Second-half collapse dooms Utah State in loss to BYU

LOGAN — Utah State was still in it.

Despite three first-half turnovers — a fumble by running back Gerold Bright and a pair of interceptions thrown by quarterback Jordan Love — the Aggies trailed by only a touchdown at halftime Saturday night against rival BYU.

“BYU outplayed us. They deserved to win. They did. Congratulations to them. We got outplayed.” — Utah State coach Gary Andersen

Love was playing the best he had in weeks, even with the turnovers, completing 19 of 26 passes for 261 yards and a touchdown through 30 minutes of football inside Maverik Stadium.

Wide receiver Siaosi Mariner was no less impressive, catching five balls for a game-high 86 yards and a touchdown.

Even the Utah State defense, sans star linebacker David Woodward, who was held out of the game, was playing well enough, holding the Cougars to 21 points despite the Aggies’ repeated attempts to gift BYU points, via turnover.

Everything was looking up for Utah State coming out of the break, until it wasn’t.

USU was outscored 21-0 in the second half, as BYU dominated the final two quarters to win the rivalry game 42-14 and reclaim the Old Wagon Wheel.

It was a collapse.

“BYU outplayed us,” Utah State coach Gary Andersen said. “They deserved to win. They did. Congratulations to them. We got outplayed.”

The Aggies’ collapse was more than that, though.

Utah State was undone by poor execution, on both sides of the ball.

On offense, the lack of execution was evidenced by more turnovers, as Utah State finished the game with five and was minus-three in turnover margin.

Love threw a third interception in the second half, increasing his season total to 11, and fumbled as well.

A turnover on downs, after a nine-play, 79-yard drive that took the Aggies deep into BYU territory, didn’t help either.

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“If you look at it as a whole, the whole offense, we had some mojo at times tonight, which was good to see,” Andersen said. “We got some things going, got the ball moving, but we have to finish drives and we can’t turn the ball over. We didn’t finish drives because of turnovers or big sacks.”

On defense, the lack of execution came down to one simple thing: tackling.

The Aggies simply couldn’t tackle.

“We didn’t do what we had to do,” cornerback Cam Lampkin said. “We didn’t have the night we wanted to. It is just execution. We all have the ability, but we have to execute. It was just a lack of execution.”

It is a problem that has plagued Utah State for two games now, going back to the team’s 31-7 loss at Air Force.

“Air Force is a little bit of its own animal,” Andersen said, “but tonight we did not play well. We had our opportunities to get off the field on numerous third downs and I just say it again, tackling. We need to tackle better.”

Woodward, who has a team-high 93 tackles this year, would’ve been a big help in that regard.

“Woody is a big part of that and it hurt to not have him out there today,” said Andersen. “Wish he would’ve been out there. He would have made a bit of a difference.”

Enough to lift the Aggies to victory?

“He wouldn’t have won the football game for us,” said Andersen. “BYU outplayed us. We understand our deficiencies. We’ve known for a time. We’ll come back fighting and we will learn from this.”