Ags let 4th-quarter lead slip away

LOGAN — San Jose State issued the challenge to the Utah State Aggies that the Spartans were going to throw the football when they lined up with five wide receivers on their first offensive play Saturday night.

The Aggies were unable to respond.

The Spartans stuck to the plan despite light rains that fell through most of the game and recorded a season-high in passing yards in posting a 23-20 come-from-behind victory over the Aggies in the Western Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

San Jose State quarterback Adam Tafralis completed a career-high 35 passes (48 attempts) for a career-high for 426 yards as the Spartans, the third-to-worst offensive team in the nation, recorded a season-high 524 yards while scoring a season-high 23 points.

Utah State took the lead at 20-16 with 6:12 left after an 18-play, 92-yard drive was capped by a 1-yard run by Derrvin Speight. And it appeared the Aggies would hold the lead when Caleb Taylor intercepted a deflected pass with only 2:22 left.

The Aggies went three-and-out on the following drive and punted with 1:49 left, and it proved to be plenty of time for Tafralis.

He completed four passes in the Spartans' six-play, 83-yard game-winning drive with just less than a minute to go.

Utah State still had life. The Spartans were flagged with a 15-yard penalty and were forced to kick off — into the wind — from their 15. The kick floated in the air but no Aggie fielded the ball, and San Jose recovered.

The Aggies could have had the ball at the 50 with plenty of time to drive for the game-winning touchdown or game-tying field goal.

"I told the players after the game that it comes down to getting a first down, a sack, stopping them on third down and fielding a ball at the end of the game," Utah State coach Brent Guy said. "You never know what critical play at then end of a game will be the one that makes the difference."

The Aggies have now lost three games this year (UNLV, Wyoming, and SJSU) in which they led heading into the fourth quarter.

"We have not made critical plays when we've had to," Guy said.

" ... .We have got to realize that we have to play the game until there is no time left on the clock, and have got to find a way to teach the players that lesson."

The win snaps a three-game losing streak for the Spartans, while the Aggies' losing streak moves to 10.

"We made a couple of great plays in the fourth quarter that we thought could put away the game, but in the end it didn't work out that way," Taylor said. "Everyone thought that we could win and we had no idea that it would end up this way and our team is really hurt by this one."