Scored too soon

[Dresden_Stormblessed]

By far, the biggest moment of the season for me was Barnes’ TD pass. Not because of just the play necessarily but it was the Disney moment i.e. backup QB from friggin nowehere USA pig-farmer drops an absolute DIME for Kincaid to snag. 

After my screaming and hyperventilating was over though, I checked the clock. 2 min left. Instantly, all joy I had was gone. This offense that was literally walking all over our defense the 2nd half was handed the ball with 2 minutes left. 

I noticed that that play was exactly the same as the play prior. We got 2 PI’s in a row iirc. One on Covey and one on a TE, Kincaid I think. That’s a massive chunk of yardage and we have 3 timeouts. We’re in good position and are doing well. The very next play though…we score. A few days after this game, I’m just thinking why the heck did we score so fast? It may be because we saw a mismatch and took advantage of it the second we could. That play would not work any closer to the sideline i.e. Kincaid wouldn’t be able to get the separation necessary in such short yardage. So on one hand, I get it. Score as soon as possible to get as many points on the board as you can. On the other hand…we KNEW they were going to walk over our defense and they had 2 minutes with elite WR’s and an elite QB. If I could go back, I’d change that play. I probably would’ve done 2 play action passes for short yardage and hopefully milk the clock a little more. Hopefully score and then hopefully make the 2 point conversion. 

That being said, I’m really surprised how ok I am with that loss. Like…I’m so proud of these dudes and we still have something to fight for next season. Like, there’s still motivation there. The goal has been for over a decade now: win the PAC-12. Goal complete. Now it’s “Win the game after we win the PAC-12”. 

My last note is I am seriously disappointed in how the PAC-12 played against other programs for bowl season. I don’t think anyone won their game did they? Really pathetic showing by the PAC-12 as a whole and by far, the Utes delivered the best show to the nation at an incredible event. 

Watching from home, I was so proud to see our Utes take the field and the fans support them in such strong numbers. 

As always, Go UTES!

[Ghost of the HEB]

I’m still p**sed we didn’t take any timeouts once Ohio State got into guaranteed scoring territory.

[ProudUte]

OSU would have just scored a TD.  We had no way of stopping them.

[Ghost of the HEB]

Cool. At least we would’ve gotten the ball back with a chance to match. It was obvious they were going to score no matter what. Once they got into the red zone our only hope was 1: their very accurate kicker would miss a chip shot, or 2: they’d score with enough time remaining for the offense to try and match what they did. Not calling timeouts ensured that #2 wouldn’t happen.

Ohio State coaches were pleasantly surprised we weren’t using any timeouts. It was poor time management by our coaches. Every non-Utah fan I’ve talked to agrees with this.

[Utesbyfive]

I think it’s amazing Barnes did what he did, what guts, what heart in the most pressure packed environment possible. We lost when they were able to return it to the 40 on the ensuing kickoff. Whit resorted to trying to let the D get a stop, as is his is wont. But the utes at that point had run out of gas and personnel. I don’t think there was anything we could have done, but the short field was doom.

Every single team in the Pac needs to make recruiting linemen a top priority. Without bigger stronger linemen, things are not going to get better. We saw that on display Saturday. I think that we almost overcame that mismatch, with a cobbled together secondary really speaks to the specialness and toughness and heart of this team. I really hope our core underclassmen come back, and next year is indeed special.

Go Utes!!! LLTJAL. 22% better every day, every play and in every way.

[Ghost of the HEB]

Agreed. The short field was doom and they were going to score either way. I just felt (as did the Penn St and Oregon fans I watched the game with) that Utah just accepted defeat by letting Ohio state bleed the clock on the goal line. Make them have to give the ball back to your O and put the pressure back on their defense that had just given up a TD to our walkon QB from Milford.

[AlohaUte]

Pretty amazing for Barnes and an awesome story! Kyle mentioned in his press conference that he didn’t want to get too strategic for Barnes due to his inexperience and alluded to the idea that had Rising been in they would have slowed it down and tried to score in the last minute. I actually barely celebrated that touchdown at all. In the stands everyone around me was going nuts and I was stoic and nervous. I knew scoring that early had lost us the game. Still glad we scored and it was awesome, just wish it was a minute later. I was also screaming at Whit from my corner of the stadium to call a timeout. That was so frustrating.

Regarding the Pac-12, it’s a disaster. Whit and the Utah program is the only stable program. Oregon had a coach that could recruit like a champ, but not a great coach. Washington, ASU, USC, and Wazzu swung and missed on their last coaching hires (before their new ones in place now), Arizona and OSU seem to have solid coaches and foundations but need more time to develop, Stanford and Cal I think were hurt by Covid and apathetic school administrations more than any other school, and jury is still out on UCLA and Colorado coaching and programs.

Utah should win the Pac-12 each of the next 2 or 3 seasons, with USC probably stepping into the big dog position with us in 2023.

[utefansince79]

Quite remarkable for Barnes to throw a tying TD in the Rose Bowl before around 90K fans.  I checked out Milford High School on google maps and their humble football field and bleachers seem to not have quite that seating capacity.

 

 

[Tony (admin)]

When you’re down by a TD late in the 4th quarter and you have a backup QB who has never played, you score whenever you can. 

[Utesbyfive]

Exactly right, at that point the chess game goes out the window, because your “Queen” was replaced by a pig farmer from Milford. Him throwing that perfect back corner pass right when needed? I’m still in awe, and soooo happy for him and his family.

[Tony (admin)]

Yeah never thought that would have happened, especially when we started just running 100% of the time when he came in.