LOGAN, UTAH » The sleep-challenged University of Hawaii football team woke up to a nightmare on Saturday.

The Rainbow Warriors had no answers in Utah State’s 47-10 smackdown at Romney Stadium.

"It was a weird day," UH slotback Scott Harding said. "We were stagnant all day. We couldn’t make plays on offense. We couldn’t make plays on defense. We were kind of stuck in a hole."

The Warriors are in deep — 0-8 overall, 0-6 in the Mountain West Conference — heading into next week’s meeting against Navy, the second leg of a two-game, 10-day trip.

For now, the Warriors are left to ponder what-ifs. There was a false start on Friday when an airport shooting at Los Angeles International Airport triggered a series of delays resulting in the Warriors arriving at the hotel in Logan, Utah, on Saturday at 2:35 a.m. — less than 12 hours before the 2 p.m. kickoff.

UH coach Norm Chow said the Warriors were not affected by the late arrival, chilly weather or Logan’s 4,500-foot elevation.

"Nope," Chow said. "No excuses. We got beat by a better football team. We should have played better. We should have picked up their blitzes better. We should have blitzed better. We should have covered better."

Adding injury to insult, defensive tackle Saui Matagiese hurt his right knee in the fourth quarter. X-rays indicated there might be a problem with his MCL or ACL. Chow said it has not been determined if Matagiese will return to Honolulu. The Warriors are remaining in Utah through Wednesday, when they head east.

"He’s a leader," nose tackle Moses Samia said of Matagiese. "Even though it’s a hard time for our team, he’s the one who’s always keeping things positive. He’s a big piece of our defense, and to our entire team."

Matagiese said he suffered the injury when someone landed on his right leg during a pile-up. He has played with pain in both knees this season. "I’m going to find a way to be out there soon," he said. "Say your prayers."

Bended knees or wounded knees, the Warriors were knee deep in trouble against Utah State’s surprisingly multiple offense.

The word was the Aggies, especially after the loss of star quarterback Chuckie Keeton three weeks ago, relied mostly on a ground-and-pound attack. In the past two games, freshman quarterback Darell Garretson was tethered to the pocket, handing off to Joey DeMartino or throwing to Travis Reynolds or Ronald Butler.

This time, Garretson was on the move on rollouts, bootlegs, play-actions and even designed scrambles.

"He’s mature for a freshman," UH defensive end Beau Yap said. "That passing game killed us."

The Aggies altered their blocking schemes. Senior center Tyler Hansen was assigned to solo-block the nose tackle. The guards flared to the outside, helping to create a shield against an interior pass rush. The Aggies had five blockers on five pass rushers. If the Warriors blitzed, Garretson would throw to the vacated area or ditch the play. Garretson intentionally threw away five passes. He was not sacked in 46 pass plays.

"That quarterback did a nice job of finding the open guy," UH defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer said.

Garretson was at his best on third down. Needing 11 yards for a first down, he hit Reynolds between two defenders for 36 yards. On third-and-7, he found Butler for 7 yards. On third-and-10, he went 12 yards to Butler.

Bruce Natson was so wide open on an 11-yard touchdown he moonwalked the final 4 yards. Wyatt Houston was unguarded on a 44-yard scoring pass.

Sometimes the Aggies found an open receiver when the Warriors double-teamed the opposite receiver. Sometimes the Warriors left the middle unprotected when they brought the safeties into the tackle box to clog the running lanes.

The Warriors also had to improvise after safety Marrell Jackson was ejected for a helmet-to-helmet hit in the first quarter. That forced nickelback Charles Clay to replace Jackson. Cornerback Dee Maggitt had to move inside as nickel-corner.

Garretson, in his second career start, finished 28-for-41 passing for 370 yards and three touchdowns. DeMartino ran for 104 yards, including a 4-yard touchdown.

Granted, the Warriors inadvertently contributed to their own suffering. A USU play was extended because of an out-of-bounds hit. The Warriors actually forced a 5-yard loss with only 10 defenders on the field. Linebacker TJ Taimatuia and safety John Hardy-Tuliau dropped Garretson passes on what should have been pick-six plays.

Even the Warriors’ best defensive play — Tavita Woodard’s 26-yard interception return to the 4 — was a tease. After two rushes netted minus-1 yard, Sean Schroeder lofted a pass that Kyler Fackrell intercepted in the flat and then outsprinted would-be tacklers the other way for a 99-yard return for a touchdown.

"I can’t turn over the ball," Schroeder said. "We can’t come away empty-handed like that. We can’t have essentially a 14-point swing like that. It was a probably a force. I tried to make a play. The guy made a good play on their side and took it to the house."

Schroeder and freshman Keith Kirkwood teamed on a 33-yard scoring pass, the first time the Warriors scored on their opening drive of the second half this season. That closed the deficit to 23-10. The Aggies would score the final 24 points to improve to 5-4 overall and 4-1 in the MWC.

The Warriors had managed to stage comebacks in three of the previous four games. But in this game, they did not have enough pieces. A scramble on a fake punt fell short; another potential fake was aborted when a defender materialized in front of punter Scott Harding. An option pass the Warriors had practiced for several weeks was nearly intercepted. And so it went.

The Aggies had more first downs (28 to 18), more plays (86 to 69), more yards (533 to 319) and more possession time (39:14 to 20:46).

"We play better than we look, but at the end of the day, everybody looks at the record," Woodard said. "We have to do a better job of getting a W."

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