Utah State football: Ags still licking wounds after defeat to NMSU

Utah State is a few days removed from the embarrassing 20-17 loss at New Mexico State, but the defeat hasn't lost any of its sting.

In fact, the stunning setback in which the Aggies nearly doubled their opponent in offensive yards probably hurts a little worse after looking at the game film.

"It was an extremely tough loss," Utah State coach Gary Andersen said. "It was a football game that I believe we should have won. We had opportunities to win, but we didn't."

Utah State's offense and defense played solid games. Andersen and his team, though, admit dominating two facets of the game often aren't enough.

"It was definitely one we should have won," USU senior safety James Brindley said. "It shouldn't have been that close. We blew it with some penalties and special teams play."

USU had 12 penalties for 128 yards at New Mexico State. Of those, three were called on Utah State's special teams and nine were called on the USU offense.

The Blue Aggies' defense, on the other hand, had zero penalties in the game.

And Andersen pointed to its penalties as a reason his team struggled to score despite 429 yards of offense.

"I am OK with penalties. But it is the kind of penalties that we had that hurt us," Andersen said. "The holding calls at the point of attack when we run the ball down to the 20 is not smart football. It makes it hard to win."

For the first time all season, Utah State failed to score when reaching the red zone. Several big plays were wiped out and the team struggled to sustain drives that were moving along well.

"One of our goals is to go out and score every time we get the football. I don't think the early penalty took us out of our offense," Andersen said. "I think we just put ourselves in poor situations. We had special teams penalties and holding calls. But we still should be able to go out and have a sustained drive."

Perhaps more damaging, ultimately, than the penalties were the blown coverages on punt returns.

USU's Peter Caldwell averaged 41.5 yards per punt, and NMSU's returners averaged 22.8 yards per return — the biggest coming with less than two minutes to play when Marcus Anderson scooped up a pooch punt at the 15-yard line and darted between tacklers for a 56-yard return all the way to the Utah State 29.

That set up a game-winning field goal as time expired and sent Utah State fans right back to the edge they've been on for a couple of decades.

AGGIE FOOTBALL ON TWITTER: Like many coaches, athletes and teams across the country, Utah State football has jumped on the twitter bandwagon.

"This is a great way to get information out to fans as well as recruits," Andersen said. "The more they know and learn about our program, Utah State and Cache Valley, the better."

Aggie football fans can follow along at twitter.com/USUFootball.

To get the latest news and updates on Utah State, you can also follow twitter.com/DesNewsEborn.

Aggies on the air

Utah State (1-4, 0-1 WAC) vs. Nevada (2-3, 1-0)

Saturday, 1 p.m.

Romney Stadium

TV: CW30 Radio: 610 AM, 1230 AM, 95.9 FM

e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com