Sounds like Vernon Adams will be playing

[UtahSig]

I watched the MSU game and wasn’t too impressed with him. I’m hoping our D can get after him a bit. We have been kind of passive the first three games. He seemed to get rattled when MSU blitzed.

Royce Freeman is a beast. I am nervous about him.

I hope we can finally get Oregon this year, but my head is saying we lose this one.

What do you guy think?

[ironman1315]

I actually like Utah’s chances. I think we will see more stunts and blitzes off the edges to get to Adams. I think if we loosen up the 8 man box we’ll see Booker can have a big day and get tons of yards. Oregon has some tackling problems it looks like.

[Utahman04]

Yeah, I want to hope for a win, but it just doesn’t seem likely.

[Tony (admin)]

First conference game, on the road, at Oregon and our play in the last game was a bit sloppy. We need to tighten it up big to have a chance.

[MV]

Good. There will be no excuses.

[execUTEioner]

He broke the index finger on his throwing hand. That has to adversely affect his passing.

[utejeph]

I don’t think it really matters who starts a QB for Oregon. This is setting up for a great opportunity to knock off Oregon.

[High Uintas]

He broke the index finger on his throwing hand. That has to adversely affect his passing.

That’s how I see it. It’s like last year when I would rather see Taylor Kelly against ASU when he was coming back from injury and wasn’t 100%. That was a game we could have easily won.

[Tacoma Ute]

My gut feeling tells me we are going to win this one. We will have to play better than we have so far and will probably need a long return or two to help us out. I’ll say 31-28

Edit: What the hell. Make it 38-28

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by Tacoma Ute.

[Jumpmasterute]

So are Defense will be scoring 21 pts ?

[UteStuckInSeattle]

If we can get pressure on Adams like MSU did, then I could see us getting some INTs and fumbles that could lead to some defensive scores.

[Hockeybeard]

Both teams have had sub-par play the last few weeks, with Oregon’s concerns coming on Defense and Utah’s on Offense (mostly).

If Utah’s front 7 can control the line of scrimmage, force the ball out of Freeman’s hands and make Adams have to throw, I really like our chances. I feel our Offense with TWilson back will have enough success that we can keep control of the clock and keep Oregon off the field.

Coach Whitt will do his best to turn this into a heavyweight brawl, hoping to wear down Oregon and make them play our game, just like Stanford used to when they had their success against the Ducks. It all comes down to how well our Line play is on both sides of the ball.

[Insert obligatory #ThrowGame reference here]

[execUTEioner]

We will need to be able to move the ball and dominate time of possession. TW will need to be given a longer leash to throw down field and make the offense 2-dimensional and prevent Oregon from stacking the box on Booker.

[Hockeybeard]

I don’t think TW lack of downfield throws is necessarily a ‘length of the leash’ thing, but more a product of him taking the easy throw. I really wish he hadn’t of been hurt, because I thought he was doing some great things in the USU game, and the Fresno St. game would have looked a lot different with his ability to get the ball to the right place on time.

Our screen game will be active, but I think we have been setting up some great misdirections off those looks. I also think our OLine is finally getting into a groove and should be able to do some good things – but we’ll have to watch out for Buckner and the rest of Oregon’s front 7.

Our playaction is going to drive opposing Defenses crazy for the rest of the year – Booker is too good to not respect in the run game that we will be able to dupe linebackers and safeties into biting on fakes. Covey has been making hay with quick passes so we’ll get nickelbacks and strong safeties biting on the low routes too. It just depends on whether we can have some additional success stretching the field. We just have to keep defenses honest and our run game will do the work.

[UteStuckInSeattle]

I don’t think we’ll ever develop a big passing game with our current coaching staff and the type of players they recruit.

However, I don’t think we need to have that type of game to consistently compete in this conference.

A passing game between 5-20 yards that is effective enough to keep teams from stacking the box is all we need to give our run game the room it needs to be effective.

[Jake]

I have a hard time being optimistic against teams who can score as much as Oregon. Our defense is good, but it’s a lot to ask to keep Oregon (even without Mariotta) under 30. And it is really damn hard for the Utes to score more than 30.

I hope, but I doubt.

[Hockeybeard]

Jake said: I hope, but I doubt.

This is my sentiment as well. I can’t shake that doubt, but I think that comes with being a Ute fan – we’re (mostly) a pessimistic bunch. Maybe has something to do with the cosmos demanding we counter the overbearing optimism from down south, but who knows.

But, I will say, we have more of a chance this year than we did last year, and we had quite a good thing going leading up to the infamous drop.

[jrj84105]

Our screen game will be active, but I think we have been setting up some great misdirections off those looks. I also think our OLine is finally getting into a groove and should be able to do some good things – but we’ll have to watch out for Buckner and the rest of Oregon’s front 7.

Our WR screen game has been really non-productive because 1) our receivers have been poor blockers and 2) defenses have made just about every one-on-on (and Peppers with some one-on-two) tackle. A few misses tackles from Oregon DBs who have struggled mightily with tackling, and our WR screen game starts rolling. WR screen game starts rolling and defenses cheat. Defenses cheat and the long ball is open.

[UteSteve]

I believe Utah has been very vanilla on both offense and defense thus far (At least that’s what I tell myself to help me sleep at night). No disrespect to our OOC opponents, but I think Utah could get away with not exposing any exotic blitz packages or special weapons on offense. I’m really hoping the Oregon game will be their coming out party.

I think Adams will be affected by his finger throwing the ball so I expect to see a heavy dose of Rolls Royce Freeman. I think the D-Line and LBs will be up to the challenge against the run, hopefully the secondary will be alert enough to pick off some errant passes. Oregon is going to get their yards and points (I would guess 30-40 range) so the offense is going to have to score. Lucky for Utah Oregon has not looked particularly good on that side of the ball.

My heart tells me Utah will get this thing done, my head tells me Oregon is just too powerful on offense. Either way, I think it’s going to be very close (spread is way too much in favor of Oregon FWIW). Ah hell, I’ll go ahead and say 38-34 Utes pull off the upset!

[TorontoUte]

I can’t help but wonder if the vanilla look is intentional or if that’s just who we really are… i would imagine that the defense would have the personnel to at least do SOME blitzing, but the offense, i suspect, is going to be exactly what we’ve seen so far

[DropOutUte]

I felt Travis really started to get it together and then he got hurt. I’m hoping to see more improvements from him if he’s healthy.

[Anonymous]

36-31 Utes by five. Adams will not finish the game because he will be benched.

[Chris]

Utes will improve as they have always had those “rise to the occasion” moments. They tend to play up (or down) to their level of competition at times. They have got to get a passing game going though to allow Booker room in the box. Utah by 5!

[Texasute]

I would love to see a Utah victory. But I am not going to hold my breathe. I am an old fart who remembers too many games back in the 8os before Utah was even close to being good. Learned not to get your hopes up.

That being said, I do believe Coach Peace has something special drawn up for this game to get after Adams. Rattle him in conjunction with a broken finger and something good might happen.

[Tomasina]

That being said, I do believe Coach Peace has something special drawn up for this game to get after Adams. Rattle him in conjunction with a broken finger and something good might happen.

Would love to see that. Increased and consistent pressure on the QB would be a nice improvement.

[ironman1315]

I believe we have put plenty of pressure on the opposing QB (I can think of three INTs that came as a result of hurried throws) but we’ll put even more when Pease starts calling in more stunts and attach blitzes as well. I think we can confuse the snot out of Adams who can’t throw with as much velocity with that broken finger of his.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Someone speculated before that maybe the defense(read Pease) was holding back something on defense by playing vanilla for when we start play in conference.

I usually don’t listen to that type of talk since that is usually what people say about our offense and then nothing every changes. However, it does seem odd that a team that registered so many sacks last year has had difficulty getting sacks.

Here’s to hoping that Pease has something up his sleeve to dial up some pressure on Adams. Not exactly the best time to put more blitzes into the scheme though, as Adams will make the defense pay with his legs if their over pursue.

The two things I would like to see:
1) More sacks from the defense
2) More consistency from the passing game & more explosive down field plays.

[Ex’dUte]

Autzen Stadium is supposed to be the loudest, toughest place to play in the league. That’s one major concern I have about this one. The Utes need to be nearly flawless to come out with a win, but I’m afraid there will be several miscues that end up being too costly, caused in part by crowd noise, etc. I’d feel much better about it if it were in Rice-Eccles.

Then again, two of our best wins last year were at the Rose Bowl and at Stanford Stadium — so we have shown a decent ability to win on the road.

[DropOutUte]

I went to the oregon game that terrance cain started and it was loud and their fans were dicks.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by DropOutUte.

[Jumpmasterute]

Boise State fans. Just farther west… So I’ve been told.

[quagmire]

Talking to dave fox today, he says kW thinks Davis will be starting but it doesn’t really matter who the qb is, that running back will give the Utes a lot of trouble. Again, not my words.

[quagmire]

vernon adams, not davis.

[TorontoUte]

While Oregon’s defense looks somewhat suspect, they still seem to be able to score a lot… which well we don’t seem to be able to score a lot :/

[UteStuckInSeattle]

^^^^THIS^^^^. To have a shot at beating Oregon you have to score points, because eventually their speed wears down any defense.

Utah has shown they can score on Oregon’s defense in the past, but we seem to make big mistakes at the worst times.

It’s gonna take a clean and full-60-minute effort to have a chance.

I never count out our Utes!

[High Uintas]

Hopefully our D-Line depth will help keep the defense fresh. We also have some pretty decent depth at corner.

[UteStuckInSeattle]

Defensive depth is definitely something we have. However, experience is a bit in short supply at the corner position.

If we can maintain assignment integrity and avoid getting beat deep I like our changes.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by UteStuckInSeattle.