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Utah State football wasn’t competitive against USC. Cause for concern or no?


Utah State quarterback Bryson Barnes, right, is hit by Southern California safety Kamari Ramsey as he tries to pass during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. The ball went out of bounds on the play. | Mark J. Terrill

There is no sugarcoating it, Utah State was thoroughly dominated by No. 13 USC Saturday night.

The Aggies were beaten worse by the Trojans, far worse in fact, than they had beaten Robert Morris — a middle-of-the-road program in probably the worst conference at the FCS level — the week prior.

The numbers are a bit staggering from the 48-0 loss in Los Angeles:

USC racked up 544 total yards of offense, 295 through the air and another 249 on the ground. Utah State? Well, the Aggies managed only 190 yards and didn’t break the 100-yard rushing mark.

The Trojans shut out Utah State, USC’s first shut out of an opponent since 2017. It was the first time the Aggies hadn’t scored in a game since a 55-0 loss at Alabama in 2022.

USC averaged 10.2 yards per completion and 6.7 yards per rush. Utah State could only manage 5.7 yards per completion and 3.8 yards per rush.

On the night, the Aggies only averaged 3.8 yards per play and only ran 50 total plays, in comparison to the 78 run by the Trojans.

The Aggies had more than twice as many penalties as USC — 9 to 4 — and went only 2 for 11 on third down tries, compared to USC’s mark of 6 of 10.

USC had 28 first downs in the game. Utah State had only 10.

USC finished with seven tackles for loss and three sacks. The Aggies had only two tackles for loss and were unable to bring down Trojans quarterback Miller Moss a single time.

Those are just some of the numbers, though. The reality of the game was somehow even worse.

Utah State’s offense — so effective a year ago and in the second half against Robert Morris…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/utah-state-football-wasn-t-081745030.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-09-08 08:17:45

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

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