Tuesday, October 18. 2011Red, Blue And Pigskin
If you missed this week's games, well lucky you. In a week where both games were actually somewhat dreadful, and actually had a studio announce team for one of the games apologize to fans for the previous three hours, both the Utes and Cougars came away with victories
If you did sit through the games you saw a team win it's first Pac-12 game. The other team, meanwhile, discovered what happens when you don't turn the ball over. Combined with a brilliant defensive game, that overcame their own special teams, they manage to snap a two game losing streak. Thus completes the first half of the season for all local teams, so let's spend a bit of time and see where they sit at the mid term, and what to expect going forward. Ugly Still Counts
The game actually caused the ESPN-U studio crew to apologize to viewers after the game. To say it was ugly was an understatement. The offense struggled, and was only able to get a single touchdown off of a tipped pass. The special teams was downright dreadful. The defense was amazing, but it became clear that Pitt doesn't have a legitimate QB threat. Even with all that, there are some good things to take away. We'll start with the offense. Numbers weren't that great. Watching the game, the offense wasn't as great as you'd want to see, but let's take a few things into account. First this team was coming into the game on a two game losing streak where they treated the ball like a greased pig. They also had to deal with an East Coast travel, and an early start time. The wind was also going crazy swirling in multiple directions. Everyone knows the Utes were without their #1 QB. To make matters worse their #1 WR DeVonte Christopher didn't make the trip due to a leg injury, and early on in the game they lost their most productive TE Dallin Rogers, to what would become a season ending injury. Even with all that above them, they put up 250 yards of offense. Most impressively was John White IV. All week the talk was about how the Utes would contain the Nation's leading rusher Ray Graham. We'll get to his performance later, but John White dominated the Running Back duel racking up 171 yards rushing on the ground. For the first time all year White put together a complete game. Offensively the Utes chewed up the clock, holding the ball for 38 minutes of the game. They had three drives of longer than five minutes, two of which where 12 plays or greater, and went for more than 70 yards. Hays was a bit of a mixed bag, but where he was greatly improved over the last six quarters was his decision making. Hays didn't beat the Utes. He didn't make the stupid mistake that cost the Utes a possession, or worse. That's all that can be expected. Now for the bad offensively. The Utes struggled on both 3rd down conversions and in the red zone. While it's nice that Coleman Peterson won the Pac-12 special teams player of the week. However, he should never be kicking 4 field goals. The Utes were dreadful in the red zone, with four appearances in the Red Zone. They ended up with three field goals and a botched punt attempt from the 48 yard line. If Utah wants to get a few more wins this season, they'll need to convert at least one of those field goals into a TD. Fortunately, their defense had an amazing performance to help them out. Defensive Shutout This was one of the better defensive games the Utes have played in the last three years. Even though the score was 26-14, the Defense pitched a shutout. A defensive performance that saw Derrick Shelby not only win the Pac-12 defensive player of the week, but the national defensive player of the week award as well. The gameplan was to try and contain Ray Graham. For the second straight season, the Utes not only contained a dangerous Pitt running back, but flat out shut him down. Graham ended the day with 46 yards. Without Graham Pitt learned they don't have much else of an offense, as they pulled their starting quarterback twice, for a backup who was just as ineffective. You can talk about Pitt's offense being dreadful, which it was, but it's really really difficult for a defense to keep an offense to 120 yards of total offense during a game. Now that we've talked about the good (Defense, running game), and the bad (passing game), it's time to talk about the ugly. Short Yellow Bus Special Teams The Utah special teams were beyond dreadful. Despite the defensive shutout, Pitt still managed to get 14 points on the board. Those 14 points came because of back to back special teams disasters. The only reason Pitt even stayed in this game was because of the special Teams. The first score came on a 98 yard kickoff return by Pitt. Kickoff returns are bad enough, but they are even more infuriating when they come about, not because of bad coverage, but because of sloppy, lazy, and poor tackling. On the return, the Utes actually covered the punt well, meeting the returner at the 25 yard line. Greg Bird, who has multiple big special teams hits over the past few years, apparently thought he didn't have to wrap up, and instead just merely had to hit the returner. Instead the returner bounced off of bird, bounced to the outside, and was gone. After a three and out for Utah on the next possession, the Utes had to punt. Only they decided that part of punting was not blocking anyone, as the kick got blocked. When Nick Marsh kicked the ball, the Panthers had 7 guys surrounding him. The ball was scooped and scored. The comedy of errors continued with shanked punts my Marsh. Even when Marsh actually got a nice kick off for Utah, they managed to bungle it up like a bunch of Keystone Kops. On one occasion the ball bounced inside the 5, one defender kept it from going into the end zone, and allowed Mo Lee, standing on about the 3 inch line to pick up the ball, for what should be a great spot. Instead another Utah defender, not paying attention, bumps into Lee, knocking him into the end zone, giving Pitt the ball at the 20. On another occasion, Marsh punted the ball and saw it bounce up at the 9. Greg Bird running down the field to down the ball, went to grab the ball, so it didn't give Pitt any better field position. He tipped the ball at the 11. But rather than getting a hold of the ball, he tipped it towards the goal line, and it trickled into the end zone. This was a disastrous special teams performance. Special teams have been an issue for Utah, the last couple years, but it seemed like they were actually making some headway this year. All of that headway was lost in a single game. Back Into The Conference Now that Utah has finished their out of conference schedule with a perfect 3-0 record, they head back into Pac-12 play, still looking to find similar success. The Utes have opened up their inaugural Pac-12 season with an 0-3 record, and look to get their first win against the California Golden Bears. The Golden Bears have also had a 3-0 conference record, and are also 0-3 in the Pac-12. Much like the Utes, the Golden Bears have struggled offensively, especially at the quarterback position, but they also have a running back who can hurt the defense. Defensively the Bears and Utes are similar as well as both teams have top 3 conference defenses. The Bears have also killed themselves with turnovers giving up five last week to USC. Even the Bears three losses are very similar to Utah, as the Bears have lost to USC, and Washington, in addition to the top team in their division. This is as close to being different sides of the same coin as two teams can get this late in the year. The good news, is that means that Utah should know what it needs to do to beat Cal. This also means that it's the same thing Cal needs to do to beat Utah. This will be a road game for the Utes, but it won't be played in Cal's home stadium. As with all home games for Cal this season, they are being played at AT&T Park, while Cal's stadium undergoes an extensive renovation. One other interesting note, Cal is the last Pac-12 (then Pac-10) team Utah has beaten, during the 2009 Poinsettia Bowl. Grading On A Curve Last week I made mention that there wasn't a whole lot you could take away from the Cougars win over San Jose State. While this week's opponent may have been an Automatic Qualifying conference member, in truth, Oregon State isn't much better of a team. So as expected BYU rolled out another win. It's still hard to know what to take from these games. But after the past two weeks, there are a few things that we can feel comfortable with for BYU. Firstly, this team is just different under Riley Nelson. Riley Nelson is a gamer, and the team responds to him. What Nelson lacks in arm strength, he more than makes up for with the added dimension he brings to games with his legs. Riley Nelson also has the heart that Heaps seemed to have lacked early in the season. There was no bigger evidence of this, than on the play were Nelson scrambled, went head first into a couple of Beavers, and lost his helmet. He then popped up, and decided to give the Beavers' an earful. Unfortunately, that reckless abandon, may also be Riley's downfall. There is a fine line that Nelson must walk the rest of the year, between aggressive and careless. Otherwise, his body isn't going to be able to hold up, and Heaps will be back in under center. The second thing, that was impressive this week was Michael Alisa. Against the Spartans Alisa came out of nowhere. This week, he continued his stellar performance. For most of the season the depth chart read, DiLuigi, Quezada, and Kariya. In two games, Alisa has seemed to far outshine all the others. Alisa is a bigger runner than the DiLuigi and Quezada, and is faster than Kariya. Alisa also seems to be the shiftier of the three, and actually reminds me a bit of Harvey Unga. My only real complaint, is he shouldn't be so willing to bounce to the outside. Finally, and this isn't relegated to just the past two weeks, we can feel comfortable stating Kyle Van Oy is a beast. He is guaranteed to make one amazing play a game. Usually he doesn't just stop at one. Van Oy is eligible for the NFL draft at the conclusion of this season. Although BYU fans shouldn't fear this year, but if BYU is lucky enough to see him stay for each of the next two years, Rob Morris, and Brian Kehl, are going to have to move over and welcome the new greatest LB in BYU history. Also, Congrats to BYU on getting a Pac-12 victory before the Utes. BYU's Checklist For This Week My thoughts on BYU's schedule are well known, and this week's game is the worst of the bunch. I hate it when Div 1-A teams play teams from Division 1-AA teams. Unfortunately it happens way too often, including the Utes earlier this year. Worse than playing a 1-AA team though, is playing a 1-AA that had won only a single game for the past three years. If you add there two wins from this season, the Bengals have won a total of 10 games since 2006, half of which came against Division II teams. This is a completely indefensible scheduling choice. The Cougars have paid Idaho State to come into their house, lay down, and let the Cougars have their way against them. This game is Football scheduling prostitution at it's absolute worst. BYU should actually pay any fan who shows up to the game, for sitting through the atrocity. There is zero chance BYU loses this game. Scratch that, there is less than zero chance. Even if somehow their bus gets delayed and Idaho State lines up against no one, BYU would still win this game. This isn't meant to be another dig at BYU's schedule this year. Even if BYU had 11 other top 15 teams on the schedule, I would still hate this game. Even if Utah had scheduled this terrible team, the football lover in me would still be offended. So with that said, here's is BYU's checklist for the game. In order to have any since of pride from this game, the Cougars must do all of the following, and even then I'm not sure you can have pride in this win:
There is one thing that does make this week's game somewhat important. In fact, if BYU wins, one could argue that it will have been the last important game of the season for the Cougars. When they win, the Cougars will officially be bowl eligible, and fans can pay for their travel plans to the Armed Forces Bowl. Also, don't expect much of a breakdown from this game next week. As much as I love Football, I'm not sure I can bring myself to suffer through this. In fact, I'll give you next week's breakdown right now: BYU destroyed Idaho State. Midway Point We are now at the midway point of the season. The Cougars have played seven games, while the Utes have completed their sixth game. Both teams are about where I expected them to be record wise at the midway point. How both teams have gotten to this juncture, though, is drastically different than expected. For the Utes, who I expected an 8-4 season for at the beginning of the year, 3-3 after six was about where I'd thought they'd be. I did expect them to have had one Pac-12 victory against Washington, and I worried that the Pitt game, mainly due to the travel, would be a loss. So why does this 3-3 feel a lot worse than hoped for? Offensively the Utes have struggled way more than expected. There are two main reasons. The injury situation is well known. Just as he was hitting his stride, Wynn was lost for the season. Other injuries that have cause two of their top three WR's to miss time, and all three of their TE's to miss time, including one who now out for the season. The other big issue is the offensive line. This year's offensive line is absolutely dreadful. Wynn's, and then Hays' adjustment into the new offensive scheme by Chow, has been hindered by the fact that they are constantly under pressure. The line has struggled all year to open up holes, unless you are referring to the holes that defenders have gotten to the QB with. No other position on the field has shown the drastic difference between MWC and Pac-12 than the Offensive line, and no other player epitomizes the talent leap than John Cullen. Last year when Cullen came to the team, he seemed to do really well. Fans were excited as he anchored the Left side of the line opposite Bergstrom. This season, as the opposition has gotten tougher, we've found out, that most of Cullen's success, was due to the opposition. Against bigger and faster defenders, Cullen has seemed a step slow, and a second late, causing him to be a holding, false starting penalty machine. Even though he was a hot head last season as well, it was tolerated more when he wasn't missing so many blocks. BYU At The Half Point At the start of the season I expected a similar 8-4 record for the Cougars, with a 7 game record of 5-2. Defensively, the Cougar as I expected. Slightly mediocre, more good than bad, but not great, and not terrible. Led by a beast in Kyle Van Oy. Offensively, I never bought into the hype based on the way the ended last season, and how they did in fall camp. More specifically I didn't buy into the hype of Jake Heaps. So seeing Heaps struggle wasn't a surprise to me. What was a surprise was the depth of his struggles and how much he lost the team. Not only did he lose the offensive side of the ball, but it seemed that even the defensive side of the ball lost faith in him, tired of making plays, just to see the offense do nothing with it. Most evident with the defense just gave up against the Utes. I also didn't expect Heaps' struggles to get bad enough that the Cougars went with Riley Nelson, but they did. Since Nelson has become the starting QB, the team, both offensively and defensively has a new fire to it. Looking Ahead We know how they've gotten here, but where are they headed? For the Cougars, I'm still expecting an 8-4 record, with possibly a 9-3. This mainly has to do with the quality of competition. There are really only two games that are in question the rest of the way. TCU at Jerry World, and Hawaii on the islands. TCU isn't as strong as they have been in year's past, but they still are athletic, and until BYU shows they can stop TCU, I have to favor the Horned Frogs. As for Hawaii, they are mediocre. Honestly they are about even with BYU, and if this game were in Provo, I'd pick the Cougars, but the island travel is rough on most teams. There's a reason the NCAA had to give an exception for a 13th game to get people to travel to Hawaii for road games. For the Utes, the good news is the tough part of their schedule is past them as well. Pitt is the only team they've played so far that doesn't have five wins on the year. Pitt and USC are the only teams they've played that aren't ranked in the top 25 of their divisions respective rankings. The rest of the way, there isn't a team with more than three wins right now, and none with winning records. Four of their remaining six opponents have the very same 3-3 record the Utes currently have. The most difficult of which is this weeks' opponent. Record wise, my prediction is conditional upon this week's outcome, win and 8-4 is still in play, lose and they are looking at probably 7-5. Programming Update It's almost that time. The annual Unfortunately a time for the game hasn't been announced yet. The fact that it has taken this long is not a good sign for TV purposes. I'm guessing this will be another game on KJZZ. In all honesty I expect the game after that against Arizona to also be a KJZZ broadcast. The only thing I'm really hoping for is that the game gets a later kickoff, preferably somewhere around 6 or 6:30. Having a blackout in the middle of the day is kind of lame. Plus it really didn't work out with the earlier kickoff last year. **UPDATE** As expected the game will be broadcast on KJZZ. It will also be streamed online at UtahUtes.com. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m., and with sunset currently expected around 6:23 p.m. it looks like at least half of the game will be after sunset. Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
|
Handy LinksItems of InterestCategoriesBlog AdministrationSyndicate This BlogPowered byTheme dropdownBookmark |