You have to go back 12 years to find the last time the Utah State Aggies lost their first three games to start a season.
USU was in the Western Athletic Conference then and the opponents that took them down were UNLV, No. 18 Oregon and No. 22 Utah.
It was pre-Jordan Love, pre-Gary Andersen, pre-Chuckie Keeton, almost pre-Bobby Wagner. It was a different era of Utah State football then, an era before the eight bowl games in nine years and electric high-powered offenses.
For the time being, though, 2020 looks a lot like 2008 for Utah State football.
Utah State lost to Nevada 34-9 Thursday night, dropping to 0-3 on the year. It is a start that no one on the team is remotely happy with.
“It is tough,” Utah State head coach Gary Andersen said. “Not where they expected to be, not happy with the outcome.”
Here are the grades for Utah State’s third game of the season:
Offense
There comes a point where grading on a curve has to become a thing, and while this might not be that point just yet, it is getting close.
Case in point, the Aggies’ performance offensively against Nevada was probably their best of the season. Utah State only scored one touchdown on offense, but the 210 total yards gained were a season-high, quarterback Jason Shelley had moments where he genuinely looked like the player the Aggies need under center, receiver Justin McGriff was sighted, Deven Thompkins matched his career-high with five receptions ... the list goes on.
On Utah State’s third offensive possession of the game, the Aggies marched the ball 61 yards down the field in under three minutes for a touchdown. Shelley showed off his legs, rushing five time for 44 yards and found McGriff for the latter’s first touchdown as an Aggie.
A kinder grader would perhaps weight the improvement shown by the Aggies, grade on curve. Unfortunately, the improvement shown was too brief to be truly meaningful.
Outside of that single scoring drive, USU was pretty much the exact same team it’d been in previous games. Consistency was nonexistent, momentum an alien concept.
The Aggies ran only 59 plays on offense and averaged 3.6 yards per play. Shelley threw the ball 27 times, but only completed 15 passes, due to a combination of drops and throws falling short of intended targets. Shelley didn’t break the 100-yard passing barrier.
The run game, with Warren back, was fine, good even — USU racked up 109 yards on 25 carries, averaging 4.4 yards per rush — but not good enough.
That has been the general theme for the Aggies on offense this year. What they’ve done well has simply not been enough to counteract what they haven’t.
“We did some good things, moved the ball efficiently and effectively at times, but then we’d stall out,” Andersen said.
He singled out the team’s lack of explosive plays as their chief woe on offense, the shortcoming that undid any of the good they did do.
“That’s the thing we are missing offensively, explosive plays,” said Andersen. “When you look at Nevada tonight, it was the big plays. ... You have to have explosive plays on the offensive side of the football and we are having a heck of a time trying to get that done.”
Grade: D+
Defense
Much like the offense, Utah State’s defense had its moments against the Wolfpack.
The Aggies started the game strong, stopping Nevada on fourth down on the opening drive, then sacking Wolfpack quarterback Carson Strong in the end zone for a safety (linebacker A.J. Vongphachanh did the deed) on the ensuing possession. On Nevada’s third offensive possession of the game, the Aggies then forced a 3-and-out.
Run defense, a serious weakness against both Boise State and San Deigo State, was stout as USU held Nevada to only 24 rushing yards in the first quarter.
Then Romeo Doubs happened.
The Nevada receiver, who Andersen remarked might be the best he’s ever coached against, took the top off the Aggies’ defense in the second quarter, first with a 42-yard touchdown on a jump ball, then later with a 54-yard score where he just out ran USU cornerback Zahodri Jackson.
With each score, the Aggies softened up defensively and began missing tackles, blowing coverage assignments, particularly on screen passes. Things just went bad in the second quarter and early in the third, before some adjustments helped USU limit Nevada to a pair of field goals the rest of the way.
The bad was enough, though, for Utah State to give up 542 yards of total offense, 421 through the air, 121 on the ground. Whether it be Strong, who completed 36 of 52 passes for 421 yards and three touchdowns and also recorded a completion to 10 different receivers, Doubs or running back Toa Taua, Utah State’s defense simply didn’t have the answers it needed.
“We played the run really well early on defense,” said Andersen. “The second half, on their big plays, we started to lose gaps again, got pushed around a little bit. We gave up explosive plays and you can’t give up those explosive plays, at least as many as we did tonight.”
Andersen believes he saw improvement, though, as hard as that may be to believe.
“The corps of the defense fought the whole game,” he said. “I saw progress in communication on defense. I know people might say that is a crazy statement to make, but I saw progress at times.”
Grade: D+
Special teams
Similarly to what happened in the San Diego State game, special teams was largely a non-factor against Nevada.
The Aggies surrendered a pair of field goals to Wolfpack kicker Brandon Talton and, well, that was about it. Nevada’s best kick return went 26 yards, good but not great.
Savon Scarver had three returns for 75 yards to lead USU, including a long return of 30 yards, which was fine, but not game-changing.
If there was a bright spot on special teams it was the punting of freshman Stephen Kotsanlee. He finished with 10 punts, averaging 42.5 yards per punt, with a long of 52 yards. Five of his punts were downed inside the 20, multiple inside the 10, one on the 1-yard line.
Grade: C (“meh” might be a better grade)
Overall
Utah State wasn’t good Thursday night and they lost because of it. There is no other way to put it.
The good thing is they know that and are not shying away from it.
“These kids are challenging themselves,” Andersen said. “They aren’t finger pointers, for the most part. The locker room is somber, but they are ready to come back and fight. I think they understand where we are and what they need to do to grind and get better. We are where we are. (Nevada) put in their second team and we took the ball right down the field. That ain’t going to cut it, but those are situations that we have to learn from.
“It is hard, but this is not the first time I’ve been in challenging situations in coaching. We have five games left and I see a bunch of young kids and it hurts them to lose. I saw progress, but we have a long ways to go, on both sides. And that starts with me.”
Grade: D+