This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
How is that football hangover going Aggie fans? Saturday's loss was a hard one to take, no doubt about it. Time and time again the Aggies had chances to score and came up empty. With USU going into the half up just 7-0 after several prime opportunities, you almost knew Arkansas State was going to come back in the second half and make the Aggies pay for not adding a few more scores. But losing in overtime made it particularly difficult to take. So where do the Aggies go from here? The Aggies have to do a better job of moving that offense. USU finished with 413 yards Saturday, but only made one trip into the red zone. That foray ended badly with Darell Garretson throwing an interception. The Aggies were without quarterback Chuckie Keeton (knee) and running back Joe Hill (ankle), absences that obviously had an effect on the offense. We also knew the offensive line was going to be a work in progress, but it has to get better if the Aggies want to be a contender in the MWC. Utah State coach Matt Wells thought the run game has improved, saying "We had a good front and we ran the ball when we needed to," he said. But take away a 31-yard gain by JoJo Natson and the Aggies managed just 114 yards on 36 carries. Notably, LaJuan Hunt was stuffed on 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-one in the first quarter as the Aggies had trouble moving the ball inside. The Aggies also abandoned the run game too in the final seconds, with Wells deciding not to use timeouts and letting Nick Diaz try a 38-yarded. He defended his decision after the game, noting it should have been a good field goal attempt. "I don't regret it one bit," he said of his decision. "We just have to execute." But as we all know, execution wasn't in the cards for the Aggies' offense Saturday.