's second interception against San Jose State; in 2010, Lawson picked off Jordan La Secla to clinch a 38-34 win for Utah State.
The Aggies also picked off Fales' back up, Blake Jurich, when JC transfer Jeremy Morris made his first pick as an Aggie in the fourth quarter.
In all, the Aggies forced four turnovers and didn't turn the ball over once. Currently, the Aggies are +5 in the turnover department in 2013.
