Just re-watched the Bowl Game

[Utah]

My goodness our offense was terrible. Just terrible. 

Our pass game was terrible. You start to feel bad for ARod and TW…then you watch that. It was terrible. 

Our offense was 100% hand the ball off to Joe and run behind 5 NFL linemen. 

Our pass game was attrotious. 

It can’t be any worse than that. It really can’t. 

[UteFanatic]

It actually was worse than that at times.  Remember the the Oregon and Cal games? 

The goal line stand by Cal still haunts me.

[Utah]

I don’t want to. I had hope for Troy this fall. Hope springs eternal, right? 

Watching that game was awful. We should have been better. We had a month to prepare. We had Patrick healthy. Simpkins. Singleton. There was no excuse for how awful we were. 

Indiana had the twelveth best pass defense in the Big 10. 

Troy was 11/23. I think we were 1/4 in the redzone and the one was when Huntley threw it to Fulks and Fulks was tackled at the one…and it took us 8 plays to get into the endzone and it was Huntley who scored the TD. 

Our offense was embarrassing. 

Look at it this way: The game was on the PAC-12 channel. They actually skipped over when Utah had the ball from the middle of the second quarter throughout the third quarter. Didn’t even show a play. Just said, “Due to time constraints, we have skipped ahead.”

Pathetic. 

[Grayshirt]

That defense was sure fun to watch.  

[leftyjace]

Why are you watching THAT bowl game?

Watching the year before is a lot more fun. A LOT more.

[ladyinred]

Well, the 1st quarter of the 2015 game was fun as hell to watch.
The last 3 quarters, not so much.

[PlainsUte]

Turrbile

[Utebeam]

So after watching that game why do we think this year is going to be as good as or even close to last year? (I’m sure I’ll get down voted for this.)

Consider this, we should have been at our peak for that game, healthy players, time to fix all the red zone issues, etc. And yet Utah sqeaks out a win because we had a kick ass kicker and a RB that was on fire and ran behind a quality O-line. Oh and UI wasn’t a very good team. They finished in the middle of the Big Ten East with a 6-7 record.

All of those things are gone. This year, at least for the first several games, the O-line will be questionable. There doesn’t appear to be a stand out RB. I watched Moss get maybe one or two yards on his carries, nothing special. Automatic Andy is gone, not to say our new kicker isn’t as good, but I have not seen him. 

Our hope rides on a new offense scheme that requires the QB to extend plays. This is the opposite of what Utah has been for the last 7-8 years. I think there is more of a push this year to have the elusivity due to the questionable O-line. Inserted into this scheme is a new QB that has maybe 10-15 snaps in real games. We have one NFL quality receiver(thank you Oregon), I think Troy Taylor said he likes to have 8 receivers in his offensive scheme(Do we even have that many on the squad?). 

As far as defense goes, we probably will be stout, but in that bowl game they got pretty cut up by the run game. 

I’m not trying to be a downer and I hope I’m wrong, but based on how we finished last year and all the new changes I’m worried our season may not be as good as we hope. That being said I think 2018 should be an awesome year.

[ironman1315]

[Utah]

I’ve been thinking the same things since last night. Joe Williams was amazing. He might be the most talented RB we’ve ever had. Booker was great but he lacked that speed. Joe was just amazing. 

Plus, our schedule is tougher? 

Ouch. 

The good news is, if we can be average passing the ball, we can be as good as last year. If we can’t be average, then we will struggle big time. Like 5 wins struggle. 

[ladyinred]

Joe was super fun to watch with his speed, but I still think Booker was the better all-around RB. Joe was more fumble-prone even after he un-retired. I also think Joe had a better O-line to work with than Booker, but Booker still managed to always get the 1st down and rarely get stuffed. Plus Booker could catch it and make a play. 

But it’s hard to replicate either, and Moss sure has big shoes to fill. 

[Rick]

Booker was really talented catching the horrible passes from Travis out of the backfield.  He was masterful at that.

[Utebeam]

Thanks for the down vote. If you have another opinion with valid points I’m happy to hear them. Trust me I want to be wrong on this.

[ladyinred]

Sounds like someone hasn’t had his red koolaid yet this morning.

(I wasn’t the one who downvoted you).

[Utebeam]

It was pinkish. I guess I’ll add more red powder tomorrow. 😉

[Hockeybeard]

You touch on the answer in your response – a new offensive scheme.  Look at it this way – Indiana had the same month to prepare for us, and they were able to shut down our Passing attack.  This year, IN CAMP, Troy Taylor has been tweaking the offense bit by bit to answer moves made by the defense so much so that every defensive assistant coach is raving about how it is helping their guys prepare more and more for the season.

On top of this, you have Coach Whitt who says that the DBs are going to be BETTER this year than last…yes, the same defensive backfield that sent 4 guys to the NFL is going to be BETTER with younger, more athletic guys.  The LBs are another year seasoned, with the freak of nature Kavika Luafatasaga who is finally reacting within the defense rather than trying to fit in it, and Sunia who has gotten fully healthy from last year.  Another guy who is finally healthy? Lowell Lotulelei…a guy who made All Pac honors with a busted shoulder last year.  AND we get Kylie Fitts back. AND the coaches are saying our DL is at an 11 man rotation right now.  BEEF. ALL. DAY. LONG.

The offense is a big question mark for a lot of fans – those who doubt Whitt and the coaches see it as a negative (as well as BYU fans, who constantly think only their team improves year to year), while those who want that ‘step on your throat’ mentality see it as a positive. Just listen to Troy Taylor’s interviews, he’s talked about how the offense needs to have that attack mentality, that there needs to be a swagger and attitude about expecting to score.  Look at what he did in one year at EWU – only set up a walk-on QB to break the school record and throw for over 5,000 yds.  You think a first year coach who was hired by a guy prone to firing OCs over lack of performance is going to risk his job on picking a sub-par QB candidate? Hell no. He is going to make doubly sure that the guy he picks is someone who will set the world on fire with a broken match in a rainstorm.

THAT’s why I think we are going to be as good or better than last year.

[ladyinred]

Now THAT is a nice tall glass of refreshing koolaid. Keep it coming!

[Puget Ute]

Exactly. the mid-stream changes in playcalling alone will be a HUGE improvement.

Over the last several years our opponents’ Corners would call out the routes our WRs were going to run, before the snap, and based only on formation/motion. We were painfully predictable.

[Utebeam]

I like this, thanks for balancing my schizophrenic personality. 

[Tomasina]

Just rewatched the BYU game from last year… and yes… yes it was.  That was painful to watch…. and left one question in my mind.  How did we win that game?! 

[ladyinred]

Of course it depends who you ask. According to tds fans, I think the current narrative is that the refs stole it from them. According to the rest of the world, Utah is still more talented even with all the TO’s.

[Tomasina]

Having just watched the game, the ref’s definitely did not steal the game from them.  With 6 turnovers from a horribly performing offensive , you should not need a call from the ref to win the game.  

The reality is that our offense was horrible, their offense was not a whole lot better… and our defense was by far the best team on the field.  

I would love to avoid a single turnover this year against them, and that the defense will play amazingly… but not because it has to.