Just got around to watching

[bopahull]

the USC game. After reading all the comments I was expecting far worse.

Utah didn’t play their best game, but they certainly played well enough to win. Should have won actually. 

The first TD JJ was stride for stride with Pitman, Pitman gave him a shove which caused JJ to trip, leaving the receiver wide open. Nice play by the receiver (not illegal if it isn’t called). The ball was perfectly thrown so who knows if JJ could have broken it up.

Another TD was scored on a perfect pass into double coverage, if that pass isn’t perfect it isn’t caught. Other TDs were on bad angles and should have been sacks with blown coverage.

The D line didn’t have a great game but did have a pretty good one, had hurries and sacks and certainly boxed up the run. USC QB was getting most of his passes out in under 2 seconds, which gave the D very little time to get to the QB. Except for  the long TD passes Utah did a descent job of coverage and for the most part tackeling.

Our O line was swiss cheese on a lot of pass plays,that needs to be fixed. They did marginally better on run plays up the middle. That being said, Utah was able to move the ball all night. The fumble on 1st and goal from the 2 just before half was a killer. That score could have changed the whole complexion of that game. USC caused that fumble so give their D the credit .

I thought the worst performance on the field was turned in by the refs. I’m not saying the refs lost the game for us or won it for USC, but the officiating was deplorable. Totally blown calls on both sides. Way too many whistles.

All in all I didn’t see a Utah team that screwed the pooch at every turn, they didn’t have a great game but they weren’t terrible either. 

Hopefully we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves of and come out fighting against Wazzu. Roses are still within our grasp.

[EagleMountainUte]

Second time watching it that is my assessment as well. USC made plays when it mattered on both sides of the ball. Credit to them as well. 

[UteFanatic]

Agree with everything except for the statement “should have won actually.”  It seems to imply that the better team lost and that the game was somehow stolen from us.  We certainly had many opportunities to win, but the p**s poor red zone execution is what lost this game for us. USC was the better team Friday night – they exploited our secondary with their amazing receivers and burned us for multiple TDs.

 

[Trailgoat]

Yeah, did another fly by on the game as well. In fairness, USC played just as bad or worse. Props to Fink stepping up and getting in done against Utah’s iron clad defense. It is apparent there is a noticeable talent gap in many positions between Utah and USC especially on offense. USC’s defense completely man handled Utah’s Oline. USC’s Oline did a good job against Utah’s Dline’s pass rush. The pass pressure from Utah was neutralized by a good game plan from USC. USC’s WRs get to spots so quickly. A lot of blame is put on the DBs. Truth is Fink had waaay too much time to sit back and get through his reads beyond the huck and pray pass plays. USC gave Utah’s hyped up DBs ZERO respect.

No way a 3rd string QB should throw for 351 yards against a Utah defense. 2-3 step drops from the QB and the WRs are at 10 yards. Utah’s defensive strength is stopping the run. Losing Hansen and Barton is showing as a huge void in the defense. DL is very athletic (will continue to improve) and Bernard is stout against the run between the tackles. Utes miss the sneaky blitz pressure from Hansen and Barton. The missed sack by DL was as much of a killer as the classic Utah predictable run up the middle on the goal line fumble.

Utah’s offense more so now without ZM will need to throw the ball more. TH throwing for 200 yards and running wild 10-15 times a game is not going to score a lot of points and increases his risk of injury. TH was the 2nd leading rusher in the USC game. Whatever the issue is with the poor WR talent or TH’s one read-tuck and run…something needs to change or Utah won’t be able to keep up with UW, WSU, ASU, and now UCLA scoring points. Utes will need at least 30 points a game to beat these teams.

Will be fun to see if Ute back-ups Brum and DHC step in and fill the void. Next man up. Hard to replace a 1st round draft pick the offense is centered around for most of the game plan production to include play action pass to open the throw game. Teams are not going to respect the play action pass like they did with ZM in the backfield.

IMO…Not a popular view, but Moss should not play another down as a Ute. He has already proved himself as a NFL talented RB. Blast away! Too risky for his NFL career combined with the awful OL blocking. PLEASE redshirt Jordan Wilmore. With the Ute Oline would hate to see this young kid get beat up all season.

Overall, Utah seemed star struck in the game at times. Could not do what great winning teams do and step up to the challenge. This game seemed a lot like past Utah games at USC. KW has done many great things for the program. He is just not an elite coach that has the Petersen, UM way of creativity and instilling confidence in his team to play as winners. Won’t mention recruiting. Next week will be interesting. WSU is going to score points. Can Utah’s offense keep up? Go Utes!