BYU-USU GAME SUMMARY

The Aggies came to Provo Friday night and gave the Cougars a fight for three and a half quarters. The Aggie offense was as good as advertised, until a huge momentum changing interception by Jernaro Gilford changed the complexion of the game.

The real story of the game for the Cougars was some poor play on special teams, some of the same poor play on defense, and an offense that could only be stopped by their own mistakes.

The game started out just fine for the Cougars as they were able to strike first on a long drive capped off by a one yard Luke Staley touchdown run. The Aggies came right back to match that touchdown using precise passing and then capping it off with a 13 yard Jose Fuentes to Kevin Curtis touchdown pass.

The offense just continued to work from there, a 19 yard Doman to TE Doug Jolley touchdown pass was answered by a 12 yard TD run by backup QB Jeff Crosbie. The Cougars then led 14-12 because of two failed conversion attempts by the Aggies.

At this point the coaches were still waiting for their defenses to show up. In fact the Aggies defense only showed up for a couple of series in the second quarter and the Cougar D only showed up for the last quarter and a half.

The seesaw battle continued on in the second quarter. The Cougars scored on a 28 yard Doman to Staley touchdown toss. The Aggies answered on a 26 yard Emmitt White run.

The first defensive stop for the Aggies came on the next Cougar possession. It was largely aided by a high snap over Doman's head on a play from the shot-gun. Doman was able to recover the ball, but was forced to go out of bounds and the Cougars were not able to recover the yardage and were forced to punt.

The Aggies were able to drive down the field and take the lead on an 18 yard White run.

The Cougars then blew a huge opportunity to tie the game when the drove down to the five yard line and could not put it in. Reno Mahe caught a pass from Doman on third down, but was separated from the ball by Tony Walker before he could get his feet down. BYU could have converted a field goal, but Matt Payne hooked it left and the Cougars went in at the Half trailing 27-21.

The Aggies started the second half, by out right fooling the sleeping Cougars with an onside kick that they recovered. The Aggies then drove it in for a touchdown on a 14 yard Fuentes to Chris Stallworth pass.

To the Cougars credit, the offense answered right back as Staley got loose for a 37 yard touchdown run. Then the Cougars made the one play that changed the game from a seesaw battle, into a one sided victory for BYU. On a third & 10 from the Cougar 20, Fuentes tried to throw a ball to Kevin Curtis, but Jernaro Gilford stepped in front of Curtis and picked off the pass.

Gilford returned it 64 yards and the Cougars put three more touchdowns on the board from there. Two were on Luke Staley runs. The Cougar defense woke-up and began tackling better against the run, and stopped playing a really soft, almost prevent, defense against the pass.

Up until then, the Cougar defenders were always right behind the Aggie receivers, but still allowed them to catch the pass in front of them to prevent the big play . They even stopped giving up the big kick returns that had setup most of the Aggie drives.

The Cougar defense once again showed that they could play very well at times, but have yet to prove that they can do it against a good offense for an entire game. (Especially against an offense that spreads the ball out.)

Obviously the Cougar ‘D’ will need to improve in order to win the MWC title out right.

Emmitt White showed that he was as good as advertised, but Luke Staley showed just how good he is too.