I’m usually on the negative side after the first game.

[Larry B]

But I left last night’s game with quite a bit of optimism.

First of all, Brewer played about as well as I could have expected. 70+% to 10 different receivers? It doesn’t get much better. And he should have had two more TD’s. His passes were on the money all night. His throw to Kincaid in the corner of the end zone was beautiful.

The O Line had some struggles, but pass protection looked much better than last year. And that group wasn’t even the starting 5. They need to improve but I didn’t see anything that was overly concerning.

Overall I thought the defense was great, besides a couple drives. Tafua, Phillips and Lloyd were awesome. The biggest concern was they allowed the QB out of the pocket too often. That needs to be fixed.

Special Teams was slightly concerning. The kickoff return shouldn’t have happened. Although, the returner (Shaheed?) Is a true weapon. 6 kickoff returns in a career doesn’t happen by chance. Punting and kickoffs need to improve.

Overall I’d give the team a B. I’m curious to see how TDS looks tomorrow. I’d be willing to bet they’ll have a bunch of Debbie downers after their game, just like we do.

[LetItRide]

The Pressure was stellar by our guys but finishing the job was not. The QB was elusive enough to sway to the side and get away from being tackled. Part of that was gap containment and not over pursuing and also the QB being a good QB.

Happened early last year.

[chinngiskhaan]

There was one play where a DB blitzed, had the QB for sure, then lost containment and let him get outside… I’ve seen that happen sooooooo many times, it still drives me nuts. You don’t have to run at him full speed! He isn’t going to get away unless you let him juke you! Just slow down, keep him in front, and make the play!!

[chinngiskhaan]

I think I agree pretty much across the board, though I’m a little less okay with the offensive line. Yes, they will be a bit better than last year, but they were so bad last year that improvement would happen even by accident. I’m growing tired of hearing that we are 10 deep, then hearing excuses about why they didn’t perform when three guys were out. 10-3=7, 7 guys is enough to field an offensive line that can block FCS players. Their own offensive line held up quite well against elite defensive linemen. I know we didn’t blitz much, I know our scheme was vanilla… but WE PLAYED WEBER STATE!! Their offensive line looked at least as competent as ours. That is unacceptable.

FOR THE RECORD I do believe that they will improve. I do believe that they won’t be awful this year… but they still are probably the worst position group on the team (as is the annual tradition).

A lot of encouraging things happened yesterday. Brewer spread the ball around to just about everyone. Solo actually got targeted multiple times, and not as a last resort. Running backs will be good, but none of those guys are anywhere near as good as Ty Jordan yet. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the measuring stick for Ute backs going forward. He had speed, he had power, he had elusiveness, he had the attitude, the intelligence… Man, I miss that guy.

I agree with you about everything else though. I’m glad we’ll have a few extra days to prepare for TSPP.

[RedRocks]

What does TSPP abreviate? From context I understand that you are referring to the team down south, but I must have missed the introduction of this new abbreviation.

[chinngiskhaan]

They So Poo Poo

[tarheelute]

I was happy with Brewer. I was excited about Rising, and wanted to see more. Different styles perhaps. Brewer more of a pocket passer? Rising a gun-slinter?

Looking forward to next week!!

[Cesar Chavez]

WTF? UTAH BEAT UP ON A HIGHSCHOOL TEAM. THAT WAS A TERRIBLE PERFORMANS

[Rick]

Anyone who calls Weber State a high school team is either an obvious troll or a complete idiot.  So, which is it son?

[Charlie]

Also to consider… Weber is following a pattern that Utah State took earlier. USU was a pretty good team that was well coached. When we moved to the Pac, USU would play out of their minds against the Utes. It was their super bowl. They would give us emotionally everything they had while we try to play vanilla and cycle thru our roster. USU, early in 2012 is the only OOC game we have lost in the Pac, they went on to loose to the Y that year. I saw the same in Weber, who is well coached and are good at picking up players the U passes on and USU should be better at getting. Right out of the shoot they were giving us very well designed blitzes from LBs. Their best stuff and very emotional. We cycled thru players, played vanilla, won easily, but looked awkward doing so. The OL needs to get better and had a very good learning game to get there. The combo of Bernard releasing to the flat and a LB firing a planned gap created by rush was knocking Brewer around and making pass protection look worse than actual. Let’s see what game 2 brings.

[Charlie]

Just realized Gary Anderson is a volunteer analyst with Weber. That could be the source for well defined blitzes.