3 takeaways from Utah State’s loss to Utah

For a while Saturday afternoon in Logan, the Utah State Aggies were battling even with — or even getting the better of — the rival Utah Utes.
Quarterback Bryson Barnes was playing at a high level, the Aggies’ offense was having its way with the Utah defense and USU’s defense looked much improved.
It didn’t last in the end though, as the Aggies fell to the visiting Utes 38-21, suffering their first loss at home to Utah since 2008.
Here are three takeaways from the Aggies’ loss to the Utes.
University of Utah fans are very familiar with Barnes, what with him having played multiple years at the U.
Sometimes Barnes was the hero for the Utes, in road wins in Pac-12 play especially. At other times, he was the scapegoat. The reason — in the eyes of fans — that the Utes lost games or weren’t as dominant as many thought they should be.
Sometimes that was true, other times not so much, but Barnes did struggle with consistency as a Ute.
Saturday against his former team, those two sides of Barnes reared their head again, this time for the Aggies.
Barnes finished the game against his former team with 223 yards passing, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also rushed for 36 yards and a score, 49 yards if you take away sack yardage.
Multiple times during the game, Barnes’ running ability extended Aggie offensive drives. Multiple times during the game, he completed passes that probably shouldn’t have been completed, such as a 35-yard completion to Jalen Royals, or a 27-yard heave to Jack Hestera.
And on USU’s final scoring drive of the game, Barnes practically willed to a key fourth down conversion with a gutsy 31-yard pass to Colby Bowman.
For every play that Barnes made though, and there were plenty, he also missed often enough.
Be it missed open receivers (Otto Tia multiple times and Hestera during a promising USU drive in the fourth quarter), failing to feel pressure in the pocket on key downs or keeping the ball on the RPO (run-pass-option) when he would’ve been better suited to hand the ball to running back Rahsul Faison, Barnes wasn’t perfect in the way that the Aggies needed him to be if they were to pull off the upset of the Utes.
The loss to Utah shouldn’t solely fall at Barnes’ feet — USU as a team made too many mistakes and left too many points on the board — but Aggie fans saw all sides of Barnes on Saturday, the good and bad.
Fair or not, USU just needed a little more of the good Barnes than the bad Barnes in this game and didn’t get it.
The aforementioned Royals is the Aggies’ best weapon on offense — although Faison has a real argument — but he was knocked out of the game midway through the contest.
Wide receiver Kyrese White also exited a lot earlier than that after being hammered on an attempted catch in the first quarter. Royals and White are USU best and most experienced pass catchers, and their absences forced others to step up.
At times, they did.
Tia had a career outing against Utah and finished with 78 receiving yards on five receptions. Bothered by injuries a year ago, Tia finally made good — for a game at least — on his considerable potential.
Hestera had been frequently mentioned as a sneaky breakout candidate on offense for USU before the season started, but he didn’t make much headway the first two weeks.
That changed against the Utes, as he finished with three catches for 42 yards and a touchdown.
Tight end Broc Lane, so often touted as a weapon that needs to be utilized, finally had a semi-breakout game himself and also finished with three catches for 42 yards and a touchdown.
Wide receiver Robert Freeman IV — a junior college All-American transfer — was utilized on offense but proved a weapon on special teams.
He finished with three returns for 61 yards, including a long of 21. Time and again, he looked close to breaking one loose for a game-changing return.
Without their two best receiving weapons, the Aggies showed that they have considerable depth and talent at the skill positions, a positive going forward this season for whichever QB takes the field, be it Barnes, Spencer Petras or Jacob Conover (Conover made his Aggie debut in the fourth quarter Saturday).
If there is a strength to USU’s defense this season, it is the secondary.
Safeties Ike Larsen and Jordan Vincent deserves praise — and regularly get it. Both were on the top of their games against the Utes, frequently making game-saving tackles (they combined for 19 in the game).
Against the Utes, though, it was the corners and nickel backs who really made their mark.
Cornerback Avante Dickerson was matched up with Utes’ star wide receiver Dorian Singer for most of the game and Dickerson more than held his own. Singer had five catches for 66 yards but he didn’t get into the end zone and Dickerson finished the game with a pass breakup and bothered Singer enough on multiple other plays that they ended in incompletions.
Dickerson was frequently all by himself too, with little to no safety help.
Cornerback DJ Graham II, a transfer from Oklahoma, similarly had a strong outing and finished with five tackles. Two of those tackles were solo ones Graham made by himself out wide, stopping Utah wide receivers in their tracks.
Nickel back Simeon Harris and cornerback JD Drew also had their moments where they handled their assignment all by themselves.
Against the Utes, USU proved that it has athletes in the secondary, players who are capable of competing one-on-one against talented receivers.
It wasn’t all perfect to be fair, as Utah’s tight ends Brant Kuithe and Carsen Ryan frequently found themselves wide open, and the Aggies were hurt as a result.
But on the outside, Utah State’s secondary held up more often than not.