Offensive Line

[Dwight89]

Offensive Line, offensive line, offensive line. Fix this, and Utah wins the South, even with our other issues (Our baffling inability to feed the beast, Huntley holding on to the ball, receiver drops, special teams woes, etc). Don’t fix the O-line, though, and Utah finishes fourth or fifth in the south, again. It’s that simple. Harding’s group looked like trash all night long. 

[gUrthBrooks]

Do they look way better if Huntley is getting rid of the ball after 3 seconds…whether it be by throw away or an actual pass attempt?

[Dwight89]

By any objective measure the o-line was flat out awful last night. Now, I don’t disagree there are other issues like you mentioned (I even mentioned them in my post). What I’m saying is that the o-line is our biggest issue that needs correcting. 

[gUrthBrooks]

Also, does the line look better if Moss has 25 carries instead of 16? Moss averaged 4.125 ypc last night. That’s good enough to control that game. He should have had 32 carries and 3 touchdowns the way Huntley was playing.

[iamthepreacher]

Don’t you know that the offensive line is off limits from criticism?! Harding interviewed with the Bengals, which automatically means he is an outstanding coach and our O-line is automatically great!

[ironman1315]

Point to one person who says the OL is above reproach.

[iamthepreacher]

There were numerous posters in the offseason who assured everyone that our O Line would be great because of Harding’s offseason track record (draft picks a few years ago and interviewing with the Bengals).

[ironman1315]

Yeah, that’s a whole thing different than saying they’re above reproach. The statements were that we’d improve. I still think we should be better. We’ll see next week.

[EagleMountainUte]

There is a big difference in calling him the worst in the history of the program and a pretty good coach. He is a good coach and has recruited well. He helped get Bolles.  I don’t think he is above reproach but I wasn’t bagging on him saying he interviewed for the Browns. I like him the most for calling out Whitt in a game situation. Personally I think that was a great quality in removing a yes man on the offense. 

[Distantute]

Niu lived behind Utah’s o line.  Anyone thinking Huntley was the issue and should be benched really should find another sport because you obviously don’t understand football.  I’ve never seen a worse o line performance in my life.  And for the love of god, on 4th and short can we just go under center and run a q.b keeper.  It seems to work just fine for Brady.  And to expect this horrific line to get a push or hold a block in those situations is insane.

[EagleMountainUte]

Utah does well with those double TE sets. I think improvement needs to be done in what the offensive line does well. Now that is hard to identify right now. It did seem like Moss ran better between the tackles at times against NIU vs WSU. NIU was quick sideline to sideline and would snuff out most of the extending plays. 

I don’t understand the amount of passing plays being done. It also seemed like Utah created more design runs for Huntley. Who looks slow. He is good at extending some plays out but man is he slow. Wilson felt faster just on stride alone. Pass protection is worst than I can ever remember. 

If I am totally honest with myself special teams is the highest priority to fix right now. It is the most correctable thing with the experience you have. Second is Oline if this doesn’t improve by a lot Washington is going to make Shelley come into the game for the coaching staff. Playcalling is third the offense hasn’t made sense and is very reactive to performance vs what the players do well. 

[gUrthBrooks]

LOL. So now Huntley is above reproach and if we disagree we don’t understand football? I think Huntley held onto the ball too long in some situations. BEEP! Whistle! Hammer don’t know jack f**king s**t about football and should go find a different sport. Receivers were open on nearly every replay and Huntley was holding the ball. This allowed the defense to pin their ears back. How many times did Huntley throw the ball away last night? How many? Once? None? How many times did he step up in the pocket? How many? How many times did he abandon a good formed pocket way too soon and create bad angles for his O-line. The bottom line for me is that I really haven’t seen any improvement from him and now that he runs less, his main positive attribute is not there, so what is he? What is he? A mediocre QB who can’t see the open man until it’s too late and so he holds onto the ball too long. NEXT!

[Dwight89]

EXACTLY 

[Hellhound152]

Thank you!  Huntley was turning chicken s**t into chicken salad more often than not last night.  His adjusted completion percentage was north of 70% and QB’s that extend plays take more sacks.  The O-line play was horrible and here we are 15 games into the Troy Taylor experience and I have yet to see some sort of continuity in a game plan.  For all of Rodericks faults at least there was some discernible 10,000 foot view of what they were trying to accomplish with the game plan. 

[EagleMountainUte]

Really Arod is the go to for discernment of a game plan?  Wow. Ok. 

[Hellhound152]

I never said I was proud of it.  Haha

[Utahute72]

It could have been fried chicken if he were a more accurate thrower.