Coaching will be the difference maker this week

[Ghost of the HEB]

Peterson and the UW staff undoubtedly watched and dissected every second of the Utah Cal game. They’ve undoubtedly spent the bye week dissecting each pac 12 game the Utes have played thus far. They’ve watched each offensive lineman to find their individual weaknesses. They’ve watched each receiver to find which to press and which to not. They’ve watched each Huntley drop back to see what makes him uncomfortable and throws him off. They’ve watched for the RB’s pre-snap tendencies that might give away the play. They’ve watched the DL and LBs to see how and when they bite on play action. They’ve watched each DB and are deciding who they will try to pick on. They are 8-0 following their last 8 bye weeks for a reason.

To make them 8-1, the Utah coaching staff is going to have to really earn their $ this week. Utah has the talent and *should* beat a team like Washington, but you gotta believe Washington will be the best version of themselves this weekend. A battle of talent alone will go in Washington’s favor, as did the USC game. Utah needs to identify which blitzes will get to Eason, which coverages will confuse him, and which offensive schemes will take advantage of Washington’s youth on D.

I’ve only watched a few Washington games this year; Washington BYU, and Washington Hawaii, and some of Washington Oregon. Their defensive speed stood out, and will be a bigger test than Wazzu, OSU, ASU or Cal. When Eason is rolling, he looks like an NFL quarterback. He’s got a big arm and often delivers pass after pass perfectly. They don’t have any receivers that are the caliber of Pittman or St. Brown, but they’ve still got the talent to beat you over the top.

I can’t wait for Saturday.

[highlandute7]

My concern this week is the status of Huntley. He did not look good limping around on Saturday. If he isn’t able to play the entire game, we will be in trouble in my opinion. 

Will he be ready to go? I can’t imagine him being at 100%.

[gothamute]

Yep. I think Huntley’s health is the most important X factor for us this week. Although Shelley did an admirable job against UW in the P12CG, I think a healthy Huntley definitely delivers us a W this weekend. Anything short of that, anything can happen.

[UteFanatic]

“They are 8-0 following their last 8 bye weeks for a reason.”

Gulp. That is a terrifying statistic, Petersen already owns KWhitt and now they have the bye and home field advantage. This is a really good Utah team, but with Huntley’s injury and the other mentioned factors, I just don’t see how we get a win this week. The pessimism is starting to kick in. Someone please alleviate my doubts!

[ironman1315]

Well get a win because we’re better. And a lot of their bye week oops we’re turrible.

[Anonymous]

We are better because we got the win — let’s go get that win. Otherwise, it’s just another Utah/USC scenario. Consistency is a part of being better; so far, we are very consistent against “inferior” competition at home. We still have yet to beat anyone on the road that is decent, other than TDS.

[alUmnUs]

Didn’t Utah used to have a stat like that? And wasn’t it UW who spoiled it. It’s time to B-slap those puppies.

[89ute]

Eason IS an NFL QB … to a fault. Think Dan Marino, Peyton Manning. He is slow, very slow. He’s a sack waiting to happen IF we can get to him. We probably can. it’s just a question of how often.

As far as Petersen’s record, sounds impressive but he’s only beaten one team with a winning record after a bye. That was SC in 2015 at SC. Impressive win. The rest are trash. OSU, UCLA, OSU, SC and Cal. All crappy teams but SC. This result should be expected from a good coach, so I don’t buy into Pete being some kind of post bye guru. And I don’t care what he did in the WAC after a bye.

We are better than Worshington this year and we win.

[ayoriver]

Their film study undoubtedly left them scratching their heads with regard to the defense. There just isn’t much to exploit. I think we as fans are accustomed to great defense, so a lot of us aren’t appreciating that this is an all time great defense.

Offense has more potential to game plan, but it isn’t Huntley and Moss (minus health, but no one game plans for that outside of Tempe). Until recently o-line seemed susceptible, but they have been outstanding lately. So it probably comes down to WRs, but TH has shown he will put it where only they can get it, they just need to catch it.

Like most of us on here, I too want to temper my expectations to guard against repeat of past November results, but this team is just different.

Only time will tell, but I guess I have a different view of the USC game. First touchdown, JJ is in the receivers pocket, but trips at the last second. Two big catchers by Pittman where JB was in place, but not healthy enough to make a play on the ball. Add to that a quarterback who wasn’t the focus of the scheme, and had nothing to lose so he balled out. Credit to him.

I think Saturday is a convincing win, much like ASU. Even though it wasn’t a huge victory score wise, it was a thorough beat down, and I believe this week will be the same.