Defense can’t hold

LOGAN, Utah » Even when the Hawaii defense made a big play Saturday, it led to disaster as the Rainbow Warriors football team fell to 0-8, losing 47-10 at Utah State.

When Tavita Woodard intercepted Darell Garretson’s pass and returned it 27 yards to the Aggies 4 late in the third quarter, it looked like UH, trailing 33-10, had gotten the break it needed to get back in the game.

But three plays later, USU’s Kyler Fackrell picked off Sean Schroeder and returned it 99 yards. Utah State led 40-10, and that was that.

"It’s frustrating," said Woodard, a senior defensive end. "But then again we still believe in our offense and we still trust in our guys and our coaches and we gotta keep fighting."

The highlight-turned-nightmare was one of the few bright spots for UH on Saturday. The defense allowed 553 yards, a lot of it because of a recurring problem: third down.

The Aggies converted on eight of 12 third-down tries while building a 23-3 halftime lead.

"That’s a problem," coach Norm Chow said afterward. "No doubt about it."

Defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer acknowledged the same.

"They converted underneath, they converted deep and they converted to a back swinging out. They changed it as they wanted to on third and long," Kaumeyer said.

Kaumeyer said UH wanted to go after Garretson, a true freshman quarterback. But he was never sacked.

"Unfortunately we don’t have the deep pass rush," Kaumeyer said. "With this particular quarterback we wanted to pressure him early and get some man (coverage) in there.

"Unfortunately we got beat on man."

Garretson mostly performed like a poised veteran in his second start for the Aggies, with 370 yards and three touchdowns on 28-for-41 accuracy. The interception was one of his few mistakes.

Garretson even atoned for that by body tackling Woodard short of the end zone.

"I felt like that should’ve been a pick-six, but you know I tried to go right, I seen him, he was going right at the last minute I tried to cut left," Woodard said. "Good job of him for making the tackle. Then again as a defense we shouldn’t allow points like that and we need to do a better job executing and doing what we do."

Especially on third down. It seemed the longer the distance, the more likely the conversion.

"To me, we’re usually pretty good on third down," said safety Charles Clay, who led UH with 14 tackles. "In practice we harp on third down, get off the field on third down. Just mental mistakes, mental fatigue. It was killing us today. Third down was killing us and we knew it and we were trying to stop it."