Posted By: Wakara
Date: Saturday, 8 September 2001, at 9:48 p.m.
I had to put in the TV caveat, because you really can't see all the subtleties from the toob, but I'll give my general impressions
THE GOOD
> The front seven on defense. I thought they outplayed the Oregon O line. It wasn't domination, but they outplayed them. Deckart is a demon and Smith and Kafusi can flat out play.
> The Corners. You can't be completely certain from the TV, but it looked like Harrington made great passes because our corners had pretty good coverage
> The Running Game. This wasn't Utah State, and we were still running over people. The O-line did pretty well, but there were a lot of yards after the initial hit. We did control the ball.
> The Punter. A 75 yard punt that goes out of bounds at the 10. That's just sick. He's a keeper.
THE
MIXED
> The safeties. Parker was great, Sanders the goat. Last weeks hero may have
cost us the game by being out of position on a couple of big plays. The turning
point of the game was the 40 yard gain out of the end zone with a minute left
in the half. Scott had coverage and the ball was in the air a long time, but
Sanders had shot to the left too early. If he makes that play, we go in at halftime
tied, or even ahead, since they were backed up. Given what happened in the second
half, it would have made a huge difference.
> Rice. Not as bad as last week in accuracy, but only because we didn't go long. If we don't go long because he can't throw long, we need to change. Pretty good on the short game though.
THE BAD
> Receivers. Maybe it was the QB, but I counted at least 8 times the receivers went one way, and the QB another. I'm going to assume the receivers were wrong. They did get open against a very good secondary, but the wrong route running and lack of reads on blitzes killed us. Was cliff hurt, because he went out in the middle of the game for quite a long time
> Discipline - not too many penalties, but stupid ones that hurt us. 3 unsportsmanlike calls on one drive...that's bush, and it game them the TD that put the game out of reach.
SUMMARY
Let's put this in perspective. We were playing a top ten team at their stadium,
which is known for its home field advantage, and I didn't see that much difference
in the quality of the team. No moral victory, but a realization that if we get
our ducks (pun intended) in a row, we can be a very good football team. It comes
back to coaching. Their players ran the right routes and didn't self destruct,
like we did on one drive.
The only real difference in the teams was that they had a very good to great QB who made some great passes, and our passes were of the 2 yard variety. Put Harrington on our team, and Rice on theirs, and we win.
We played better than week one, against much better competition, but we still have a ways to go. Kyle has a little work to do on late hits and teaching Sanders not to let the press clippings go to his head. Ver Steg has got to get the receivers heads in the game and figure out the QB situation. Breska didn't look great, but you can't really tell anything in the time that he played except that a) he's got a very strong arm, and b) he can badly miss wide open receivers for touchdowns just as easily as Rice.
I
think we take AF next week. Our linebackers are that good, and so is Parker.
Posted By: codeRed <yugly@utahutes.com>
Date: Saturday, 8 September 2001, at 9:41 p.m.
First the negative:
Where is the exciting, mix it up offense that we were promised. Although it's much different and, IMO, better than last year....I saw very little new or changed since last week.
We need more than 2 decent corners. IMO, Scott and Nagahi are average and from there it's a huge drop to Crocket and Justin (dnp). BUT, considering the talent we were up against, we may be expecting a bit much.
The neutral:
I know I'll get burned for this, but I think Rice did alright. I don't think we can assume that the reason we don't go down field more is because of him. As you saw in the first half, he hit several receivers in stride on streak routes. So, it may be his fault or it may not. Plus, Rice was dead on in the first half. He was throwing some good stuff. Too bad he lost the touch in the 2nd. IMO, Breska didn't look any better. If anything he look like Rice did last week. Missed two wide open receivers and hit a couple longer ones. Nothing special IMO. Although his balls (can I say that?) had more zip on them, he has punie arms. Lance is much more buff. What does any of this mean.....nothing.
The good:
The O line finally lived up to it's billing. For two years now I've been reading\hearing how good they were and then I'd watch our RB and QB's get the sh** knocked out of them. Though Rice got hit a fair amount today, the running game looked good against a good D.
It was also nice to see a few of the new receivers step up and make plays. Nonetheless, we lost. But, it wasn't a blow out. I think we'll be in the thick of the MWC if Mac allows it.
Go UTes!
Posted By: U-Ute
Date: Sunday, 9 September 2001, at 9:49 a.m.
uteslovecornonthecobb:
Good luck in Eugene, you'll need luck, about 6 turn overs and a flu epidemic
on the duck squad to stay within 50 points.
ArisenDuck:
I don't know why we scheduled such a weak game against an incredibly weak
team. Prepare
to be annihilated
Oregon
63
Utah 0
Duck
Football Rules:
Just wanted to chime in on your party. You guys are a joke.We will kick your
butts all the way back to Utah. We have a flawless quarterback who rarely gives
up turnovers(Harrington). We have a runnung back like you guys have never seen!
Get ready for an a*s-whooping!!!
Posted By: Raccoon Boy AKA Ute King
Date: Sunday, 9 September 2001, at 10:34 p.m.
What a great trip. Got to meet up with a couple of old SLC buddies and hang out in my former digs in Portland. But this is about football, so here are a couple of points that I happened to pick up during my stay in Eugene...
1. Classy Fans up there in the woods. Even at the bitter end, it was "nice job. You guys will have a good season," etc. Nothing like "we should have beat you by 40. You got lucky" Had some nice banter with a couple of guys in front of us, and got to educate one on what a 'Ute' was.
2. Rice is solid, not spectacular. He'll get better, but right now, I'm not entirely sure if he should be in at QB... Breska looked good in moving the ball at the end, but I'm not so sure it wasn't just the prevent defense... QB controversy?? In my mind at least, yes. I'm leaning toward Breska right now, though.
3. Wow it was a beautiful day in Eugene. For those of you who think that it rains 24/7/365 in Oregon, you should have been there saturday. If you're ever considering visiting Oregon, go in August-October, because it does rain about 24/7/*2*65.
4. The defense looked great. While I really didn't see much in Harrington, we shut them down. That's a good team in the Ducks, and we should be happy with the D's performance.
5. With a couple of exceptions, I liked the *appearance* of better discipline. It may take a while for the truth to come out, but I'm optimistic. I like the way the offense and kicking teams came right in from the sidelines and went straight into position quickly and efficiently.
6. The running game looks good. I'd like to be able to stretch the field more, so the D can't key in on the run, though...
All in all, a decent performance against a good team at their house. After finally seeing them, I think we'll be 7-4 when its all said and done, and headed for a bowl game. Course, I could be wrong.
BTW, Hod I hope you took the spread if it was still at 16.5, and Portland, sorry we didn't get to hook up after the game. After the heat of the game and the long drive back, we all pretty much crashed.
That's
all for now.
GO UTES!!
Posted By: Mr. Crimson <me@me.com>
Date: Monday, 10 September 2001, at 12:53 a.m.
First...
Oregon Duck fans are incredibly classy, when you're around Coug fans so much you forget that its even possible for the opposition to have class but those folks are great.
I am now officially on the Lance Rice should not take another snap for the U bandwagon. If we could have in any way stretched the field well I don't know if we win because Oregon is very talented but the Ducks would have been sweating it even more. Rice while better than the first week still hit no one in stride and he had time all day long to throw. If anyone noticed Oregon ran basically the same offense with not much more talent except for Harrington. But with McBride fighting for his job I don't expect many chances taken.
The rest of this team is very very good. It took two great coaching calls the receiver pass and the Harrington Option or the Ducks would have been in serious trouble. Also a couple of Duck fans remarked to me about the sheer size of our O-Line. We can beat everyone we have left on the schedule.
We really need to be able to make an FG beyond 40 yards.
Seriously had someone told me the score would have been only 24-10 before I went up their I would have said I'd take that, but after watching the game we were a QB short of having a real shot. Elliot or Breska are the future, Rice is the picture of a great back up QB.
Barring injury if this team is any worse than 8-3 Mac should go.
Posted By: ColoUte (formerly known as ColoUte)
<everutes@hotmail.com>
Date: Monday, 10 September 2001, at 8:56 a.m.
It's kind of sad to say, but I'm probably happier with this loss than I was with our win last week. Though, in retrospect, I'm not sure I should be. I've never really been one for moral victories. A loss is a loss, even when it's expected. Nevertheless, there were a lot of positives stemming from this game, and I think several questions were answered this weekend - not all are good.
I think there are some important things to consider before I begin:
1. The Utes will not face a team with a better QB this season. Harrington is pretty freakin' good.
2. We won't face anyone with a better secondary all season.
3. I doubt we'll face a better RB tandem, but the duo of McDonald-Ashford-Steinem-Laverkin-Smoot and Lady Remington Staley do pose some different problems.
4. I think only Colorado State has a better corps of receivers, but they don't have nearly the QB passing to them.
That said, here's what I think we learned this weekend.
A. Our defense really is one of the best in the country. Yes, our secondary gave up some big plays, but most were in the second half. Yohance gave up that long TD pass in the second half, but to his defense, there was really nothing he could do. It was an absolutely perfectly thrown ball. (How sad is it that it was perfect despite being thrown off of Harrington's back foot and on the run - Did I mention Harrington is good?) Howry could've told him what play they were running, and Yohance couldn't have defended it. I was impressed with the adjustments made at the half. By the end of the year, we'll be better than we were a year ago.
B. I really think Jason Kaufusi IS a better Stud-Linebacker than Kautai was. Yeah, he was quiet in his number of tackles, but going in, Wittingham mentioned that his biggest concern was Peele. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but Peele only had 2 catches all day, and on was on that double pass, and that's not Kaufusi's fault. One of the DB's should've picked him up when Kaufusi went to stop the screen. I like our front seven a LOT!
C. Cliff Russell is good. Ver Steeg has GOT TO find someone to get him the ball more than 5 yards beyond the Line of Scrimmage. Cliff has the ability to get a lot of YAC, but not when he hasn't even run past the Linebackers before he gets the ball. You can't stretch the field when your deep threat is only 4 yards downfield.
D. Our running game is also pretty dang good. I think it would have been better with Marty Johnson, but Hunter is a man as well.
E. Kaneshiro's range doesn't extend beyond 40 yards. Why Lewis didn't try that 47 yarder, I'll never understand. Which brings me to my next point...
F. Of everyone on the field, the ones I'm most worried about wearing down at the end of the game are the coaching staff. They made some pretty questionable calls again on Saturday. I already mentioned having Kaneshiro try the long FG. I also don't understand going for it on 4th and 4 in the 3rd, down 16-10, and well within Kaneshiro's range. It seems to me that a FG brings us within 3, and with our offense's inability to punch it in, I think that was a better option. I also questioned the play calls on several of the 4th downs. I don't know why we ran it up the gut on 4th and 2. They should've at least tried to bounce it outside. I also really didn't like the middle screen to Houston. That was going to the well once too often, and it was a key possession. a FB or TE pass would've been a much better call in retrospect.
G. Rice can't throw a block. I learned this from the middle screen above. And, while I'm on the subject of Rice...
H. Rice isn't the answer at QB. Obviously this has been covered ad nauseum, but it was certainly verified this weekend. After the first half, I was ready to come on and apologize to Rice. I'm glad I didn't because his second half performance would have forced me to come on and retract it. He cannot get the ball downfield. His throws in the second half were just pathetic. He couldn't even throw a bomb beyond 10 yards. I told my wife I thought his arm was tired, but apparently he was fine. Rice is the type of guy who would be great to nurse a lead. Unfortunately, he's NOT the type of QB who can get a lead to nurse. It's time to look elsewhere.
I. What did we learn about Breska? Not a dang thing. Yeah, he proved he's got a gun, but that had pretty much been established. I can't judge his accuracy because of the situation he was thrown into. He was asked to move the team 95 yards in just over a minute and a half. He did move the team 74 of those yards, but made some pretty bad throws in between the long completions. He was also thrown in cold, and he didn't get practice reps last week. I'd like to see what he can do when he gets to work under the same conditions as Rice.
J. I really hope Elliot doesn't transfer, but I wouldn't blame him. He's sitting 3rd string behind two Sophomores, and it'll take some pretty horrendous play from both guys, or a rash of injuries, before he'll get his shot. He's really never had a shot at winning the starting job. Granted, it was because of an injury, but with Mac's job on the line, he can't afford to wait around. I can foresee a situation that would put him over the top where Rice struggles and is replaced by Breska. Breska struggles, so Mac puts Rice back in. I really think Elliot is probably our best QB. (I should reserve judgement on Breska until I've seen more, but if he couldnt' wrestle the job away from Rice in fall camp, well...) Unfortunately, in the situation he's in, he'll be the best QB at Eastern Washington next year. When he dominates there, I'm going to be pissed.
K. Did I mention that Harrington is good?
L. I was glad we got out of there without a lot of injuries. Playing a Top 10 team at their place on Turf is a recipe for disaster. We got lucky. Desmond Davis is out for the season, and that hurts our kick return game, but it really could have been a lot worse.
Overall, I think we've got a shot to be a pretty good team, but our offense still has a LOT to prove. Our team as a whole will be one notch higher than the level of our QB. If our QB is bad, we'll be below average. If our QB is average, we'll be above average, and if our QB is good, we can be great. Unfortunately, we're sitting at the bad level right now. Something needs to be done. It'd be a shame to waste another AWESOME defense.
GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sorry for the incredibly long post. I just had a lot to get off my chest.)
Last modified .