Utah and Washington losses

[Utah]

Utah and Washington losses

Both teams had three losses.

UW –

@Auburn (don’t tell me this was a neutral site game). 21-16

@Oregon: 30-27. This was their second conference road game in a row.

@Cal: 12-10. Another road game. Stanford the next week. Maybe looking ahead?

Utah –

UW at home. 21-7. Ouch. Still hurts. We had no offense up to this point.

@WSU: 28-24. We had half an offense this game.

@ASU: 38-20. Second conference road game in a row. The score was 20-21 ASU when Huntley was hurt at the end of the third quarter. Our offense then punt/punt/INT. I’m not sure what to make of this game.

What can we take from this? All of UW’s losses came on the road. UW was 3-3 on the road. One win was vs us, one was against WSU in a blizzard that completely hamstrung WSU’s offense and the other was a close win @UCLA.

UW is not a very good road team.

On the other hand, Utah was 4-2 on the road. Their losses were @WSU, a top 15 team that needs a last second TD to beat Utah and @ASU, the second consecutive road game where they were down one heading into the fourth with no Huntley.

Advantage Utah.

Next, both teams are coming off rivalry games. We all know Utah’s. They didn’t show up for a half, then they did show up and blew the doors off BYU, 35-7.

UW, on the other hand, this was a hard fought game until 3 mins in the fourth quarter.

At first glance, pretty equal. BUT, I wonder if emotionally Utah spent less than UW. Utah didn’t seem to be mentally in the game for a loooong time. BYU did things to Utah that NO ONE has done. I don’t think that’s a credit to BYU’s talent. I think that’s a credit to Utah not giving a…you get the point. Especially considering that once Utah got rolling, they outscored BYU 35-7 and BYU only gained 100 yards the second half, compared to 257 the first half. Look at BYU’s second half drives (in yards): 8, 4, 44, 5, 5, 8, 26.

It doesn’t seem like this rivalry game was as important to Utah as years past.

Rivalry hangover: advantage Utah.

Finally, I’ve talked about this a lot this year:

Back to back road conference games. If you include USC playing @Stanford and @Texas in b2b weeks, Stanford playing @Oregon and @ND in b2b weeks and ASU playing @SDSU and @UW in b2b weeks, the conference is 3-10 in back to back P5 road games. The three wins were Utah @ Stanford, Cal @ USC and ASU @ Arizona. Utah’s win was the only without extreme circumstances. Cal was playing the worst team at USC in 20 years with coaching moves and ASU needed Arizona to completely crap the bed in the fourth quarter.

Advantage here: Utah. Utah has shown they can win on the road. UW has struggled on the road and hasn’t won on the road in back to back road conference games.

There are a lot of positives for Utah in this game, especially being played in SF.

[Utah]

UW’s road wins: @Utah, @UCLA, @WSU

Good wins vs Utah and WSU, but Utah’s offense sucked and WSU had Mother Nature against them as well. The UCLA win was ugly vs a  3-9 team. 

 

Utah’s road wins: @NIU, @Stanford (40-21), @UCLA (41-10), @Colorado (30-7). 

 

 

Utah’s wins are much more impressive outside of the NIU game. 

[EagleMountainUte]

I would be so much more confident if we had Moss. I just feel like he is a huge factor. Yet Huntley was able to pass and found open guys on the mighty Washington defense in the first game. I feel like Utah can go on unanswered scoring DRIVES and win.

Special teams mistakes Utah has had their fill of them this year. Largely because of mental execution errors. It is really surprising honestly because they have been consistent all year. Utah can’t afford to screw this up. 

The TDS game and Utah’s overall performance. Utah overlooked them and it was just like NIU ironically. Except Utah had larger issues at the time offensively. The defensive numbers I want to chalk up to heavy first half rotations. Because in the second half goodness gracious the dline just dominated.  Anae and Tupai are going to be key in this game. They have to keep contain and would it kill the refs to finally call holding on some of those Gaskins rushes?

[Utah]

I agree. If we had Moss, this is a 95% chance Utah win.

Now? I still think UW wins, but it will be ugly. Like 19-16 type ugly. We need a HUGE game from Shyne/Green.

Here’s another wrinkle: if you are Utah, knowing Huntley could be back for the Bowl Game, you can let Shelley run wild. Leave it all on the field.

[tarheelute]

Bottom line, I don’t believe Utah’s “A” game can beat UW’s (thanks for the catch) “A” game, all things considered. But, if Utah can start the first half, on Friday, where they left off on Saturday night, the Utes have a chance, perhaps a chance to pull off what they did against Stanford, the last time the Ute’s beat a national ranked team, and the last time the Utes played in Northern California. I don’t think, by any stretch, the Ute’s need a miracle to beat UW, but they will need a miracle, if they start the same way they did on Saturday. I believe they got their wake-up call, Saturday night, and will start strong. Utah 31, UW 27.

[chinngiskhaan]

ummmm… USU? What do they have to do with any of this? Our A game would absolutely crush them.

[chinngiskhaan]

Utah can beat Washington. While we don’t have our QB or RB, our offense is still miles ahead of where it was when we played them last time. This will be a good game. I can see many different potential outcomes. We could get ran out of the building if we come out flat, but we could also do the same to them.

Browning is a terrible QB under pressure. We can and will force him to make stupid choices. If the refs let us hit UW players the way they were hitting Covey the last game, we will win. If Cody and Chase can stop Gaskin, we will win this game. He has been the #1 thorn in our side for years now.

[tarheelute]

I’m not at all sure that Browning is as bad as you, or some others portray him, even when under pressure – Very few QBs excel, when chased by 280+ pound defensive linemen (perhaps ASU’s Wilkins was the exception). I’m not going to roll through the stats, or pick any particular game apart, but I understand Browning has 37+ wins, over four years, and against more than a few good teams. But the Utes slowed Browning down considerably, in September, and they will need to repeat that performance, while at the same time stopping Gaskin, and I do agree; “If Cody and Chase can stop Gaskin, we will win this game”.

[EagleMountainUte]

What Peterson does in spite of having Browning always impresses me. Dude is whiny as hell to.

[chinngiskhaan]

when browning is under pressure he either throws the ball away at the last possible second, or gets caught with his pants down trying to do so.

I never said he was a bad QB, but he is terrible when he is about to be sacked. He makes a lot of bad decisions when in that type of situation. That is what I mean when I say under pressure. I’m not talking about high pressure situations, I’m talking about when defenders are closing in on him quickly.