Utah State Blows Late Lead to Boise State

Utah State started the game strong in the first half of a Black Friday football game against Boise State. The Aggies scored 21 points in the first half and held Boise State to 13. Before Colton Boomer cut into the lead with a late first-half field goal, Utah State led 21-10 and had opportunities to go up 28-10. Utah State hit a field goal in the 3rd quarter to take a 24-13 lead. Not long afterwards, Boise State freshman Quinton Brown caught a 66-yard touchdown pass from Max Cutforth to trim the lead 24-19. No team scored in the 4th quarter for quite some time, but with 2 minutes 26 seconds left in the 4th quarter, Dylan Riley rushed for a six-yard touchdown to take the final lead of the game, 25-24.

Bryson Barnes threw for 184 yards on 13 completions and 31 attempts (42%). Javen Jacobs rushed for 92 yards on five carries and scored a touchdown. Anthony Garcia had two receptions for 54 yards, and Noah Avinger had a sack. Linebacker John Miller led the Utah State defense with 14 total tackles and made several key plays defensively to slow down the Aggies’ defense.

For Boise State, Max Cutforth had 341 passing yards and completed 26 of his 49 pass attempts (53%) and threw for two touchdowns. Running back Dylan Riley broke 1,00o yards on the season, rushing for 120 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries. Quinton Brown, as previously mentioned, had a 66-yard receiving touchdown and was the leading receiver for the Broncos. Edge defender Bol Bol had a massive sack on Bryson Barnes that helped to seal the deal for the Broncos defensively. Defensive back Ty Benefield had 7 total tackles for the Broncos’ defense.

Statistics Comparison

First Downs: BSU: 28; USU: 22

3rd Down Conversions: BSU: 13-24 (54%); USU: 1-10 (10%)

Total Yards: BSU: 512; USU: 405

Passing Yards: BSU: 341 passing yards; USU: 184 passing yards

Rushing Yards: USU: 221 rushing yards; BSU: 171 rushing yards

Penalties: BSU: 7-65; USU: 11-91

Turnovers: USU: 1; BSU: 1

Time of Possession: BSU: 36:58; USU: 23:02

Overall Thoughts

Utah State had a massive opportunity to win this game, but just couldn’t finish out. The defense gave up 13 3rd Down conversions, even though they had Boise State at 24 attempts, and Boise State controlled the time of possession by a significant margin, by over 13 minutes. One of the reasons why Utah State lost the lead late in the game was that the Aggies were just unable to finish off drives. Not being able to convert on 3rd and 4th down late is what truly cost Utah State in the end. When Dylan Riley rushed for the final touchdown of the game, Utah State had no response. The Aggies did a decent job of holding the Broncos to a lower-than-expected rushing total, but Utah State paid for it in the passing game, giving up 341 yards. Bryson Barnes did an excellent job leading the Aggies, but he was unable to get anything going on his two 4th down attempts. Both were questionable moments to go for it on 4th down, and it allowed Boise State to have short fields with an offense that struggled to finish off drives. With the win, Boise State was able to win the opportunity to host the Mountain West Championship against UNLV. Utah State, which had an extremely low percentage of making the Mountain West championship before the Boise State game, will wait for news of its bowl game, which will be announced on Sunday after the conference championship games conclude. Utah State was able to become bowl eligible with a win over Fresno State.