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- Utah State lost to UNLV 29-26 in double overtime due to missed kicks.
- Coach Mendenhall's decisions, such as declining penalties, contributed to the loss.
- Aggies' defense excelled but coaching errors overshadowed efforts, costing bowl eligibility.
LAS VEGAS — In a double overtime Utah State loss, where the placekicker missed three field goals and a PAT, it would be easy to call out any one of those misses as the reason the team lost.
That is especially true when two of those missed field goals came in situations that would have won the game with a make.
"I'm not sure why they struggled," head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "We've kicked the ball really accurately in field goals and extra points throughout the year. We prepared our team and put our team in position to execute in the special teams. ... Today, we didn't have the consistency or the outcome we wanted there."
In the case of Utah State's 29-26 loss to UNLV on Saturday, there was much more to the story than just the missed kicks. Although Tanner Rinker missed several kicks, Utah State had several other chances to take control of the game and failed to seize them, either from poor coaching decisions, poor execution, or both.
After Utah State scored its second touchdown of the game on a Miles Davis run early in the second quarter, UNLV promptly jumped offsides on the ensuing PAT try.
Rather than take the penalty and go for 2 from the 1-yard line, Mendenhall opted to decline the penalty and kick the PAT, likely in the name of giving Rinker confidence. Rinker made this one, though potentially at the cost of an additional point.
Later in the second quarter, UNLV opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 from its own 39-yard line and was stuffed on an inside run by the Aggies.
Utah State worked the ball down to the 21-yard line before facing fourth-and-8. A fake field goal was then called, but was either not understood or not executed, as Rinker went to kick it as the holder pulled the ball up to throw. It was blown up for an 11-yard loss.
"It was a called fake that was not executed well," Mendenhall said.
Utah State's offense totaled 434 yards, with quarterback Bryson Barnes throwing for 256 passing yards and running for another 113. If the decision was to be aggressive and go for it, the next decision to take the ball out of Barnes' hands and place it in the hands of a kicking unit that had already misfired twice proved to be costly.
The result of these miscues and questionable decisions was that Utah State went into halftime up 13-10 rather than possibly being up by more with either a made PAT, a 1-yard 2-point attempt, or a made field goal.
Out of the half, UNLV received the kickoff and promptly went three-and-out and punted. Utah State then took the ball 79 yards to the UNLV 2-yard line, where they had a third-and-goal situation. Barnes took the snap, rolled out to the right side and was sacked for a 4-yard loss, forcing the Aggies to settle for a 24-yard field goal.
"Planning to go for it if we were anywhere close to that same position. The loss, obviously, changed that," Mendenhall said. "I listen through the headset, and I only intervene if I don't think something's appropriate, but coach (Kevin) McGiven is an excellent play-caller, gives us a great chance to win and believed the play would work."
Both Davis and Barnes averaged over 4 yards per rush and would have had two chances to get 2 yards had the ball gone to them on the ground.
Utah State seemingly won the game two, or even three, times and had many more chances throughout the game to put themselves comfortably ahead, yet could not take advantage of any of the opportunities.
On a day where a win would have made the Aggies bowl eligible, their defense had arguably its best performance of the season against the conference's top offense. But the Aggies' coaching decisions cost them as much, if not more than, the missed field goals.
Had many of these questionable decisions not been made, Utah State would not have needed the late field goals in order to win.
"It's frustrating when you put so much into trying to win and it doesn't go your way," said wide receiver Braden Pagen. "It's definitely going to be frustrating."
