Saturday, October 3, 2009 DAILY HERALD C5 Cougarblue: no. 20 bYu 35, utah state 17 Ga m e s tat i s t i c s Po s t G a m e no. 20 bYu 35, utah state 17 an a l y s i s 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final Utah State 7 0 3 7 — 17 BYU 7 14 0 14 — 35 Quarterback Running back WR/TE PassIng Is it time to start get- For the second With McKay Jacob- Scoring summary A-C-I Yds TD Lng ting worried? Max straight game, Har- son out (hamstring), Hall 23-16-2 218 3 48 Hall has 11 touch- vey Unga went for BYU didn’t have its FIrst Quarter reCeIvIng USU C+ down passes, but 10 A- more than 100 yards. B+ true deep threat. But — Diondre Borel 6 run (Chris No Yds TD Lng Ulinski kick), 10:28 interceptions in five After a slow start Luke Asworth (5 Ashworth 5 91 1 48 Scoring Drive: 8 plays, 43 yards, 3:43 Pitta 5 83 2 26 games. That’s too many in a high-per- to the season because of that nagging catches, 91 yards, 1 TD) came out and Key Play: On BYU’s first series, Utah Chambers 2 15 0 10 centage passing offense. Whatever the hamstring, Unga is starting to look like had a big game, including a 48-yard State’s Chris Randle recovered a fumble Tonga 2 14 0 8 reasons for the picks, Hall has to figure the Harvey of the past two years. He has touchdown reception. Dennis Pitta (5 by Spencer Hafoka at the Cougars 43. George 1 9 0 9 Hafoka 1 6 0 6 it out. He makes some terrific throws, such quick feet and once he gets hit, he catches, 83 yards, two TDs) is a go-to BYU — Dennis Pitta 6 pass from Max but has also sent up some bad ones, moves the pile. Manase Tonga is steady guy and made two nice catches for Hall (Mitch Payne kick), 2:14 PuntIng too. Give him credit for a nice block on as the fullback and J.J. DiLuigi makes a scores. Scoring Drive: 18 plays, 83 yards, 8:07 No Yds Avg Lng Harvey Unga’s 23-yard run in the fourth contribution every time he comes in. Key Play: Plenty to choose from on BYU’s Stephenson 3 111 37.0 53 quarter. Riley Nelson got in and ran a longest drive (by plays) of the season. On returns quarterback draw for a first down. third-and-10, Hall connected with Luke No Yds Lng TD Asworth for a 13-yard play to the USU 43. Chambers (P) 1 9 9 0 seConD Quarter Chambers (KO) 1 17 17 0 Offensive line Defensive line Linebacker BYU — Luke Asworth 48 pass from Hafoka (KO) 1 18 18 0 Hall (Payne kick), 14:22 DiLuigi (KO) 1 38 38 0 Scoring Drive: 4 plays, 72 yards, 1:22 utah state Hall was not under The Aggies, who had Terrance Hooks Key Play: Ashworth stepped up and beat too much pressure been averaging near- and Coleby Clawson single coverage deep for a long touch- rushIng and the backs had ly 200 yards a game both had big games down. Att Yds TD Lng Avg A lots of holes to run A- on the ground, had B+ with nine and eight Turbin 17 47 0 10 2.8 BYU — Manase Tonga 3 run (Payne Borel 16 38 1 13 2.4 through. Bronco Men- trouble running in the tackles, respectively. kick), :29 Smith 4 24 0 16 6.0 denhall said that the offensive line com- first half. For four of BYU’s five games, Clawson added a sack and Hooks had a Scoring Drive: 2 plays, 29 yards, :10 ing together might be the biggest story the defensive line has done a good job tackle for loss. When the BYU defense Key Play: BYU’s Andrew Rich recovers a PassIng of the year. Replacing four starters is controlling the line of scrimmage and is working the right way, linebackers Borel fumble at the USU 29-yard line with A-C-I Yds TD Lng 39 seconds left in the half. Borel 28-20-0 213 1 32 never easy but they’ve proven they can slowing down the opponents run game. will put up good totals with tackles. Matt Team 2-0-0 0 0 0 play with anyone. A true test is coming Brett Denney picked up a sack for the Bauman had seven tackles from his spot thIrD Quarter USU reCeIvIng up against TCU in October. D-line. in the middle. — Ulinski 20 FG, 8:05 No Yds TD Lng Scoring Drive: 7 plays, 45 yards, 3:13 Sawyer 4 58 0 32 Key Play: On BYU’s first drive of the Morrison 3 36 0 15 second half, Utah State’s Rajric Coleman Moats 2 25 0 19 Safety Cornerback Special Teams picked off Max Hall to set the Aggies up Bowman 2 24 1 16 on the Cougars 48. Alder 2 20 0 21 Morgan 2 17 0 14 Andrew Rich got Redshirt freshman Another kickoff out Fourth Quarter BYU — Harvey Unga 8 run (Payne Mitchell 1 11 0 11 flagged for a pass Robbie Bucker got his of bounds, that is still kick), 13:09 Bartlett 1 11 0 11 interference. He was first action at corner- a problem. BYU needs Scoring Drive: 2 plays, 31 yards, :40 Gwacha 1 9 0 9 B+ Key Play: On fourth-and-1, Utah State Turbin 1 5 0 5 in position and made a C+ back and made four B- to get more out of SMith 1 -3 0 -3 nice play but his trail tackles. The corners its return game, and went for it but Robert Turbin slipped and arm was on the receivers back, and offi- really didn’t get tested that much by J.J. Di Luigi might have earned another was pulled down by Andrew Rich for a PuntIng 1yard loss. BYU took over at the Aggies No Yds Avg Lng cials will call that every time. BYU didn’t Dionde Borel, who is a running quarter- look with a 38-yard kickoff return. Mitch 31. Caldwell 5 246 49.2 54 get burned on dig routes like it did last back with a limited arm. Payne is the most underutilized field goal week against Colorado State. Scott John- kicker in the country right now. BYU — Pitta 13 pass from Hall (Payne returns son led the team with nine tackles. kick), 2:45 No Yds Lng TD Scoring Drive: 11 plays, 64 yards, 6:20 Murphy (P) 1 3 3 0 Key Play: On third-and-3, Riley Nelson Murphy (Int) 1 0 0 0 came in for Hall at quarterback and took Coleman (Int) 1 16 16 0 the ball 13 yards on a draw play to the Williams (KO) 4 75 29 0 Utah State 27. USU — Xavier Bowman 16 pass from Defensive stats Borel (Ulinski kick), :03 Scoring Drive: 10 plays, 73 yards, 2:34 Key Play: On third-and-16, Borel com- brIgham Young pleted a pass to Eric Moats for 19 yards for a first down at the BYU 39. T-FL FC FR Int PD S Johnson 9-0 0 0 0 1 0 Hooks 9-1 0 0 0 0 0 Jorgensen 8-1 0 0 0 0 1 Team statistics Clawson 8-0 0 0 0 0 0 Bauman 7-0 0 0 0 0 0 USU BYU Rich 4-1 0 1 0 1 0 First downs 20 22 Buckner 4-0 0 0 0 0 0 Rushes-yds 37-109 43-213 Denney 4-1 0 0 0 0 1 Passing yds 213 218 Fuga 3-0 0 0 0 0 0 Comp-Att-Int 20-30-0 16-23-2 Doman 3-1 0 0 0 0 1 Total offensive plays 67 66 Putnam 2-0 0 0 0 0 0 Total net yards 322 431 Pendleton 2-0 0 0 0 0 0 Avg. gain per play 7.1 9.5 Hunter 2-0 0 0 0 0 0 Fumbles: No.-Lost 2-1 1-1 Bradley 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Punt Returns-yds 1-3 1-9 Reynolds 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 KO Returns-yds 4-75 3-73 Nelson 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Inter. Returns-yds 2-16 0-0 Te’o 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Punts-avg. 5-49.2 3-37.0 Kariya 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Third-down conv. 6-14 8-12 Atkinson 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Fourth-down conv. 0-2 1-1 Logan 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Sacks by-yds 1-4 3-8 Mees 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Penalties-yds 6-55 8-54 Hola 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Possession Time 31:15 28:45 Uale 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Marshall 1-0 0 0 0 0 0 Individual stats utah state T-FL FC FR Int PD S brIgham Young Coleman 13-0 0 0 1 0 0 Wagner 12-0 1 0 0 0 0 rushIng Brindley 11-1 0 0 0 0 1 Att Yds TD Lng Avg Igboeli 6-0 0 0 0 1 0 Unga 21 118 1 23 5.6 Randle 4-0 0 1 0 0 0 Tonga 7 31 1 11 4.4 Koskan 3-0.5 0 0 0 0 0 DiLuigi 4 20 0 9 5.0 Hall 6 17 0 9 2.8 T-Tackles, TFL-Tackles for loss, Kariya 3 14 0 7 4.7 FC-fumble caused, FR-fumble recov- Nelson 1 13 0 13 13.0 ered, Int-interception, PD-pass deflec- MArK฀JoHNSToN/Daily฀Herald฀ Team 1 0 0 0 0.0 tion, S-sack. BYU’s Dennis Pitta, right, is forced out of bounds after a catch and run by Utah State’s Bobby Wagner on Friday.

pair of third-quarter intercep- tage to 28-10. Cougars by the tions when trying to go deep Both teams added scores Continued from C1 to Ashworth, but the Aggies late in the fourth quarter as could only turn those mis- Hall hooked up with Pitta for drive, following the surge of numbers takes into a single field goal, the second time, scoring from the offensive line to drive in making it 21-10, thanks to the 11 yards out and Utah State for the touchdown and put outstanding defensive effort. chalked up a Borel-to-wide BYU firmly in control. Number฀of฀total฀ “I thought the defensive receiver Xavier Bowman con- “That was huge, a huge offensive฀yards฀ played well the whole game, nection in the final seconds to as the turnover we had on for฀Utah฀State฀ well enough to overcome complete the scoring. 81 in฀the฀first฀half.฀ the first possession that they some offensive mistakes The Aggies felt like they scored off of,” Mendenhall The฀Aggies฀entered฀the฀ we made,” Mendenhall said. might’ve had a chance to de- said. “That turnaround cap- game฀ninth฀in฀the฀country฀ “The identity of the defense feat the Cougars if they had tured the momentum back in฀total฀offense฀(averag- is becoming very clear. A been able to avoid giving up for us and gave us a buffer ing฀489฀yards฀per฀game).฀ lot of grit, determination big plays. going into the half.” USU฀finished฀the฀contest฀ and physical play are how I “It was a hard-fought As the head coach said, the with฀322฀total฀yards. would describe the defense game with a couple of huge Cougars suffered through right now for four of our momentum swings,” said a similar scenario on the first five games.” Utah State head coach Gary opening drive of the game. The Cougar defense came Anderson. “BYU fought A completed pass from Hall Percentage฀ up with a few big stands, the hard, we fought hard and a to wide receiver Spencer of฀third฀down฀ first coming when they re- couple of plays made the dif- Hafoka was dislodged by conversions฀ fused to let Utah State get in ference in this game. We’ll 67 for฀BYU.฀The฀ an Aggie hit and Utah State the end zone after it started learn from this and go on.” took control of the ball. Cougars฀converted฀on฀ first-and-goal at the 5-yard BYU now heads into the The visitors needed eight 8-of-12฀third฀downs. line. thick of its Mountain West plays to cover 42 yards with It also stood tall on two Conference schedule, start- Borel capping it off with a straight short-yardage plays ing with a road trip to UNLV seven-yard keeper to get the at the USU 32-yard line early on Oct. 10. That game is Aggies on the board first. Number฀of฀฀ in the fourth quarter, refus- scheduled to kick off at 8 BYU bounced back with victories฀for฀ ing to allow the Aggies the p.m. MT. two straight scoring drives BYU฀on฀Friday฀ yard they needed to get a The Aggies go back to 18 nights.฀The฀ to take the lead, an 18-play, first down on either third or WAC play as they play at 83-yard march ending with Cougars฀are฀18-3฀overall฀ fourth down. New Mexico State on the a six-yard touchdown pass on฀Fridays. That once again gave the same day, with a 6 p.m. from Hall to Pitta and a four- offense a short field and kickoff. play, 72-yard drive resulting BYU running back Harvey GeorGe฀Frey/Associated฀Press฀ in a 48-yard strike from Hall The rest of the game Unga needed only two car- ∫ Jared Lloyd can be BYU’s Manase Tonga, right, is tackled by Utah State’s Chris to wide receiver Luke Ash- turned out to be an error- ries to get the ball in the end reached at jlloyd@ Randle, left, and Rajric Coleman during the first half at LaVell worth. prone slugfest. Hall tossed a zone and extend the advan- heraldextra.com. Edwards Stadium in Provo on Friday.