Will Utah be the best defense Washington has faced?

[Warrior Ute]

I think it could be argued 3 of the best defenses in the Pac 12 are Utah, Cal and Oregon.  Washington has faced two of them and lost to both.

Both Cal and Oregon we have faced two common opponents with Utah:

– Cal faced OSU and ASU.  Utah allowed OSU 64 fewer yards and ASU 229 fewer yards.

– Oregon faced WSU and Cal.  Utah allowed WSU 133 fewer yards and Cal 173 fewer yards.

This makes me hopeful about the game.  Washington’s other loss is against Stanford.  Stanford showed up and played tough defense that day.  I believe Washington is the biggest challenge we will face during the regular season.  We already crapped the bed at USC and put the WTF loss behind us.  This game the Utes defense will be more than the Washington offense will be able to handle and we should walk out with the win.

[UM4G]

I agree, nearly every metric has our defense ranked the highest in the PAC:

FEI

Massey

CFBStats

Can’t find this weeks ESPN SP+ rankings, but I’m fairly confident they’ll have us rated highest in the PAC as well.

[EagleMountainUte]

Oregon should have lost to Cal. Eyeball test to me is Utah is the best in the PAC12. USC has the best talent combined with poor coaching and aim. Utah is the most complete team in the PAC. 
Call me a homer but that is through my red goggles I guess. 

[PlainsUte]

Well in the last two games Utah has scored 10 points on Washington.  I’d say that’s a pretty good defense!

 

[Warrior Ute]

I think there are only 2 starting players back from last years defense at Washington.

[Dante Guardi]

doesnt matter how many starters they return. Chris Peterson is still the coach and as long as they have him. they will be a force to be reckoned with.

[SorryWife]

We also had Troy Taylor calling the offense. Which many of his calls were very questionable. Also in the championship game we were playing with our backup qb and rb. Ludwig has proven this year that he can game plan well for our opponents and make necessary adjustments. Something Taylor couldn’t do. 

[EagleMountainUte]

TT didn’t make the players drop the ball. Utah players were put in a position to win. Catch the ball. 

[SorryWife]

Yes dropped balls were a part of what was wrong, but we’ve dropped PLENTY of balls this year and the offense is just simply better. But from the bits and pierces I’ve heard, Troy wasn’t very good at installing and teaching his offense. He also didn’t use Moss when he had him. In game adjustments were average at best. The difference between our offense from Taylor to Ludwig is night and day. And maybe that’s due to our two best players being seniors and completely balling out. 

[Warrior Ute]

I think as long as we have Whitt, we will have at minimum and above average to very good defense.  This year we have an elite defense.  This will likey drop next year. We will likely remain a very good defense.  But aren’t likely to be as elite because we are losing a lot of exceptional talent.

Washington was an elite level last year and lost 9 starters.  Under Peterson they will always be good to very good.  I expect them to play at that level this weekend.  They just aren’t likely to be elite like they were last year.

[EagleMountainUte]

What has pushed Utah’s defense to elite? The offense being above average for a change. Utah’s defense average 54 snaps a game. Which Whitt said has translated to them really playing only 5 games in snap terms. Also means tighter rotations so the 2’s get less “real” snaps and more garbage snaps but more snaps in a sense. So they get experience but not by fire. Utah’s defense is going to be good for a long time as long as Ludwig keeps the offense above average.