Yep, hats off to ISU

They played very well and we were crappy. Easy to say now from my couch, but I guess pulling HR wasn't the best option. TT looked limited, didn't seem like he could complete anything but short passes. If he can improve his passing he'll be tremendous, but he's not there yet.

Good lesson for these guys. Play 4 quarters, don’t under estimate opponents.

Sometimes the better team loses to a team that just plays better. So much psychology involved in sports.

These are kids so I don't want to be too harsh, but the reality is that you don't typically win football games throwing 3 interceptions. We got in a hole early with the 2 from HR and Hastings throwing one in the end zone also hurt.

The decision to go for it on 4th and 17 leading to 7 points was an equally as disastrous call. I don't know if it was Dan or Cody who had the finally decision there, but it clearly was the wrong one.

ISU came to play and had their best game of the season. Frankly, this might drop the Aggies out of the playoff picture. Not a good look to be healthy again and lose to a winless team. Additionally makes any notion of beating EWU laughable.

OK. Flush this one down the toilet. If I were coach, I would take the ball and physically place it in HRs hands and say “you are our guy”. TT has his places but he is not the quarterback that will take you to the playoffs. I can’t remember when the Aggies have shied so much away from the passing game. Need both run and pass.

Defense wasn’t there when needed but ISU did play well and with more heart. Get back to Davis and put a hurt on UNC. This was probably a wake-up call for the Ags - hopefully. Hats off to ISU. Might have made their season.

absolutely. Much between the ears.

We just did not show up today. I feel like this was coming. The offense really hasn’t looked impressive since Dixie state and we have relied on our defense to keep us in games. Offense gave the ball away too many times and the defense couldn’t keep up. Tough loss. I hope we can respond.

For what it's worth Montana beat Dixie by only 17 today. You've gotta come out prepared to play every week, especially on the road. The Bengals had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and we were flat on our feet in the first half, throwing picks and playing sloppy.

Has anyone else noticed that our defenders drop their heads when tackling. They miss a lot of tackles and seldom stop the other team's runners and receivers upon 1st contact! That's not just this game either.

My two cents:

Passing accuracy has gone way down since Jake left.
As a result, we don't know who we are on offense.

I think I saw Hawkins keep the team from running to the locker room at halftime. The TV feed left, so I'm not sure he kept them out there around the 5 yard line. The team didn't play with urgency in the first half, I'll give him that, but this team is confused about what they are doing on offense- and that's on him.

Coaches need to decide on a QB and an offense going forward and own it.

If Trent can stick and the pocket and throw the ball accurately 10-15 times, he's the guy (he can't do it yet- again, today he was confused about his role). Until then stick with Hunter or Miles (and use Trent in special packages).

What I watched today was a sh*tshow on offense.

The defense wasn't great either. To emulate CA Forever, I don't want to be too harsh, but I put most of the fault on the D-line. Even though the secondary made some great plays on the ball, they gave Hays too much time in the pocket and he picked us apart. The D-line never got enough pressure and was unable to stop the ISU running backs at the point attack. It didn't help that they didn't know how good Hays was. For a freshman starting his first game, against a top 10 team, no less, you have to give the kid a ton of credit.

Hays was a freshman starting his first game against a top 10 team, but not his first start.

We threw 3 picks, roughing the punter, had a horrible 1st half, and only lost by 10. Says something.

The opening - baffling punter roughing (go for the ball, not leg). We couldn't stop #80 - is he really that good? Sideline passes also open. Will EWU drop 60 on us? Targeting call??

Our QB play has been average or below average since San Diego. To be fair to TT, he had a few passes dropped today. Our opponents seem to have more creative play calling some of the time. I did like UG at Wildcat. The offense standing around for 25 seconds when TT comes in as Wildcat is counterproductive. Castles had 1 attempt? UG running up the gut on first down was predictable 3 games ago. HR, who I like, in some ways reminds me of Randy Wright. His legs did help us in the 2nd half. SD & Dixie masked our weakness.

SochorField: there is something off with HR, or is it the line? We should have given TT and Hastings much more time vs Dixie State. We're QB-U - but we don't throw deep or even 15-20 yards, and we don't even have the short game mastered.

Biggs & Plough gone.

As they say, only lose this game once. In other words, put it behind you, roll the next two and get ready for a furious final three games.

Just a disaster from the get go. They didn’t score off roughing the kicker, but that cost us at least 25 yards of field position- seemed we started inside our 10 all day. Never got any better. Gilliam is a stud

succinct and well said. ISU played very, very well also.

QB Totals: 15 of 35, 43%, 188 yards, 12.5 ypc, 3 picks.

Another killer call: the holding call when Larison (?) got down to the 5. Huge. They got 3 1st downs on penalties, we got 0.

I believe we were 3-15 for 37 yards in the first half. Might have the attempts off, but pretty sure on completions and yards. In comparison we were lights out in the 2nd!

Thanks RiverAggie. I stand corrected, but it means that they should have seen what he could do, although I see he had a much better game against us than against Northern Arizona.

How about the fumble which was called back - I couldn't see any knee.

I watched the game w an Aggie friend. He asked if any of our lineman were out.

Freshman come up huge again

Teddy Buchanan - 11 tackles, 5 solo
Cloud Jackson - 10 tackles, 2 solo (Oregon State transfer)
Bryce Rodgers - 10 tackles - SENIOR

Sacks - 0

I thought the runner was down. But that could have been a chance to turn things around.

I thought the knee was down too. Officials didn't hurt us, we hurt ourselves and ISU were excellent. And yes, Tanner Conner, 80, is really good. Pretty sure he has hurt us before.

We don’t blitz often but they killed us on a couple today. The Conner play came on a blitz that left us exposed. They ran a screen for a big gain on another that led to the FG.

The 70 yard toss and run, followed by an INT (TD after short drive) really put us in a hole. That being said, we were down 17-3 1:30 left in half, and about to receive 2nd half kickoff. Mistakes put us in 4th and 17 hole. And they score after failed fourth. Game, set, match

“Mama told me there’d be days like this, but she never told me it would be today,” said Aggie head coach Dan Hawkins afterward.

“Give credit to Idaho State. They’ve been kicked around a little bit, but they outplayed us and they outcoached us. They deserved to win today.”

Idaho State head coach Rob Phenicie, who has been heartbreakingly close to beating the Aggies on two occasions in recent years, could hardly control his joy.

“Any time you can beat a Dan Hawkins coached team, you’ve accomplished something,” said the ISU coach. “He’s one of the greatest coaches around.”

Noted Hawkins: “We’re still a work in progress. It clearly was not our best game, but despite so many setbacks, our guys hung in there until the end. But again, all the credit goes to Idaho State. They had a great game plan and they executed it all afternoon.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/bengals-upset-aggies/

The gamble of going for it on 4 and 17 was unorthodox, but it was our last possession of the half and the assumption is that your defense can keep a team from going half the field in a little over a minute. Perhaps the loss will lead to a reassessment of strategy on both units. Hard to make changes sometimes when having success.

Some misc thoughts.
This might have been mentioned already, but the ISU QB had plenty of time to pick us apart. And on the other end, we had to roll our QB out of the pocket to buy time. All of our QBs would be successful if they could pick their shots and not force it into coverage.
In terms of picking the QB and riding it out, I’m not sure then how you deal with a guy throwing picks and digging us into a hole.
From a fans perspective without any hands-on football knowledge, do we need to do reorganize our O line? Change coaching strategy?
Work Faulk into the scheme?

I thought that going for it on 4th and 17 was a bad decision. The odds of us getting a first down were not good at all given how stagnant the offense had been up to that point.

TT was in at QB and passing has not been his forte from what we have seen from him. He's made remarkable plays with his legs but we have not seen sharp passing from him other than short strikes. The ISU defense was playing well and now they could play to contain and keep the play underneath while focusing on preventing a big gainer.

I'm sure, of course, that Hawk thought his defense could keep them from scoring with so little time left if we failed to convert but that didn't happen. As a result, ISU went into the half with a 3 score lead instead of 2 along with a huge confidence boost and all the momentum while we looked shellshocked. Being down 3 scores at halftime 24-3 at vs being down 2 scores at halftime 17-3 is huge.

Sometimes a coach needs to be a riverboat gambler and go all in when playing to win but, considering how ISU had dominated the first half, the risk of going for the 4th and 17 was not a smart risk to take. It would have been much better to kick the ball deep, go into locker room down 17-3 and use the halftime to regroup. It was the decisive turning point of the game, in my opinion, and, although we played better in the second half, we never really recovered.

Predictability. Went through our PBP online. Q1 we ran 8 times on first down, Q2 7 times. Often to UG. TT and MH seemed to have some success throwing on 1st down. This seems to confirm what someone wrote, that we're trying to set up the pass w the run.

Which often leads to 3rd and long, and difficult passes. Where are the little slant patterns for 4 yards, quick hits, higher completion rate? Maybe getting blown up? I'd hope by now we could go up tempo.

Zero sacks. Maybe our lines are beat up. Our offensive strategy has to be tight if we want to go deep into the playoffs with HR. Proof we can take no one lightly. Regroup. Aggie Pride.

Plus we got the ball to start the second half. Go in down 17-3, regroup like you said, and hopefully put 7 on the board. We did drive down into the red zone too. I like our odds if it’s 17-10 (so punt deep and then don’t throw a pick on that first drive of the 2nd half) to actually pull the game out.