Last Friday, the BYU Cougars traveled north to play their in-state rivals, often considered their little brother, Utah State. Many people, myself included, had their predictions on what the outcome of the game would be.
Let's take a look at the latest history in this rivalry.
Utah State has not beaten BYU since 1993, a 58-56 shootout victory in Logan.
The last time the Cougars were in Logan, the Aggies played a good half of football. Problem was, it was a good half. The Aggies surrendered a 34-7 halftime to lead to lose 35-34.
Coming into this game, the Cougars looked unstoppable. The Aggies looked like a sieve. The Aggies surrendered 66 points to Oregon and 58 to the University of Utah.
The Cougars were coming off a bye week after putting 103 on their last two opponents while shutting them both out.
Well, BYU could just come strolling into Romney Stadium and make themselves at home, couldn't they?
For the first 15 minutes, it sure seemed so.
On BYU's first possession, Max Hall threw a curl route pass to Austin Collie. Collie streaked down the sideline, stiff-arming USU's Caleb Taylor, en route to a 76-yard touchdown reception. 7-0 Cougars.
On the ensuing possession, Utah State quarterback Diondre Borel was hit and lost the ball. Cougar defensive back Brandon Bradley scooped up the ball and ran it to the end zone to put BYU up 14-0.
Utah State's third possession started picking up steam. Steadily moving the ball to midfield, Borel was hit yet again and coughed up the ball. BYU recovered and converted that turnover into a field goal, 17-0 BYU.
Next Aggie drive, first play was a Borel pass that was tipped and intercepted by linebacker David Nixon. On the very next play, Harvey Unga ran 24 yards through the Aggie defense to put BYU comfortably ahead 24-0.
Upon the end of the first quarter, many thought BYU would steamroll another opponent. Turns out, they thought too fast.
In the second quarter, the signs were starting to appear. Suddenly BYU couldn't pull together a drive. Where is this offense that is supposed to be unstoppable? Did they realize they were the talented older brother playing the weaker, younger brother?
In the beginning of the second half, they added a field goal and another touchdown toss to Austin Collie to balloon the lead to 34-0.
Down 34-0 to start the fourth would demoralize most teams. But, as BYU would find out, it was not so with Utah State.
Usually BYU is known for being a fourth-quarter team. This time, the Aggies started pulling from theCougars playbook.
Early in the fourth quarter, Utah State running back Robert Turbin raced past nearly every BYU defender for a 40 yard touchdown run. There went the Cougars' bid for a third straight shutout.
After getting a stop against the suddenly-anemic BYU offense, Utah State went back to work. Efficiently working the ball down the field, Diondre Borel found Tarren Lloyd in the back of the end zone to make it 34-14.
That's where the scoring ended, but the game told much more than that.
BYU recovered the onside kick and marched downfield. By this time emotions were running high. So high even BYU quarterback Max Hall got called for a personal foul.
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