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OGDEN — By looking at the statistics following the game, it would seem impossible that Weber State could have come up with a victory. But the Wildcats did just that on Saturday night, overcoming an array of offensive struggles to pull out a win against UC Davis 17-12.
Despite losing in nearly every major statistical category, coach Jay Hill's team produced just enough on both sides of the ball to leave California with its first win of the conference schedule. Once again, the defense should get the game ball for holding an Aggies offense to just 12 points — just the second most the Wildcats have given up in a game this season — despite allowing 417 yards of total offense.
"The defense was way bend, don't break," Hill said following the game. "But I will say this, they got out of a bunch of drives where (the Aggies) had us pinned."
At the start of the game, the defense faced a tall order; the Wildcats received the opening kickoff but running back Josh Davis fumbled on the first play from scrimmage. With UC Davis already deep in Wildcats territory, the defense held the Aggies to a three-and-out series and settled for a field goal.
Weber State knew coming in they were going against a quarterback and offense that liked to throw the ball around — and throw around they did. Aggies quarterback Miles Hastings was 39-of-57 (68.4%) passing for 256 yards to go along with 161 rushing yards by his running backs. The positive from all that for Weber State is that UC Davis only scored one touchdown on the night.
"You gotta give UC Davis a ton of credit," Hill said. "The quarterback, I told him after the game that's about as good a game as I've seen played against us. He did a good job of taking what we gave him. He put the ball in accurate places; he threw for a high completion percentage."
Weber State's offense performed well the first half, scoring both their touchdowns in the first two quarters; however, three turnovers to UC Davis's zero made things all the more difficult for the Wildcats defense. The defense responded in a big way despite the adversity and helped keep the Wildcats' record perfect as they move forward into bigger and tougher conference games.
"I know one thing: It's hard to go on the road in the Big Sky Conference, lose the turnover margin minus three and still win," Hill said.
Saturday was the first game for Weber State this year that the defense didn't force a turnover. The Wildcats came into the game leading all of NCAA football (FBS, FCS, Division II or Division III) with 10 interceptions through the first three games of the season. In previous games, many of these forced turnovers led to easy scores for the offense. Though the lack of turnovers didn't affect the outcome of this game, it certainly made things more difficult on both sides of the ball.
With a bye week coming up, the Wildcats will have plenty of time to work out bugs and prepare for their next opponent in No. 15 ranked Eastern Washington. But Hill liked the way his team gutted out a difficult win against a strong opponent and in a tough environment.
"Bottom line, there's so much good about our football team," Hill said. "Like I say, if you can come down here and make the mistakes that we made, and still pull off a win against a very very good football team on their own field, then I think that shows you the potential of what this team can really be."
