LOGAN — For two years in a row the Utah State defense has taken a beating, finishing as low as 111th in the nation two years ago.
Now, three games into the 2004 season, the offense is the punching bag.
For the third straight game, the Aggie offense was held under 300 total yards, and the problems are obvious — lack of a running game, turnovers, and early outs.
Entering Saturday's game with No. 15 Utah, the Aggies were averaging just 59 yards on the ground. In their 48-6 loss to the Utes, the Aggies had just 48 yards on the ground.
Freshman Chris Forbes, Utah State's leading rusher, was held to nine yards on nine carries.
"It's a huge game and a lot of pressure on the freshman," Utah State coach Mick Dennehy said. "I think early on in the game it affected Chris Forbes. In the second half he settled down and played a little better."
Peter Shields led the Aggies with 20 yards on eight carries.
"It's definitely an issue (inability to run the football), and we're trying to figure out ways to be more productive running the football," Utah State offensive coordinator Bob Cole said.
As for turnovers, with three against the Utes — one of which was returned for a 76-yard touchdown — the Aggies have 10 turnovers for the year — four fumbles and six interceptions.
"Their defense is really good, but we made some mistakes that made it hard for us to move the ball, " Shields said. "When you make big mistakes a good defense will make big plays."
Cole agreed with Shields' assessment.
"We've been doing it three weeks in a row now, and against good teams it's going to kill you," he said. "I don't see anything pathetic about Utah or Alabama."
Along with turnovers, too many three-downs-and-outs are keeping the offense off the field.
In three games, the Aggies have had 40 drives, and 22 have ended in three plays or less.
Saturday the Aggies opened with four straight possessions without a first down. Their first came on the final play of the first half.
In all, six of the first eight drives were three downs or less against the Utes.
"We're not real productive on first down. I bet if I go back and look at tonight again that's going to be the problem," Cole said. "We're going to figure out ways to get 5 or 6 yards on first down whether it's running or throwing the ball."
With the lack of offensive production, the Aggies fell behind 20-0 and couldn't recover.
"We dug ourselves in a hole in the first quarter and couldn't get past the 20 or 30," Cox said. " . . . When we're struggling on offense it's harder to turn it around against a dominating defense like they have."
The Aggies had just nine yards total offense in the first quarter and 104 at the half.
"I really liked the first quarter, especially our defense to keep them pinned down in there," Utah coach Urban Meyer said. "I think when we play defense as we play a lot of offenses' can score when you get in the short field like we got today."
Cole isn't ready to push the panic button just yet. The Aggies are, most importantly, 1-0 in Sun Belt Conference play.
"There's enough positives there that down the road we'll be pretty good," he said.
The Aggies travel to UNLV next Saturday for their second consecutive game with a Mountain West Conference opponent.
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com