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- Utah State lost 25-24 to Boise State due to poor coaching decisions.
- Aggies failed key fourth-down attempts, allowing Boise State's 10th straight win over them.
- Utah State finished 6-6, missing a chance at the Mountain West championship.
LOGAN — Less than two weeks after missed kicks and poor decisions cost Utah State a win at UNLV, the Aggies, again, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a 25-24 loss at home against Boise State.
Despite leading 21-13 at the half and 24-19 going into the fourth quarter, two poor fourth-down decisions and calls in the fourth quarter helped Boise State pull off its 10th straight win over Utah State and a possible spot in the conference championship.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Utah State faced a fourth-and-2 from the Boise State 12-yard line with a 5-point lead. Rather than kick a chip-shot field goal to go up by 8 points, the Aggies went for it with a quarterback draw from a shotgun formation that lost 2 yards.
Later in the quarter, Utah State found itself in a fourth-and-1 situation — this time on its own 40-yard line. They, again, opted to go for it, running the very same quarterback draw that failed the first time around, again losing yardage and turning the ball over on downs.
Two and a half minutes later, Boise State took a 25-24 lead it would hold on to until the clock hit zero.
"Both seemed right, and with Bryson (Barnes), hard to convince me that he wouldn't get both of them," head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "Neither ended up working out, and I'm responsible for those calls. That's what the head coach does."
Boise State had five scoring drives against Utah State, with three of those drives starting on Utah State's side of the field. In the eight possessions that started on the Boise State side, the Broncos mustered just 10 points to go along with four punts, three turnovers on downs and a missed field goal.
Had the Aggies elected to punt and force Boise State to go over 70 yards to the end zone — something they did just once in the game — the result likely would have gone their way, especially had they held an 8-point lead rather than just 5.
Additionally, if the decision from Mendenhall and his staff was to go for it a second time, repeating the same fourth-down call that failed miserably just 10 minutes earlier was costly. Barnes had kept the ball on three of the previous four plays, and the fourth-down run did not fool the Broncos defensive front on either attempt.
"We came up short tonight," safety Noah Avinger said. "Obviously, that's always hard, losing especially your last regular-season game."
Though the questionable coaching decisions cost the Aggies yet again, the execution in the game's critical moments on the field was equally as lackluster, especially in the second half.
Utah State's offense, as it has all season, struggled on third downs, converting on just 1-of-10 offensively, and 0-of-6 in the second half. Defensively, Utah State allowed Boise State to convert on 13 of its 24 third downs.
The continued lack of discipline also reared its head for Utah State, as it racked up nine penalties for 96 yards. That included a costly holding penalty on the final drive of the game, negating a 16-yard scramble from Barnes that would have had the Aggies at midfield with 25 seconds remaining and only needing a field goal to win.
"I think it needs to be pointed out," Mendenhall said. "Didn't, and haven't, been able to crack that code in terms of the penalties."
Utah State finished the season 6-6 in Mendenhall's first year, though it could have easily been 8-4, with an appearance in the Mountain West championship game if not for missed field goals and poor coaching decisions in two of the final three games of the season.
The Aggies lacked a second gear that could help with clutch plays to win close games. In two of the final three games, Utah State was in a prime position late in the game to come out with a victory, but through either bad execution, bad coaching decisions, or both, failed to do so both times.
Mendenhall and his squad earn a postseason appearance with the six wins, though it comes with somewhat of a bitter taste in the mouth for many, as a season of could-have-beens comes to a close.
