This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

This is becoming a nasty habit.

Utah State has lost each and every game during that was somewhat in doubt during the conference season.

At home against Nevada. On the road against Nevada. On the road against Idaho, and now against New Mexico State at the Spectrum.

NMSU scored 15 of the final 18 points on Saturday afternoon. New Mexico State took over like it seemingly knew it would eventually do. And that's the biggest diss of all, when a team knows it will eventually make enough plays to win the game.

Utah State turned the ball over five times in the last three-minutes. As Stew Morrill said, his Aggies simply couldn't take care of the ball when it counted.

"They turned up the athleticism and the defensive pressure and we couldn't deal with it," Morrill said.

The Utah State players say they want to turn it around, but they are fast running out of chances to do so, with only three conference games remaining.

The Aggies are looking at possibly finishing 7-7, or even worse, 6-8, which would land them in the position to get bounced in the first round of the tournament.

These are trying times, indeed.

Tony Jones