Aggie Analysis: The Rebel Fleet Has Been Destroyed

THE RUNDOWN:

OFFENSE:

- Jordan Love tied a school record with five TD passes on the day. He looked sharp, made plays with his feet, and avoided mistakes. That is now four straight games without an interception for Love. Thanks to tremendous play from the OL, Love was not sacked once all game. One thing I’ll add is that Jordan seemed to throw up a few too many Hail Mary balls. He’s very lucky he’s got a great receiving group to come down with them, but against stingier secondaries those can easily be interceptions.

Here’s Love to Scarver:

- Gerold Bright and Darwin Thompson both got their yards, 72 and 52 respectively, while Love garnered 39 for himself. Individually, the numbers may not seem like much, but as a team the Aggies totaled 221 rushing yards. Included in that number are two touchdowns, one of which came from backup QB Henry Colombi, who ran it in from 37 yards out in garbage time.

- Just cannot say enough good things about the receivers. Jalen Greene led the way with a 5 catch, 132 yard, 1 touchdown performance. Ron’Quavion Tarver hauled in two touchdowns (He also had a few drops, but the scores easily made up for them). Savon Scarver and Jordan Nathan also scored on the day. Utah State found nothing but success in the passing game on Saturday.

DEFENSE:

- So the defense looked great … in the middle quarters. On the other hand, they weren’t so hot to both start and finish the contest. Now it’s not like this defense is expected to shutout teams and be a dominant force. They’re simply expected to ward off other offenses as their offense lights up the scoreboard. Running-wise, they did a swell job on locking up RB Lexington Thomas after he was really starting to get some momentum on them. He accumulated only 51 yards and one TD.

- The main problem was all the success they gave to UNLV QB Max Gilliam, who was making only his 2^nd collegiate start, filling in for an injured Armani Rogers. He tossed three touchdowns and amassed 250 Passing yards. I know it may be nit-picky to critique the defense on stats they mostly gave up in garbage time, but I believe it’s still pertinent for a defense to play solid even with a win easily in hand. It shows effort. I’m not totally knocking the Aggies D though, they had a ton of great moments.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

- Well folks, Dominik Eberle is human. Pack it up, we’re done here.

- In all seriousness, Eberle will be fine. He went 1/3 with the lone make coming on a 24-yard chip shot. Not a great day for the stud kicker, but nobody is perfect. It’s not like the missed kicks really affected the outcome of the game in any way.

- Deven Thompkins blocked a UNLV punt, which was picked up by Baron Gajkowski and returned for a TD. A nice play for the special teams unit, and definitely something that helped permanently turn the tide in this game.

Here’s the blocked punt:

FINAL THOUGHTS:

- Overall, another great performance with some things to fix for the Aggies. Offense was firing on all cylinders. Love looked comfortable, the OL protected, the runningbacks didn’t get major yardage but were still a factor. Most impressive though is the receivers, going up and getting some great catches followed by some great runs. The defense still has tweaks to correct, and they’ll need to focus up on stopping the run with a decent Cowboys run offense coming up next week.

NEXT MAN UP:

- Utah State faces its first conference road challenge of the season as they head to Laramie to take on the Wyoming Cowboys with a 12:00 MDT kickoff time. Wyoming’s run game is led by Senior RB Nico Evans, who’s got 612 rushing yards and four rushing TDs. The biggest story will be Jordan Love and the Aggies offense against a porous Wyo defense. The ‘Boys have allowed a 300+ yard passer in three of their six games so far this season. Should be a very fun matchup for USU.

Let’s check in on Big Blue:

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE GAME? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!

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