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LOGAN — The BYU Cougars travel to Logan to take on in-state rival Utah State in the battle for the Old Wagon Wheel. The last time the Cougars traveled to Logan they lost 31-16.
The Aggies look to do it again at Romney Stadium in route to a shot at the Mountain West Conference Championship. The Cougars, however, have one of the best defenses in the country and will make it hard for the Aggies to find the end zone.
Here are five keys for each team to come away with the all important W:
Chucky (the doll from "Child's Play" horror movies) has caused a few people to have nightmares. And USU quarterback Chuckie Keeton has caused opponents to lose sleep this season. He is second in the nation with 17 touchdown passes and is second in the nation for points responsible.
USC has been the only team to slow Keeton down. The Trojans held him to 179 yards passing and Keeton completed less than 50 percent of his throws.
BYU is going to need a similar effort to hold him down. Bronco Mendenhall and the boys should be up to the task, though. Keeton threw for only 202 yards last year, but averaged 5 yards on each attempt. He was also sacked three times. The Cougars have to know he will get yards with his legs and arm. They just need to focus on containing him and preventing the big play.
Aggie running back Joey DeMartino has only rushed for 345 yards in five games, but he is averaging 7 yards per attempt and has found his groove after rushing for less than 50 yards in the first two games. He had 120 yards and a touchdown against San Jose State.
BYU needs to show DeMartino they are one of the best running defenses in the nation. BYU is allowing 119 yards a game on the ground. They only gave up 107 to MTSU. Cougar defenders need to fill the gaps and make DeMartino run outside. And even if DeMartino is stifled, the Cougars will see plenty of Joe Hill who is the Aggies second leading rusher.
Bronco Mendenhall and JD Falslev said after last week's win that fans need to lay off Taysom Hill. They said he's a great athlete and quarterback. His teammates and coaches now need to help him. BYU offensive coordinator Robert Anae needs to put him in good situations to throw the ball. It worked last week against MTSU and he played a lot better. The completed passes also led to wide open running lanes, which is his bread and butter.
Teammates need to help him out by giving him more time to throw and actually catching the ball. We saw again last week a few more drops and a pass that bounced off Paul Lasike that led to an interception. Getting Cody Hoffman back this week will help, but Taysom needs other guys to run precise routes and actually catch the ball.
One of the few positives I took away from BYU's loss to Utah was the lack of turnovers. Taysom Hill threw an interception late, but the Cougs were able to protect the pigskin the rest of the game. Then last week happened — five turnovers, including two inside the 5-yard line. Yikes!
BYU defense made sure the Blue Raiders didn't do much with the mistakes. I'm not sure that would happen against the Aggies. If you give Utah State too many chances, they will score. The Aggies have put up 26 or more points in four of their five games.
BYU needs to take the Romney Stadium faithful out of this game early. It's not like the Cougars need to score big to do that. Remember how quiet LaVell Edwards Stadium was at times during the Utah game? If BYU can squelch Utah State's offense and have a double-digit lead by the second quarter, it could prevent a lot of chants that I'm not allowed to write on this website.
BYU goes as Taysom Hill goes; this is not breaking news. Hill is an electrifying athlete that can change the game instantly when he gets a lane — just ask Texas.
Hill leads the cougars with 621 rushing yards, almost twice as many as the second leading rusher, Jamaal Williams. In addition, he's averaging 8.6 yards per carry — pretty dang impressive to say the least.
Utah played an almost straight up 4-4 defense against Hill and he still ran for 99 yards on 20 carries; however, 41 of those yards came on one carry. He averaged just over 3 yards per carry the rest of the time. I can't imagine the Aggies not doing the same. They played their own version of the 4-4 against Air Force, with Kyler Fackrell on the line and Mo Alexander playing the fourth "linebacker." They'll make Hill beat them with his arm.
Hill has struggled in the passing game this season. He has only completed 40 percent of his passes this season, with only one touchdown pass, and that came in week one vs Virginia. So yes, if you are doing the math correctly, BYU went the entire month of September without a touchdown pass.
Granted, Hill did have a better game through the air against Middle Tennesse State, completing 14 of 19 pass attempts. But he did throw his fourth interception of the season without a touchdown.
He'll have his best receiver, Cody Hoffman, back for this game Friday night, and that will make a big difference. Hoffman has only played in two games this season but still leads the team in receptions — having his best game against Utah with eight catches for 108 yards.
One of the few negatives in last Friday's 20-12 win over San Jose State was the Aggies' lack of touchdowns in the red zone. For the season they're performing quite well, scoring 20 touchdowns in 27 red zone visits; however, they stalled three times in San Jose and were forced to kick field goals.
That can't happen against BYU.
BYU's red zone defensive stats are a bit deceiving on the surface; teams score 80 percent of the time when they get there and 60 percent of the scores are touchdown. But look at the number of times the defense has allowed opponents to get there — only 10 times.
Through four games, BYU's defense has only allowed teams to sniff inside the 20 yard line 10 times. That is insanely good.
With trips to scoring position at a premium, the Aggies need to cash in touchdowns whenever they're close.
Staying with BYU's defense for a moment — their front seven, led by the one and only Kyle Van Noy — is quite good. Much like USU's defense, they don't let people run ball, holding teams to under four yards per carry, including 24 tackles for loss.
Now, they don't have Spencer Hadley and lose quite a bit with him being gone in the their pass rush. But much like the Aggies, they have talent and depth at the position. Plus, when Van Noy already has six tackles for loss, one sack, and nine quarterback hurries, it doesn't really matter who you put next to him.
Utah State has struggled a bit with talented defensive fronts this season; Utah's Nate Orchard and just about everyone on USC's front five have had their day harassing Chuckie in the backfield. With Kyle Whimpey out, they'll need Joey DeMartino and DJ Tialavea to use a lot of chip blocks to give Keeton any extra time he can get.
Don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for trick plays and fake field goals; however, when you're playing BYU, that is not the time. BYU's defense under Mendenhall is very disciplined and very good at sniffing them out — better than your average team.
In their past two meetings in Provo, Utah State has had two botched trick plays/fakes fail and end up costing them points.
In 2011, in the fourth quarter, Utah State was leading 24-20. The Aggies faked a field goal and Josh Thompson's pass to Tarren Lloyd fell incomplete, leaving three points off the board. BYU scored a touchdown on the final drive to win 27-24. The fake field goal cost them a chance to go to overtime.
In 2012, in the third quarter, the Aggies trailed 6-3 at the BYU 30 yard line. The Aggies tried a trick play with Cameron Webb (a receiver), who tried throwing one to the end zone where it was picked off by Preston Hadley. In a defensive stalemate, USU wasted one of their two trips into BYU territory in the second half. No one scored again and they lost again in Provo.
Again, there is a time and place where they work, just not against BYU.
BYU has two great returners this season: JD Falslev and Adam Hine.
Falslev is averaging 13.8 yards per punt return so far this season, returning one 71 yards last week for a touchdown against MTSU. He's deceptively fast when he gets into the open field and has a lot of experience in the return game (He was returning kicks in Utah State's last win over BYU in 2010).
Hine has been exceptional returning kicks for the Cougars this season — a 90 yard return last week and an average of 34.6 yards per return. Don't forget, he returned one for a touchdown against Utah that was called back.
In a game where defense and field position is going to play a key role, the Aggies will need to make sure they don't let these two get loose.
