What to expect the rest of the season.

[ProudUte]

It was posted below that Some computers predict we win the rest of our games. That would be fantastic and make us 10-2.  Does anyone really expect that?  I do not.

i do not believe there is a single game we cannot win. I believe Oregon will be the toughest game because of their passing game. Unlike WSU, they can run as well. 

On the other hand – I don’t believe there is a single game we couldn’t lose. This includes Arizona, UCLA and even BYU. If UW can struggle with UCLA, so could we. We have never played Arizona well.  I hope that is different this Friday. We only beat a terrible BYU team by a TD last year. I suspect we win that game, but there is something about this rivalry that seems to make these games close. USC, CU and ASU are tossup games IMO. 

I would love to go 10-2 and play for the conference championship. But, we have never seen Whitt end strong in the PAC12. We did look good Saturday night.  Can we continue that energy and success for the next 7 weeks?  I suspect we will play some excellent games and probably a few head scratchers.  I think we win 4-5 games but hope we win all 7. 

Let’s dominate Arizona Friday night.  

[Tony (admin)]

I could see two losses landing somewhere.  Oregon and perhaps Colorado or USC. If we no-show anywhere we will lose.

[GameForAnyFuss]

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think we match up better against Oregon than Wazzu. While Oregon having a run game in addition to a throw game seems like a potent combo on the surface, I think it makes them less dangerous because it implies they will try to run. That will mean negative yardage on early downs, hence 3rd and longs.

Leach didn’t even mess around with trying to run. IMO that’s smart because nobody has demonstrated they can run on us. Honestly I think Wazzu is the blueprint for how to beat us (pass, pass, and pass some more). If Oregon tries to establish the running game, they’ll struggle to score points. 

[iamthepreacher]

I’m struggling to follow your logic here. Oregon is good at both running and passing, and that will make it easier to stop them? They’ll try to run and they’ll end up in third and long? What if they run effectively and it’s 3rd and short?

Look, I know our defense is good, but they’re not invincible. We’re capable of giving up yards through the air or through the ground on any given day, especially against a team with Oregon’s speed and talent.

[GameForAnyFuss]

My logic is this: Football is a game of percentages. It’s all about how likely the offense is to get what they need on each play (be it a touchdown, first down, positive yardage, or whatever). Right now, I’d say you’re more likely to get what you need against Utah by throwing as opposed to running. So the more often you throw and the less often you run against Utah, the more likely you are to achieve your goal on each play. 

That’s what Wazzu did so well, and what Stanford didn’t. Wazzu gave themselves the highest probability of success on each play by throwing and not even trying to run. Stanford constantly gave themselves low probabilities of success by “mixing it up”, which got them into bad situations. Not surprisingly, when Stanford figured it out and went to almost pure passing, they started having more success. 

[bombastic]

Oregon last year has shown that their run game is better than our run defense. Schematically they could be doing something that makes our run defense ineffective.

[UtemanUtefan]

There is 1 game remaining on our schedule with a stellar QB on the opposite team: Oregon. Every other game if we shut down the run like we have been, we have a very very good shot at winning those games because their offense will struggle to put yards and points up. 

AZ, ASU, BYU, UCLA ‘should’ be wins, based on how our D is currently playing.

CO, USC are toss ups / 50-50 games that will probably come down to the last drive or two.

ORE  is a probable loss right now, but it is at home, so there’s always hope.

I say we have a very good shot at 8-4 or 9-3, and a glimmer of 10-2, but highly improbable.

[gothamute]

Herbert is an elite QB, but I’ve watched enough of ASU/CU games to see that Wilkins and Montez are also very very good QBs. Harry (if healthy, which currently is a big if) is argaubly the best receiver in the conference (and probably in the country) but Shenault is certainly in that conversation. Both are November road games, which, given our recent history, warrants a degree of nervousness….

[UtemanUtefan]

Considering Minshew Herbert and Shenault are all in the Heisman conversation I’d say those are the biggest threats, and we already played one and got burnt to the tune of ~500 yards. (and we could have / should have won that game).

Wilkins being very very good is quite a stretch, he’s good but he’s nowhere near Heisman level. Montez is better and that’s why I think the game will come down to the end, just like the WSU game did.

[Utah5410]

To be fair, Whitt’s failure towards the end of the season has come after starting the season strong. This year seems to be the opposite. Maybe a reverse of fortune ? We will see.

[EagleMountainUte]

If Utah continues to generate turnovers at the 2015 rate I like their chances in most games. It is just something you don’t want to depend on. 

We need some long drives on offense with scores. SCORE SCORE SCORE!!

[tarheelute]

Reminds me of 2016. I expect wins over the Arizona teams, UCLA & USC. Colorado and Oregon? And Utah demolishes BYU. Utah goes 5 and 2, and ends up in the Las Vegas Bowl or Sun Bowl.