SALT LAKE CITY — For as much progress as Utah State football has made over the past few seasons, all of it came to a crashing halt after Saturday’s loss to in-state rival BYU.

After being proclaimed by media pundits as the overwhelming favorite, the Aggies fell to the Cougars, 31-14, to go 0-2 against the Beehive State’s FBS teams, and lost Heisman Trophy candidate Chuckie Keeton in the first quarter with a brutal injury to his left knee.

Now, the Aggies are back to a role they have become accustomed to over the past decade — the role of an underdog, with nearly everyone downplaying their chances to succeed without Keeton in Mountain West play.

As Aggies coach Matt Wells reminded the media several times after last Saturday’s game, Utah State is leading the Mountain division of the Mountain West Conference at 2-0, and its goal is to find a way to go 3-0 with a win over Boise State this upcoming weekend.

The Broncos have not had a typical season for their standards, as they are 3-2 with a bad loss to nationally ranked Washington and a close loss to nationally ranked Fresno State.

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However, with Boise State struggling compared to past years, the Broncos still have a potent attack that will demand the Aggies' full attention.

The most important matchup to watch in a battle of the former WAC rivals will be the battle between the Utah State cornerbacks and Boise State quarterback Joe Southwick.

Why this matchup?

For all the reasons the Aggies didn’t beat BYU, it came down to the fact they couldn’t keep the Cougars off the field more than anything. While BYU converted only five of 18 third downs, the conversions came at critical times when the Aggies had a chance to get off the field and give their offense a short field to work with.

Also, BYU’s Taysom Hill completed 17 of 32 passes, throwing for 278 yards and three touchdowns to Mitch Manning. Hill was able to consistently find holes in the Utah State secondary in the middle part of the game, and made enough plays with his feet to keep the Aggies off-kilter in the game.

Related:

10 things to know about Utah State vs. Boise State

The past two weeks have been brutal for Utah State; they've lost three starters on offense to season ending injuries.

Utah State will face a quarterback this week who is a better talent at the position, in Joe Southwick. Southwick completes 73.5 percent of passes and has thrown for nine touchdowns. In a game against Air Force, Southwick completed 27 of 29 passes — good for a 93.1 completion percentage.

Whereas Aggies' game plan before Keeton's injury was to force their opponent to outscore them, the game plan now is to limit teams as much as possible so new starting quarterback Craig Harrison won’t have to play catch-up too much.

Who wins this matchup?

Despite the lack of overall dominance, the Boise State offense is still really good — averaging 42.2 points per game. Also, Southwick is a senior, while his counterpart Harrison is a junior transfer from Snow College.

Much as last week’s matchup was supposed to come down to who could score more points, Hill or Keeton, this week come down to whether Southwick can put up enough points on Utah State’s defense to force the Aggies to come from behind.

Utah State’s secondary has played decently over the course of the season, but all it will take is a few blown coverages and the Aggies will be trailing.

Sadly for Utah State, no team goes an entire game without a few blown coverages. So, the Aggies will find themselves once again questioning where their season is going, as Southwick will be able to make just enough plays for the Broncos to climb atop the standings in the Mountain division.

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