The Aggies loss to Temple was nothing short of ’embarassing’

Utah State football couldn’t have experienced much worse of an outcome Saturday.
On the road in Philadelphia against a Temple team roundly considered one of the worst at the FBS level, the Aggies fell completely flat. They were outplayed, outworked, outgunned. Out-schemed and out-executed. Out-everythinged almost, specially when it mattered the most.
Despite jumping out to a 14-0 lead, despite leading at halftime, despite putting up 479 total yards of offense, despite Rahsul Faison running for 148 yards and a touchdown and despite quarterback Spencer Petras throwing for a career-high 293 yards in his return from injury, Utah State lost badly to a Temple team that was winless entering the game.
The final score ended up 45-29 in favor of Temple, but that doesn’t accurately convey the brutal back-breaking nature of the loss.
For a Utah State team that considers itself a threat in the Mountain West Conference this season, for a university that is in real consideration to be added to the new-look Pac-12 (which will be considered the best non-Power conference in the country when it is finalized), the loss to the Owls was embarrassing.
Because of the final result and the score sure, but also because of the Aggies’ inability make good on many advantages.
And Utah State knows it.
“It is an embarrassing loss,” interim head coach Nate Dreiling said.
The Aggies expected that they would beat Temple, cornerback DJ Graham said, and in the end they fell far short of that.
“It is tough,” Graham said. “It is going to linger.”
Dreiling took full blame for the loss, which now has Utah State 1-3 overall entering its first bye week of the season. As USU’s defensive coordinator, the Aggies’ defense surrendering 45 points to Temple was particularly galling to Dreiling.
“We scored 29 points. That should be plenty enough to win a football game,” Dreiling said. “So we are just not there right now.”
The Aggies actually started the game well. Better than well even.
Faison looked unstoppable at the outset, playing in front of family and friends who made the short trip from Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The senior running back gashed the Owls’ defense over and over in the first quarter, and it looked as though the Aggies could just run the ball every single ball and walk away with an easy win.
But perhaps a sign of things to come, USU didn’t make good on Faison’s effort until late in the first quarter due to a variety of miscues and poor execution, but a touchdown before the end of the period and another early in the second quarter had the Aggies up two scores and looking ready to run away with things.
That was about the time when the good started to fade away for USU, though.
Temple scored 14 straight points after that to tie things up, and though the Aggies tacked on another touchdown before the end of the first half, Temple kicker Maddux Trujillo hit a 64-yard field goal right before intermission that presaged what was to come.
Basically, the second half was a story of USU’s inability to make plays in critical moments — on offense, defense or special teams — while Temple made play after play after play when it mattered.
Time and again in the second half, the Aggies folded at the worst moments.
After Temple scored a touchdown to take the lead midway through the third quarter on a 91-yard reception, USU’s offense responded with a five play drive that went nine total yards.
Needing to hold Temple’s offense after that, Utah State’s defense let the Owls reel off a nine-play, 82-yard scoring drive.
Needing a score to keep in the game after that Temple touchdown, USU’s offense proceeded to lose four yards in three plays and punt again.
That was the second half in a nutshell.
Whenever Utah State had a chance to make a game-changing play, it didn’t. Whenever Temple had the same opportunity, it did.
“We gotta do a better job under pressure and when the moments matter,” Faison said. “I mean, they matter all 60 minutes, but in crunch moments we gotta be able to pull together and have faith in one another, trust that everyone is going to do their job, play as hard as they can and then good things will happen.
“We have the talent. We want it. We just have to want it more than the other team at the end of the day.”
Dreiling probably put it best.
“In our critical moments right now, we look very bad,” he said. “When it is not a critical moment, we look very good. So how can we get that across the whole game?
Dreiling doesn’t have the answer to that question right now. He’s honest about that. If he did, USU would be leaving Philadelphia 2-2 or maybe even better.
“I don’t know, but I’ll take the blame for it,” Dreiling said. “I need to get these guys better in those scenarios. … We have all the talent in the world to win these games. I just have to make sure our guys believe in themselves, believe in the scheme and more importantly trust in their teammates.
“Until we get there, there will be people looking over at the ball trying to make a play when it is not their turn and that is why we are giving stuff up.”
Optimism remains, albeit muted.
The Aggie offense did play well for much of the game. The O-line and running game look more than capable — Dreiling said Faison is one of the best backs in the MW, if not the entire country.
Petras didn’t blow anyone away in his return, but USU has playmakers, and he was able to get most of them touches. Seven different USU players caught passes, and Petras’ ability to spread the ball all over the field should make the passing attack difficult for any team to handle.
USU’s defense had good moments, too, early on especially. And though Dreiling admitted that he sounds like a broken record at this point, he genuinely believes that a few fixed details here and there will lead to a leap in execution on that side of the ball.
Most importantly, the Aggies are 0-0 in Mountain West play. A conference championship run remains a possibility, even if it doesn’t look all that likely right now.
“We are disappointed in the start (to the season), so all we are going to do is roll our sleeves up and keep working,” Dreiling said.
Utah State also needs to find a way to put the dismal nature of the loss to Temple behind it, even if it was about as backbreaking a loss as you’ll encounter.
“It is going to linger,” Graham said. “It is going to sting a lot. … But we have to (move on). If we keep this on our mind, we are not going to be focused for Boise, so we have to put this game to bed and just be ready for Boise. It is that simple.
“It hurts. It is definitely not the result we wanted but we have to let it go. It is in the past now and we have to let the past be the past.”
Added Dreiling: “We can go one of two ways. We can pout about it and sink for the season or we can get even closer (as a team), get our back against the wall and start swinging again.
“The best part about it is this is such a resilient group. They are ready to work. They are ready to go. We just have to get some confidence back into those guys.”
Utah State has to hurry. Boise State will be waiting on Oct. 5.