Utah State backup quarterback Bryson Barnes hauled in his first snap of the game on a 4th and 3 with 1:32 left in the fourth quarter. The Aggies were down by two and deep in their own territory. All the Cowboys had to do was make the tackle on Barnes before he made it three yards and the game would assuredly be over and the Cowboys would walk away from War Memorial Stadium the victors in just their second game this year.
Stopping Barnes seemed like an easy task for a stingy Cowboy defense, which held the Aggies to just nine yards of total offense in the third frame of this one. With Barnes taking in his first snap of the game in such a dire moment, surely the pressure would bear down on him just as badly as the Cowboy defense was bearing down on a relatively lifeless second half Aggies’ offensive unit.
Barnes, though, proved to be the spark that would ignite the Aggies’ 53-yard game winning drive, as Barnes barreled his way to a first down and the Aggies’ starting quarterback Spencer Petras would take care of the rest as he marched his offense down the field and into position for Tanner Cragun to strike in the walk-off field goal attempt from 40 yards out.
The hollow faces of the Cowboys as they marched back to the locker room as the Aggies stormed the field in pure excitement said all there needed to be said about the Cowboys’ seventh loss of the season.
This one should have never come down to that walk-off field goal, for a number of reasons.
The game winning field goal itself never had to be a walk-off winner, as head coach Jay Sawvel chose to use his final timeout of the half to ice the kicker instead of allowing his offense to have little over 30 seconds remaining to attempt to make a play to win the game.
“It wasn’t one of the upper-tier field goal kickers in the Mountain West…so I was taking the chances of us being able to put pressure on it,” Sawvel said of the decision.
Starting quarterback Evan Svoboda also throwing an interception 35 seconds left in the second quarter is likely the first event that bloomed into a multitude of small mistakes that ultimately cost the Cowboys this one.
Ahead of the Cowboys’ home tilt against the Aggies, Sawvel begrudgingly announced that the Cowboys would be splitting minutes between both quarterbacks. Svoboda was the least efficient passer of all eligible D-I quarterbacks, and had only led the Cowboys to a single win over Air Force this season. Back-up redshirt freshman Kaden Anderson, who had seen limited snaps in just five games of the season, was truly a wildcard that proved to be an ace up the Cowboys’ sleeve for most of the game as the young quarterback led four scoring drives in the second half.
Still, it wasn’t enough to find a win.
Svoboda, who played the opening two offensive series for the Cowboys, was met with boos by the mass of Cowboy fans whenever the junior signal caller trotted onto the field.
“I love Evan, I feel like we support each other really well. He’s a great guy [and] one of the best leaders on the team,” Anderson said.
“It’s definitely frustrating, because he is such a good dude,” Anderson added when asked about his thoughts on the crowd booing Svoboda.
Anderson’s deployment on the Cowboys’ third drive of the game was met with much more enthusiasm from the crowd and was also immediately met with a field goal. While the following drive under Anderson’s direction would go three and out, the freshman signal caller seemed to bring new life to a rather stagnant Cowboy offense.
Svoboda’s job was clearly on the line, and it was that final series of the second quarter that would make the difference of whether or not he’d remain in contention to line up under center for the rest of the game. It was then when Svoboda would gift wrap an errant pass directed towards Justin Stevenson to the Aggies that they would kindly turn into seven points to take the lead at 17-10 heading into half time.
“I thought in that situation, he would be the one that would be able to get us [points], with his arm…and what we were going to try to do,” Sawvel said of the decision to play Svoboda at the end of the second quarter.
With Anderson taking the reins in the second half and the defense playing keep away for the entire third quarter, the Cowboys were able to battle back to within a point heading into the fourth quarter. Anderson, who completed a number of timely third down throws to freshman wideout Chris Durr Jr., was unable to find the endzone in the third frame, as the Pokes only won the frame 6-0.
“We won the third quarter six to nothing, okay, with the way that we played the third quarter, defensively and offensively, that should have been 10. It should have been 14. and there could have been some separation in the game,” Sawvel said.
The Cowboy defense would start out the fourth strong, forcing a punt deep in the Aggies’ territory that would set the Cowboy offense up at midfield. Young speedster Tyler King would quickly convert the defensive effort into six points, racing down the left sideline, dusting multiple Aggie defenders on his way to the touchdown.
With the score at 22-17, Sawvel took the risk to attempt the two point conversion to make it a seven point game, one that wouldn’t pay off as the Cowboys failed the attempt.
With how the defense was playing, it didn’t seem like that failed conversion would come back to bite the Cowboys.
The next sequence of events would prove that otherwise.
What looked to be the Cowboy defense’s fourth straight three and out quickly turned into seven points for the Aggie offense. On a 3rd and 2, the Aggies chose to let Petras step back into the pocket and make a play through the air, despite the effectiveness of Aggie running back Rahsul Faison’s 6.6 yards per carry through three quarters. Petras would rifle a pass to the left sideline for Kyrese White. The pass, well off the mark, seemed to also mark the end of the drive, until a dreaded yellow marker was tossed. A pass interference call would advance the Aggies 15 yards up the field, and an enraged Sawvel, who clearly didn’t agree with the call, would then be flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, tacking on another 15 yards.
“I regret that,” Sawvel said of his penalty. “I thought it was a pretty quick hair trigger, too. I don’t want to say a lot else about that stuff, because, to be honest, right now, I’d say I’m a horseshit head coach and I think we’ve had some horse shit officiating.”
It wasn’t long until the Aggies found the endzone and the lead with 11:58 left. The Cowboys were in a rhythm offensively, though, and quickly made it back to midfield.
The Cowboys then ran the same play Tyler King had scored on just minutes earlier. King would stomach the handoff from Anderson, romping his way up the left sideline once again when an Aggie defender would lower his shoulder, popping King right in the side of the head. The blow would cause him to fumble the ball, as the Aggies would scoop it up and maintain possession, despite the play appearing to fall under the conditions of targeting. That call kept the Cowboys’ off the scoreboard in a dire moment where they could have put this one away.
“It was a huge change of momentum, we got the ball deep in their territory [so] we’re at least going to get something out of it,” Sawvel said.
“It is what it is,” Sawvel said in further elaboration on the decision to not review the hit on King.
While the Cowboys would tack on another field goal to form a two point lead later on in the fourth quarter, the Aggies’ game winning field goal would seal the fate on the Pokes’ seventh loss of the season, as they’d lose by a score of 27-25.
To add insult to injury, the Cowboys easily had their best offensive performance to date, rolling up 470 yards of offense, but only managing 25 points.
Scott, despite battling a nagging, but not pressing knee injury, would roll up 117 yards on the ground on just 11 carries.
Durr Jr. was impressive throughout the contest, as his connection with fellow freshman Anderson was obvious as the two connected nine times with Durr Jr. amassing 83 yards from the nine catches to lead all receivers
Anderson ended the game completing 15 of 24 passes for 182 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
The Cowboys hit the road in their next contest, taking on New Mexico on November 2.
