The Utah State Aggies had defeated the San Jose State Spartans 10 consecutive times entering Saturday night’s game in San Jose, California.
Another win over the Spartans would have pushed the Aggies back to .500 in the season and set them up well on the path to bowl eligibility.
Instead, USU played one of its worst games of the season and lost to SJSU 42-21.
Here are three takeaways from the Aggies’ latest setback.
The Aggies were handily out-played up front
Utah State will never be a team that dominates in the trenches. The Aggies simply don’t pull in the type of recruits that enable them to out-size, out-strength and out-athlete their opponents up front.
What the Aggies have done, especially under head coach Blake Anderson, is rely on speed and quickness up front.
Defensively, that has meant causing havoc in opponents’ backfields, with ends and pass rushers chasing down opposing quarterbacks while relying on linebackers and safeties coming downhill to stop the run.
On offense, tight ends and running backs have been used to block, or the pocket is moved or quarterbacks throw on the move.
None of those solutions, on either side of the ball, worked out again San Jose State, however.
The Spartans were dominant in the trenches and it showed. SJSU out-gained Utah State 251 rushing yards to just 104, with the Spartans running backs routinely running through gaping holes in the Aggies’ defense, whereas USU runners were hit early and often at or near the line of scrimmage.
While USU did out-sack SJSU and record more tackles for loss, the numbers are also misleading as Utah State quarterback McCae Hillstead was frequently and frantically pushed out of the pocket, whereas San Jose State quarterback Chevan Cordeiro scrambled for gains, not survival.
You just can’t lose the turnover battle
A major sticking point of Anderson’s has been protecting the football. Last year, the Aggies were dismal at it, one of the main reasons they barely managed to become bowl eligible.
Turnovers have remained an issue this season, and they reared their head in a big way against San Jose State.
Be it a fumble by Micah Davis or interceptions thrown by Hillstead, the Aggies simply gave the ball away too often to SJSU (you can throw in an ineffective fourth down try in San Jose State territory, too).
Hillstead was supposed to solve some of those turnover issues. That is why Anderson started the true freshman over senior Cooper Legas, but Hillstead didn’t play a clean game, though one of his turnovers was a clear miscommunication between him and wide receiver Jalen Royals.
The Aggies lost the turnover battle 3-2 (4-2 if you count the turnover on downs) and San Jose State made USU pay for nearly every giveaway, whereas the Aggies failed to get a single point out of the Spartans’ mistakes.
Tackling was a problem
The stat sheet will reveal that the Aggies’ defense racked up plenty of tackles Saturday night. Defensive stars in particular, statistically, had standout performances.
Players like:
- Linebacker MJ Tafisi, who finished with 14 tackles for his fourth-straight double-digit tackle game.
- Safety Ike Larsen had 10 tackles for his second double-digit tackle game of the season and his career.
- Linebacker Anthony Switzer had two tackles for loss and nine tackles in total.
The problem is, for every tackle against SJSU, the Aggies had more missed ones. More so than arguably any other game this season, Utah State’s defense struggled mightily to tackle, with SJSU running backs Kairee Robinson and Quali Conley getting plenty of yards after contact.
Most of Larsen’s tackles came when he cleaned up multiple mistakes by teammates.
Against an offense like San Jose State’s, those missed tackles proved much too costly, evidenced by the Spartans averaging 5.2 yards per play and converting 7 of 12 third down tries.