So much went right for Utah State Saturday on the road against Colorado State.
Quarterback Bryson Barnes — starting in place of the injured Spencer Petras — accounted for four touchdowns and became the first Aggie QB ever to rush for 100 or more yards in back-to-back games.
The Aggie defense, much maligned and rightfully so for the majority of the season, allowed a single touchdown on CSU’s first nine possessions. It was bend but don’t break defense played to near perfection.
Wide receiver Otto Tia set new career highs with three touchdown receptions and 81 receiving yards and tied his career high in receptions in a game with six. Oh yeah, he also had a career long 51-yard reception.
Senior defensive back Jaiden Francois had the second interception of his career, which doubled as the second pick-six of his career.
Senior safety Jordan Vincent racked up a career high 15 tackles.
The list could go on and on.
Except in the end, none of it really mattered.
Despite holding a 17-point lead and taking said lead into the fourth quarter, Utah State lost its final game of the season, 42-37.
All the good — the production and record setting — that the Aggies did against the Rams evaporated in just 15 minutes of play Saturday in Fort Collins.
It was fitting really, for what will go down as Utah State’s worse season since the pandemic, and if you excuse/ignore that abbreviated one-win campaign in 2020, this year’s 4-8 record is the worst season for Utah State football since 2016.
What happened in the fourth quarter against Colorado State?
It is tempting to talk about the success the Aggies had through three quarters against the Rams. After all, it appeared USU was going to run away with things, like it did in recent wins against Hawaii and San Diego State.
But the game was decided in the fourth quarter, when CSU made plays and the Aggies did not — or worse, made the wrong kind of plays.
So where did things go wrong?
It started with a drive that began in the third quarter. CSU, which at that point had a single touchdown in the game, drove 75 yards in just over two minutes and scored on a touchdown pass by quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi.
That score was set up by the first major mistake of the fourth quarter, a pass interference penalty on 3rd and 10 by safety Jordan Vincent.
Gifted a first down, the Rams made the Aggies pay in short order.
The ensuing offensive possession for USU went rather swimmingly, until it didn’t. After running more than five minutes off the clock, running back Herschel Turner fumbled and the ball was recovered by the Rams.
That in and of itself wasn’t great, but it was worse when CSU then reeled off a quick seven-play touchdown drive that took less than two minutes.
Just like that, Colorado State had 27 points and trailed Utah State by only three.
It got worse for the Aggies, though.
The next offensive possession for Utah State saw Barnes intercepted deep in USU territory. Barnes locked on to Tia and CSU defensive back Dominic Morris undercut the route and hauled in an easy interception.
With excellent field position — at the USU 19 — the Rams paid off another USU turnover, this one in less than a minute and a half. Why were the Aggies’ so backed up on their side of the field? A holding penalty on the kick return by receiver Tate Kjar.
All of it worked together so that after leading Colorado State 30-13 with just over 13 minutes left in the game, the Aggies trailed the Rams 35-30 with just under four minutes remaining.
The mistakes and miscues didn’t end there, though.
Needing a touchdown, USU started the next drive with a false start. Then, after three incompletions and a 5-yard run by Barnes, the Aggies faced a 4th and 10 at their own 25 yard line.
And on that key play, Barnes threw the ball short to Tia, who had to come back to the wrong side of the first down marker to make the catch.
The pass ended up going for nine yards and the Aggies turned the ball over on downs.
Gifted excellent field position again, the Rams made good like they had every other fourth quarter possession — with a touchdown, and like that, the Aggies were finished.
What to make of the Aggies’ collapse?
The game didn’t actually end there. Barnes engineered a late touchdown drive for Utah State and then the Aggies’ pulled off the rare onside kick recovery, courtesy of safety Ike Larsen.
USU practices that play weekly and this week was the first time they’d successfully recovered an onside kick try in practice.
With 14 seconds left in the game, all hope officially was quashed when Barnes was intercepted for the second time, the pass to Kyrese White falling short into the hands of CSU defensive back Dom Jones.
That Utah State was even in the position to need to make a last second rally was the problem. Everything had gone the Aggies’ way until it didn’t, and when it didn’t it went really wrong.
Utah State interim head coach Nate Dreiling wouldn’t talk specifics after the game, at least when it came to the mistakes made that cost the Aggies in the fourth quarter.
Likely in his final game as head coach at USU, Dreiling wasn’t about to single players out for mistakes made, but he did acknowledge Utah State was its own worst enemy in the final frame.
Without the Aggies’ help, Colorado State doesn’t make its incredible comeback.
“Just kind of collapsed in the fourth quarter,” Dreiling said. “Just too many critical errors to win versus a really good Colorado State team. Colorado State did a really good job of answering and finding ways to get points and continuing to battle.
“It came down to us and discipline and we just didn’t have it. We let that one slip away. That is a tough one to end on.”
It was tough for all the Aggies.
After winning three of their previous four games, including back-to-back wins, USU really wanted to end the season on a high note. A win over a now 8-4 Colorado State team would have been that.
Instead, the Aggies finished the season 4-8 overall and 3-4 in Mountain West Conference play.
It was a season to forget when all is said and done.
“I’ve actually never ended the season with a win in my college career, so this wasn’t the way I wanted us to go out,” Barnes said. “My main thing was playing for those seniors.
“We know we weren’t going to a bowl game and I just really wanted to go out there and get a win for those guys, but unfortunately just came up short.”
That USU was able to compete with Colorado State was notable. The Rams have a chance to play for the conference title this year, depending on what happens with UNLV-Nevada on Saturday, and Utah State outplayed Colorado State for the majority of the game.
But like many of its losses this year, USU couldn’t put together a complete game and it cost them yet another win.
“We wanted to finish our season on a good note,” defensive back Jaiden Francois said. “We’d won the past two games. We wanted to send the seniors out the right way.”
Too many mistakes made it so that didn’t happen.
“It just came down to they made more plays at the end than we did,” Dreiling said. “That is what happens when you are playing a good team. You have to finish, and we weren’t able to get that done.”