outside of the reasons im nervous for this game every year

[rbmw263]

because of their top tier talent level that is always a threat to play to that talent level for just 1 game..and the PTSD from all 4 of our 4 trips to LA since joining the pac…what i worry about most is that Slovis goes full sean mannion and beats us by himself with completions even when the defense is perfect. Feels like he got his bad game out of the way and its more likely that he follows the game where his play fell well below his talent/ability with one that is well above his talent/ability. I keep thinking that if we are as good as we hope we are, this will be a win. But the one thing that I think could beat us even if we really are top 10/best team in the pac level is a lights out Slovis game. Ergo if Slovis plays less than great and we lose, I feel prett confident that it will mean we are not those things and none of this matters anyway

[Ghost of the HEB]

I agree that there’s historical reasons to worry, but I don’t think Slovis has proven anything that makes him this elite QB that will only have one bad game. JT Daniels and the Trojan defense won the game vs Fresno — not Slovis. He had one good game vs Stanford, who then turned around and got their doors blown off by UCF. He made a couple decent throws vs BYU, but also threw 3 critical interceptions, fumbled a few times, and couldn’t escape their pass rush.

I think the hype and worry about him comes from him playing for USC. If he played for Colorado, and did the exact same things the first three games (vs the same teams), we wouldn’t see him as much of a threat.

[Anonymous]

Not sure why you got a thumbs down for this…typical mindless fan(atic), I guess.

[salty-ute]

Slovis is a Freshman and his weaknesses were displayed against BYU’s defense. He’s not going to somehow become a different player over 1 week. I expect him to learn from his mistakes and be more cautious throwing the football over the middle of the field or forcing it into coverage. However, I don’t expect him to completely change his bad habits – especially telegraphing passes – in just one week. He may play better this week than last, but I seriously doubt he’ll have a spectacular game against our defense which is probably the best in the PAC.

[GameForAnyFuss]

A lot of talented but young/inexperienced players struggle on the road and play lights-out at home. That’s the concern. You say he’s not going to become a different player over 1 week, but he sure became a different player over the 1 week between the Stanford and BYU-P games. Unless you think BYU-P is a better team than Stanford, the only other explanation is the location of the two games.

I’d be much more comfortable if we were playing USC at home.

[salty-ute]

That’s fair, but I do believe BYU is a better defense than Stanford. I don’t think he changed significantly from week 2 to 3, BYU just played better defense. BYU definitely scouted Slovis and saw that he stared down receivers and made him pay, Standford D looked like they were on their heels all game. They also had very little film on him. Utah will be much better prepared.