LOGAN — Racking up 34 points and 406 yards of total offense is by no means a shabby day of football.

But one by one as BYU's players and coaches walked out of the locker room Friday night at Romney Stadium, their sentiment was the same. It just wasn't one of the Cougars' better days of football — especially on the offensive end. In fact, it was BYU's worst offensive showing of the season.

Mainly, the Cougars failed to finish more than once after getting in position to score. Several times it seemed like BYU was ready to pile it on the Aggies, only to sputter on offense. Twice the Cougars advanced inside Utah State's 10-yard line only to settle for field-goal tries. Two other times they had to settle for three points after getting inside the 20.

"We just struggled to get things going on offense tonight," receiver Austin Collie said, despite catching two TD passes — BYU's first score and the Cougars' last score.

There were several other sides of BYU's offense against the Aggies that were uncharacteristic from what it had done in previous games. Kicker Mitch Payne missed a field goal and had another blocked. Quarterback Max Hall threw two interceptions. And he was sacked for the first time since the season-opening win over Northern Iowa. Hall, possibly venting some frustration, even earned a personal foul after the Aggies stopped him for a short run.

Many thought the Cougars would be able to run all over Utah State. Instead, they only gained 103 yards rushing on 30 carries.

"We were a little sluggish," Cougar tail back Harvey Unga said. "From the get-go we felt like we were just going to take off, but it never really happened."

None of the Cougars seemed to have an explanation. Was it just time for BYU to finally have an out-of-sync game?

"You're not going to come out and have things go your way every single game, and you're going to find yourself in some situations where you have to battle through some adversity, and that's what we did tonight," Hall said.

Or can it be blamed on the bye week — something that did in both UCLA and Southern Cal in recent weeks?

"I always look at myself first and maybe in how we managed the bye week, and maybe that could have been improved," coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "I expected maybe a little bit of rust and some lack of precision, but I didn't expect it to be sustained as long as it was. But I think the kids from Utah State had a lot to do with that by playing hard."

All of the Cougars shared their coach's compliments on Utah State's defense. The Aggies were aggressive, were prepared, competed right to the final down and did a lot things to take the Cougars out of rhythm.

"I thought they did a lot of things on defense to confuse us," Hall said.

However, the Cougars don't seem too worried that Friday's offensive struggles are going to carry over to another game. Instead, they believe the challenges they faced Friday will only help them prepare better from this point on.

"I think we're looking forward to getting back to it on Monday, working out the kinks, and getting ready to play another football game," Hall said.

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E-mail: jimr@desnews.com