Question – did we look like a CFP team last night?

[ProudUte]

PAC-12 champions?

 

[cjd1]

I would not read too much into the first game.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Defensively? Yes. running the ball? Yes. passing? No. Kicking? hahahahah

[fosternano]

It didn’t look like Utah really opened up their playbook last night. A few run variations and slant passes and that was it. I’m sure when conference games hit we’ll see some more exciting offense.

[gothamute]

A couple former FBS players I watched the game with said exactly this. I think we kept it really vanilla so Ludwig’s O isn’t on full display before conference play.

[Larry B]

CFP? Haha, no. PAC12 champs? Maybe, we’ll see. Moss can’t be our only source of offense if we plan on winning the PAC.

[RiseasUtes]

I agree

[GameForAnyFuss]

I said it before the game and I’ll say it again now: Never draw conclusions (positive or negative) from the first game of the season.

[ProudUte]

That’s fair. 

[Tony (admin)]

Definitely not. Kicking was horrific. Passing game very suspect.  That said, we improve big time over the first 2-3 weeks of each season. 

 

[AllInUteFan]

I’ll cut some slack being the first game of the year, and a rivalry game at that.  Florida looked crappy too in a rivalry game. 

We got the win and have a couple weeks to iron out some of the wrinkles before USC.  Still on track.

[GameForAnyFuss]

Bingo…you nailed it. The question shouldn’t be “did we look like a CFP team last night?” It should be “are we ON TRACK to look like a CFP team when it matters?”

Now I’m not sold on us being a CFP team at all (I don’t think our ceiling is that high), but I do think we could win the conference. And I would say that we are still on track to have a shot at that.

[Charlie Zulu]

If you would have asked me in the first half, I would have told you they didn’t look very good.

But I attribute that to the first game of the season, getting out the game-time jitters, getting up to game-speed… I can only imagine that an actual game is at a different intensity level than even fall camp scrimage games.

 

The second half I thought they looked great. Just executing very well on both sides of the ball. Tyler calmed down and started to manage the game and moved the ball consistently well. They definitely have to work on the penalties… those killed a few drives.

There wasn’t anything flashy. Just grind-it-out and be consistently better than the other team. I think that Whit’s overall football philosophy is to win by attrition, on both sides of the ball. Never too much pressure, never too little, just consistent pressure the whole game.

As far as kicking, the strauch kid looked good. It was my understanding that the missed FG and PAT were more the result of the holder not getting the football aligned correctly for a left-legged kicker. Perhaps the punting was underwhelming, two kicks for 40 yards…

 

How about Bernard!?! He did great!