So much went right for Utah State on the road against Colorado State on Saturday.

Quarterback Bryson Barnes – starting in place of the injured Spencer Petras – scored four touchdowns and became the first Aggie QB ever to rush for 100 or more yards in consecutive games.

The Aggie defense, rightly much maligned most of the season, allowed a single touchdown on CSU’s first nine possessions. It was a pliable but unbreakable defense played to near perfection.

Wide receiver Otto Tia set new career highs with three touchdown receptions and 81 receiving yards and tied his career high with six receptions in a game. Oh yeah, he also had a career-long 51-yard reception.

Senior defensive back Jaiden Francois had the second interception of his career, which was also the second pick-six of his career.

Senior safety Jordan Vincent recorded a career-best 15 tackles.

The list could be continued endlessly.

Except in the end, none of it really mattered.

Despite holding a 17-point lead and taking it into the fourth quarter, Utah State lost its final game of the season 42-37.

All the good — the performance and the record setting — that the Aggies did against the Rams evaporated in just 15 minutes Saturday in Fort Collins.

It was fitting, really, because this will go down as Utah State’s worst season since the pandemic, and if you excuse/ignore that shortened one-win season in 2020, this year’s record of 4-8 is its worst Season for Utah State football since 2016.

What happened in the fourth quarter against Colorado State?

It’s tempting to talk about the success the Aggies had in three quarters against the Rams. Finally, it looked like USU was running away with things, as was the case in recent wins against Hawaii and San Diego State.

But the game was decided in the fourth quarter when CSU made plays and the Aggies didn’t – or worse, made the wrong plays.

So where did something go wrong?

It started with a drive that started in the third quarter. CSU, which had a single touchdown in the game at that point, drove 75 yards in just over two minutes and scored on a touchdown pass from quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi.

This result was achieved by the first major mistake of the fourth quarter, a pass interference penalty on 3rd-and-10 by safety Jordan Vincent.

Gifted with a first down, the Rams made the Aggies pay in short order.

USU’s ensuing offensive possession went pretty well until it didn’t. With more than five minutes left, running back Herschel Turner fumbled and the ball was recovered by the Rams.

That wasn’t great in itself, but it got worse when CSU then went on a quick seven-play touchdown drive that lasted less than two minutes.

That gave Colorado State 27 points and was only three points behind Utah State.

Things got even worse for the Aggies, however.

On Utah State’s next offensive possession, Barnes was intercepted deep in USU territory. Barnes grabbed Tia and CSU defender Dominic Morris undercut the route and easily intercepted the ball.

With excellent field position – at the USU 19 – the Rams cashed in on another USU turnover, this time in less than a minute and a half. Why were the Aggies so pushed back on their side of the field? A holding penalty on receiver Tate Kjar’s kick return.

Everything worked together so that after leading Colorado State 30-13 with just over 13 minutes to play, the Aggies trailed the Rams 35-30 with just under four minutes to play.

However, the errors and errors did not end there.

USU needed a touchdown and started the next drive with a false start. Then, after three incompletions and a 5-yard run by Barnes, the Aggies faced a 4th-and-10 at their own 25-yard line.

And on that crucial play, Barnes threw the ball short to Tia, who had to come back to the wrong side of the first-down marker to catch the ball.

The pass ultimately went nine yards and the Aggies turned the ball over on downs.

The Rams once again had excellent field position and made it as if they had every other possession of the fourth quarter with a touchdown and that was the end of the Aggies.

What to make of the Aggies’ collapse?

The game wasn’t really over yet. Barnes led a late touchdown drive for Utah State, and then the Aggies got a rare onside kick recovery thanks to safety Ike Larsen.

USU practices weekly and this week was the first time they succeeded in an onside kick attempt in practice.

With 14 seconds left in the game, all hope was officially dashed when Barnes was intercepted for the second time and the pass to Kyrese White fell just into the hands of CSU defender Dom Jones.

The problem was that Utah State was even in a position to pull off a last-second rally. Everything had been going the Aggies’ way until it wasn’t, and when it wasn’t, things really went wrong.

Utah State interim coach Nate Dreiling declined to provide details after the game, at least not regarding the mistakes that cost the Aggies in the fourth quarter.

In what was likely his final game as head coach at USU, Dreiling had no intention of taking out individual players for mistakes they made, but he acknowledged Utah State was its own worst enemy in the final frame.

Without the Aggies’ help, Colorado State won’t make its incredible comeback.

“It just kind of fell apart in the fourth quarter,” Dreiling said. “Just too many critical errors to win against a really good Colorado State team. Colorado State responded really well and found ways to score points and keep fighting.

“It depended on us and the discipline, but we just didn’t have it. We missed that. It’s difficult to put an end to it.”

It was tough for all the Aggies.

After winning three of its last four games, including two straight, USU was eager to finish the season on a high note. That would have been a win over a now 8-4 Colorado State team.

Instead, the Aggies finished the season 4-8 overall and 3-4 in Mountain West Conference play.

It’s been a season to forget when all is said and done.

“I actually have never finished a season with a win in my college career, so I didn’t want us to go out like that,” Barnes said. “My main concern was playing for these seniors.

“We knew we weren’t going to a bowl game and I really wanted to go out there and give the guys a win, but unfortunately I didn’t get to do it.”

The fact that USU was able to compete with Colorado State was remarkable. The Rams have a chance to play for the conference title this year depending on what happens with UNLV-Nevada on Saturday, and Utah State outscored Colorado State for most of the game.

But like many losses this year, USU failed to put together a complete game and that cost them another win.

“We wanted to end our season with a good result,” said defensive back Jaiden Francois. “We had won the last two games. We wanted to send the seniors out the right way.”

Too many mistakes meant that this didn’t happen.

“It just came down to the fact that they made more plays in the end than we did,” Dreiling said. “That’s what happens when you play against a good team. You have to finish, and we didn’t manage to do that.”