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Logan • On Monday morning, Utah State coach Gary Andersen sat in the film room with his team and broke down the Aggies' 31-24 season-opening loss to Oklahoma from start to finish.

It wasn't an easy thing to swallow.

Everyone saw just how close Utah State was to pulling off what would've been a gigantic upset. But a mistake here, a missed assignment there, relegated USU to simply a close loss and a bunch of pats on the back. And that's not nearly enough for a program striving for a signature win.

"We need to learn from our mistakes," Andersen said. "When you haven't won a lot of games, it's hard to have that experience of what it takes to win games. This team fought back from adversity in what was a tremendous college football atmosphere. We just have to find a way to take that next step."

When the Aggies face Idaho State on Saturday at Romney Stadium, one of the keys will be taking that next step. Many will expect USU to beat the Bulldogs in convincing fashion, but history dictates otherwise as the last four games between these teams have been decided by five points or less.

Still, this looks to be a different Utah State bunch. Against Oklahoma, the Aggies looked explosive offensively and trotted out a defense that showed significant punch against what was the No. 7 team in the country. USU quarterback Diondre Borel looked like a star, and a player who is poised to have a great senior season.

The Aggies received a significant blow, losing junior receiver Matt Austin for the year to a knee injury. But Dontel Watkins and Xavier Martin both played extremely well in the second half.

"We feel like we have to come out and make a statement against Idaho State," Watkins said. "We have to make adjustments, and we have to play better than we did against Oklahoma. But we have the team and we have the talent to play well. We just have to go out there and do it."

If nothing else, USU knows that it played well enough against OU to be more than competitive against most of its schedule. But the Aggies want to guard against any letdown spilling over into Saturday.

That meant multiple teaching moments on Monday in film and on the practice field, where the team went with helmets but no further pads. That meant Andersen giving his players a strong critique, while at the same time praising them for how well they played against the Sooners.

"Our challenge has been to recognize plays that could've swung the game the other way," Andersen said. "We're going to learn from the Oklahoma experience, we're going to move on. The goal is to come out and play well against Idaho State."

tjones@sltrib.com on twitter @tonyaggieville —

Idaho State at Utah State

P Saturday, 6 p.m.