After a strange game on the road against Northern Colorado, the Aggies return home to take on the Hawkins family and the Idaho State Bengals. Idaho State comes into this game with a record of 2-6 and a conference record of 1-3

@ UNLV - L 31-28
@ Southern Utah - L 24-46
@ New Mexico - L 22-32
vs Lincoln (CA) - W 90-0
@ Northern Colorado - W 26-18
vs Montana - L 38-42
@ Montana State - L 14-48
vs Northern Arizona - L 18-31

They have played a tough schedule with 2 FBS games and 3 straight ranked opponents coming into their battle against the Aggies. Honestly, to start the season they were playing teams very tough. They were in striking distance against both FBS teams and were very close against Montana, but it seems like the wheels fell off the last couple of games.

The Bengals are definitely an offense first squad and they like to throw the ball. ISU is led by redshirt junior QB Jordan Cooke. He's a big boy standing at 6'4 234. So far this season he has completed 148/263 passing attempts (56.27%) for 1950 yards with 9 passing TDs and 7 INTs. He does not seem to be much of a running threat though in terms of taking off for big chunk plays. They've also gotten some burn from redshirt freshman QB Davis Harsin who has completed 36/62 passing attempts (58.06%) for 482 passing yards with 7 passing TDs and 2 INTs. He is more of a running threat than Cooke with 19 rushing attempts for 128 rushing yards on the season.

Idaho State are deep in terms of receiving threats. They currently have 4 guys who have more than 300 all of which have 30+ receptions. We have 2 guys over 300 yards and only 1 has over 30 receptions. Their top receiver is 6'6 senior Michael Shulikov who has 40 receptions for 703 yards and 5 TDs. Their second main threat is 6'4 redshirt senior Tsion Nunnally who has 40 receptions for 573 yards and 4 TDs. Whoever said you can't find big bodied productive WRs in the FCS was mistaken. Their passing game is a serious threat and it'll be interesting to see if our battered defense can contain them.

The Bengals starting RB is redshirt junior Dason Brooks who has a net of 544 yards on 81 attempts (6.7 avg) with 6 rushing TDs. Backing up Brooks is redshirt freshman Carson Sudbury with a net of 201 yards on 42 attempts (4.8 avg) with 4 rushing TDs. They are clearly a pass first team, but you can't ignore the fact that their starting RB is closing in on 7 yards per rush. They are effective when called upon.

While their offense is potent, the Bengals have had some difficulty on defense. Take away their game against Lincoln (which the Bengals should be mocked and ridiculed that they even scheduled that game) and they have only managed to keep their opponents under 30 points 1 time and that was against Northern Colorado. While both their pass and rush defense are closer to the bottom of the Big Sky standings than the top, they appear to be notably weak to the run giving up on average almost 200 yards per game. Their standout defensive player has been redshirt freshman S Rylan Leathers who has 75 total tackles, 1 INT, and 2 forced fumbles. They have gotten productive pass rush from junior LB Jackson Irwin with 4 sacks as well as senior DL Cam'ron Willis with 3.5 sacks. If Caden is healthy, the Aggie offense should be able to put together a solid day against this defense.

In terms of kicking they are averaging 46.67 yards per punt have made 11/14 FG attempts with a long of 56 yards. On 49 kickoffs, 33 have been touchbacks.

All-in-all, it's tough to peg where the Bengals really stand. They played well against a now 6-1 UNLV, though it was their fist game under new HC Dan Mullen, and were within 1 score of Montana, but then just recently had a real stinker against Montana State and lost soundly to a Northern Arizona that we beat by like 3 scores. We all saw what happened in the 2nd half against Northern Colorado. I think I can speak for us all when I say that we hope Caden is back this week and if he isn't I think we can still win this game by leaning in on Jordan Fisher and Carter Vargas, which we may have to do anyway given the Gbatu is out for the fist half of the game due to his targeting penalty.

GO AGS! BEAT THE BENGALS!