Aggies offense dooms itself Saturday night against Rebels

LOGAN — On Saturday evening at Maverik Stadium, several members of "The Hurd" student section dressed up like cows, leaning into the university's established reputation of being known for its agricultural education.

In the game played out in front of the students, Utah State football leaned into a reputation of it's own that has began to gain traction in recent weeks: having a dud of an offense.

In a 34-24 loss to UNLV, the offense failed to move the chains consistently until it trailed by 17 points in the fourth quarter, was responsible for five interceptions — a fumble and three turnovers on downs — and continually put the Aggies defense in a difficult positions against a suddenly dynamic Rebels offense.

Granted, it wasn't all bad. Logan Bonner tossed for 246 yards and three touchdowns, and had his three biggest pass completions of the season, a 44-yard pass to Brian Cobbs, a 40-yard pass to Justin Mcgriff, and a 39-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Vaughn; Utah State even out-gained the Rebels 421-320 in total yards.

But for those who watched the first three quarters of the game, the ones that ultimately decided the outcome, it was clear the loss was on the offense's shoulders.

If there were two issues to hone in on — beyond the myriad of others, including play-calling — it'd be turnovers and the failure to move the chains in short yardage situations.

Bonner threw four interceptions (to tack on to his total of seven for the season), and two of them, in particular, were costly. The first came with the Aggies down 21-7 and Utah State driving; he threw into double coverage and gave UNLV back the ball. Later in the second quarter, trailing 21-9, he was picked off by safety Austin Ajiake, who returned it to field goal range.

It seemed when Bonner was not throwing interceptions, the team could not sustain drives. The failure to convert on short yardage situations Saturday night were largely to blame; the Aggies were 4-of-13 on third-down attempts, with four failed attempts coming on plays with 5 yards out. The Aggies were 2-of-5 on fourth down — and stopped on fourth down three times in UNLV territory.

"We just didn't execute nearly well enough, especially on offense, to really have a chance to win," coach Blake Anderson said. "We had some yards but couldn't finish. Turnovers will kill you."

It's two issues not easily solved.

The first is that Bonner is not passing the ball accurately, and he's rushing himself into poor decisions. Credit the Aggies' offensive line who protected Bonner better than they had all season against the Rebels, but he keeps sailing the ball over his target or he tries to force something that is not there.

Neither are be fixed by backup Cooper Legas coming in, much to the chagrin of the fan base. Sure, Legas' mobility could be a benefit and is the best argument for the switch, but from what we've seen from Legas' limited time, his accuracy is not much better than Bonner's, and the receivers aren't getting any more open for him.

Last season, Bonner could throw it in the vicinity of Deven Thompkins and he'd come down with it; Derek Wright didn't let defensive backs overpower him, either.

This year, receivers from Vaughn to McGriff to Cobbs are struggling to find separation, particularly in deep yardage situations. In turn, opposing defenses have been able to condense the field and bottle up under routes, which were available last year, and further expose Bonner's throws.

"It's hard to tell until we watch the tape, but are there some other areas where we just weren't on the same page with the quarterback?" Anderson asked. "I know (Bonner) had a bad night too in terms of throwing picks, but it's not always the quarterback. … Is he making good decisions? Are we not in the right places? Are we not on the same page? If that's the case, those things we've got to clean up."

On a positive note for the Aggies, four receivers had six catches each, so progress?

"We fought through some of the collision-type coverage that we really struggled with two weeks ago, made a couple of competitive plays that I haven't seen us make in the last couple of weeks, so baby steps forward maybe," Anderson said.

Baby steps aren't enough to beat a program on the rise such as UNLV, though, especially when there does not seem to be a greater margin for error in other aspects of the offense.

The rush attack compbiend for 96 yards on 32 attempts — a 3-yard average that was not enough. When the Aggies needed a yard, they couldn't get it. On the first play of the second quarter, Calvin Tyler Jr. was stuffed on fourth down inside Rebels territory. Robert Briggs was also held up on fourth-and-3 in the fourth quarter, when the Aggies attempted to stage a comeback.

Overall, the Aggies offense threw five interceptions, fumbled it once, and turned the ball over on downs three times. In certain lenses, losing just by 10 with essentially nine turnovers, not to mention punter Stephen Kotstanlees' turnover inside the 5-yard line, is a slight moral victory.

But losing to the Rebels for the first time since 2008 to fall to 1-3 on the season is nothing to be proud of, and the offense had a significant hand in that.

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