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LOGAN — The last two weeks have been absolutely brutal on Weber State’s defense.
Last week, the Wildcats gave Utah’s Travis Wilson one of the highlight performances of the week as the Utes scored 70 points. Saturday, history repeated itself as Utah State’s Chuckie Keeton threw a personal record-tying five touchdown passes in a game, leading the Aggies to a 70-6 victory over the Wildcats.
It’s easy to chalk this up to the Wildcats playing back-to-back FBS teams, and respectable ones at that.
However, the Wildcats’ defense gave up 40 points in the opening weekend against Stephen F. Austin, and the poor defense has continually worried team leaders.
“I’m a little disappointed because there was some bad football out there,” Wildcats coach Jody Sears said. “There were some things we did on both sides of the ball, mistake-wise, which were disappointing, and we’ve got to get some stuff corrected.”
Overall, Weber State surrendered 587 total yards to Utah State, but a consistent theme has appeared: the Wildcats struggle covering the pass, especially on long passes.
“The first score of each of the three games, they’ve scored on a go-route,” Sears said. “We’ve got to quit giving up so many deep balls.”
The Wildcats struggled against the pass but they also struggled against the run, giving up 267 yards on the ground. Their overall defensive woes made stopping Keeton all the tougher as he accounted for 274 total yards.
Keeton’s performance left Sears impressed.
“He’s Heisman-worthy to me,” Sears said.
Now, Weber State turns its focus toward McNeese State, a team that beat FBS South Florida 53-21 in the opening week of the season.
Sears noted play on the line of scrimmage will be critical.
“Last year against McNeese, I saw a veteran offensive line control the line of scrimmage and they made a couple plays that were the difference in that ballgame,” Sears stated. “I know that they’re a very well-coached team, they’ve got some talent and they’ve got a veteran quarterback, too.”
Senior captain Anthony Morales said the team needs to improve on a variety of things to compete going forward.
“We struggled on all three phases, so there’s not much to say other than we’ve got to come back this week, watch the film and learn from the mistakes,” Morales said.
Morales also didn’t consider playing FBS schools two weeks in a row an excuse.
“It’s Utah State and Utah; it’s not Alabama and it’s not Oklahoma,” Morales said. “I respect those two teams, but there’s no excuse to get beat 70 to nothing.”
Despite the woes, Sears said the team has stuck together and remained positive because of the team’s leadership.
“Guys are stepping up, but you have to be weary of the confidence,” he said. “But now we’re basically into our conference schedule now, and our FCS schedule, and the field’s going to be a little more eventually matched.
“But again, we’ve got to play good ball. We’ve got to execute.”
