Nate Dahle Bounces Back as Weber State Beats UC Davis 38-14

One week earlier, Nate Dahle fumbled twice in the second half at Montana State and watched a 10-point lead turn into a 38-33 loss. On Halloween at Stewart Stadium, the Weber State freshman gave nobody a reason to bring it up.

Dahle threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns, ran for 79 yards and another score, and led Weber State past UC Davis 38-14 in Ogden on Saturday. The Wildcats never trailed, led 21-7 at halftime and put the game away with a 52-yard touchdown pass on the fourth play of the third quarter. Weber State improved to 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the Big Sky. UC Davis fell to 5-4 and 3-3.

For a team chasing the top of the conference under first-year head coach Eric Kjar, it was exactly the kind of answer the week demanded.

Weber State sets the tone early

The first drive told you what kind of day the Wildcats had planned. Weber State went 71 yards in 14 plays and 4:35, with Dahle picking up a third-and-10 on a 17-yard run and Seth Rigtrup ripping off 23 yards, before David Dellenbach hit a 21-yard field goal at 6:42 of the first quarter. The next possession was quicker. Dahle ran 20 yards on another third-and-10, then finished the eight-play, 68-yard drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass to La'akea Kalama at 3:03. It was 10-0.

UC Davis had an answer, and it came fast. Treynor Cleeland, the redshirt freshman who had just been named to the Jerry Rice Award watch list, hit Laviel Pickett for 30 yards on third-and-8 and then found Zach Jones for a 38-yard touchdown to finish a four-play, 75-yard drive. The extra point made it 10-7, and for a moment the Aggies looked like the team that had smothered Northern Colorado 33-6 a week earlier.

That moment did not last long.

The second quarter belongs to the Wildcats

Dellenbach added a 31-yard field goal at 13:22 of the second quarter to make it 13-7, set up in part by two Dahle completions for 36 yards to Noah Kjar, the coach's son. Later in the quarter, Dahle ran 12 yards for a touchdown at 4:32, and Mapa Vaenuku ran in the two-point conversion. The Wildcats led 21-7 at the break.

UC Davis, a team built around Jordan Fisher and a short, efficient passing game, kept landing in long-yardage spots. The Aggies finished 6 of 18 on third down.

The turning point: 52 yards on the fourth play of the half

If the first half was a Weber State edge, the opening drive of the third quarter was a Weber State statement. The Wildcats needed four plays and 1:34 to go 75 yards, and the last one was the biggest play of the day: Dahle to Rigtrup for a 52-yard touchdown at 13:26. Rigtrup, who scored on a 31-yard run in the loss at Montana State, had only two catches on Saturday, and that was one of them.

It was 28-7. A UC Davis defense that had allowed six points to Northern Colorado had now given up 28 in about 31 and a half minutes.

The Aggies did put together their best drive of the day in response. Cleeland and the offense went 72 yards in 11 plays and 5:40, and Cleeland found Scott Nixon from 2 yards out at 7:38 of the third. It was 28-14 with plenty of time left.

Weber State answered early in the fourth quarter with an eight-play, 74-yard drive that ended with Dahle hitting Kjar for a 6-yard touchdown at 10:15. That made it 35-14. Dellenbach later added a 42-yard field goal, the third of the day for the Weber State kicker, and Teni Worthen intercepted Cleeland to help close it out.

Dahle's bounce-back day

Dahle's final line was 21 of 40 for 309 yards, three touchdowns and one interception, plus 79 rushing yards on seven carries and a score. That rushing number is the one that should worry future Big Sky opponents. Two of those runs moved the chains on third-and-10, and both early drives ended in points.

The receiving work was spread around. Kjar caught seven passes for 67 yards and a touchdown, Robert Young had four catches for 72 yards, Jasean Mayberry added three for 63, and Rigtrup's touchdown was the longest play of the day. That kind of distribution makes the Wildcats hard to defend, and it was a big reason they converted 8 of 14 third downs.

For UC Davis, Fisher was the bright spot. The Aggies' veteran back carried 27 times for 128 yards, with a long of 47, adding to a career that already ranked seventh in program history in rushing yards. Jones caught four passes for 76 yards and a touchdown, and Pickett had five for 73. Defensive back Hayden John was the busiest player on the field for the Aggies with 11 tackles, 10 of them solo. On the other side, linebacker Da'Veon Ross had nine tackles and the game's only sack.

The numbers that tell the story

Weber State outgained UC Davis 500 to 386 and had 26 first downs to the Aggies' 20. The Wildcats averaged 6.6 yards per carry, while UC Davis managed 3.0. The Aggies actually held the ball longer, 32:39 to 27:21, but needed fourth-down tries just to stay on the field and went 3 of 8 on them.

Each team threw one interception and neither lost a fumble. UC Davis was the cleaner team with one penalty for 10 yards to Weber State's six for 50, and it still was not close, because the Aggies could not get stops. Every snap is in the official box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

Weber State came into the week in third place in the Big Sky, a game behind Montana State and Northern Arizona in the loss column, after a 38-33 loss in Bozeman that stung for all the right reasons. Montana State and Northern Arizona both won Saturday, so the gap holds, but this win keeps the Wildcats squarely in the chase for a top-three finish and an FCS playoff bid.

For UC Davis, the inconsistency continues. This is a team that has scored 49 on Eastern Washington and held Northern Colorado to six, and also a team that has now lost to Montana, Southern Utah and Weber State by double digits. At 5-4, the Aggies still have time, but not much margin.

The last word

Seven days earlier, the story of Weber State's season was a freshman quarterback who fumbled a game away in Bozeman. On Saturday, it was the same freshman quarterback picking apart a UC Davis team that had just held Northern Colorado to six points and making the Wildcats look like a team nobody will want to see in November.

Freshmen learn fast in this league. Dahle appears to be learning faster than most.

Sources: ESPN box score, team stats and play-by-play, Weber State Athletics and UC Davis Athletics. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Weber State Athletics.