What a beautiful day for a football game.
Offensive gameplan: I thought the Utes would try and go up top a couple of times and they did. They just can't connect. I thought the play calling was generally good except for a couple of times when we had 3rd and 8 or 9 and we ran it up the middle. I liked the adjustment in the 2nd half to pitch out the ball. The offense had a chance to put the game away in the 1st period but could not capitalize on great field position. I thought the move from Rice to Breska was a good call. The offense was struggling and a change was needed. I also thought it was good to start Rice in the 2nd half. With the mediocre play at the QB position, the last thing we need is a controversy.
OL. A- Very solid execution. Only 1 sack. Nice holes for the RB's.
WR's B+ No drops that I can recall. Had a difficult time getting open. Blocked well downfield.
RB's A Hunter is a different guy from a year ago. He hits the hole and shows some good speed to go along with excellent power. Tate looked alot better today.
QB C Neither rice nor Breska did much. They both made some mistakes, Breska's fumble and Rice's int thrown into triple coverage.
Defensive Gameplan. It looked like the plan was to try and contain Baxter and force UNM to throw. I thought the gameplan was solid and implemented well.
DL. B Strong against the run, but we need more pressure against the QB.
LB's B+ They made tackles when they needed to and were very active.
DB's B. Sanders played a more physical game. He didn't get knocked downfield on his tackles. Nagahi had a tough day getting burned on that long pass. His position wasn't too bad, he didn't look back and the ball was perfectly thrown. Both Crockett and nagahi were picked on on the short outs.
Fans. Piss poor attendance and those at the game had no emotion.
The
Utes still have alot of room for improvement. They should be pleased with the
win and understand that they will need to improve significantly to compete against
the better teams in the conference.
First of all, I thought the game was the most boring Utah game I had seen in my 32 years. It was hot as hell and running up the middle on every first down made me grouchy.
Second, the attendance was horrible. I've given up. I'm tired of trying to help the attendance by encouraging friends and family members to go to the games. The student section was half full. I'm guessing there were only about 25k total. That's pathetic. I hope the So Florida game is at night. It seems we get about 10k more at night.
Third, I debated for hours with a friend that Rice was going to be a pretty good QB by the time he was done playing here. I was wrong. The guy sucks. Well, I should say our offense sucks. We looked so good against Indiana last week. (Which by the way, only lost to Ohio State by 2 touchdowns.) Maybe New Mexico's defense is good. I still don't know how we got 37 points.
I think we'll lose at UNLV, BYU, and CSU. I have very little confidence in Rice. I hope to Almighty that I'm wrong, but the team looked bad today. Our defense is sooooo good, but we just don't have the QB to compete in the top 20.
I can't believe I'm depressed after a 21 point blowout. How quickly I forget about last year.
Go Utes!
First, Is venice beach the best beach to go to for sights and beach. I would like to hang in the ocean aside from seeing sights with my three children (ages 5-10).
Second, Why in the hell is everyone on this board so damn negative? I am by far the biggest pessimist I know. But you guys make me look perky. I agree this was an ugly game. But we won by 21. That shows heart. Heart in football goes a long ways.
Third, The game plan deserves much of the blame for the ugliness. I wasn't too impressed with the play calling in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.
Fourth, Lance did have a horrible game. BUt the last thing this team needs is a qb controversy. At least now they know it's Lance. BTW, for those that keep bitching, he hit three passed over 25 yard today. So find something new to crucify him for. IMHO, Breska didn't look any better. That's the ugliest throwing form I've ever seen.
Fifth, I really tired of cliff not finishing his routes. IMO, he is not a team player.
Sixth, Our fans SUCK worse than any qb we've ever had. They are the Golden Wheatman of fans. It pisses me off that there is so much apathy. If your'e a fan be a fan. If not, start cheering for the boys in blue, because we don't need you.
Seventh, Mac's and ass. I still firmly believe he should be canned. THe coaching staff should never pull the starting qb for any reason other than health or in case of a blow out. All this does is blow any confidence he may have and piss everybody off (whether you're a rice or breska fan). I'm so tired of hearing "players got to make plays". Gee who would've thunk it. Maybe coaches should coach too Mac? Try it, it might work!?
BTW, nice try USU w/ OU. Too bad you couldn't have pulled it out.
Go Utes!
First the Utes. This is a good football team especially when taken within the context of the MWC. Somehow Ute fans have decided that there is no way we can ever be happy about Ute game no matter the outcome. This team runs the ball well, plays great D and can overcome adversity. I don't think Rice is the answer but we're 3-1 for CHRIST SAKE and our 1 was to the #6 team in the nation and we played em straight up for 3 quarters.
Second the coaches. As for pulling Rice, I think it was a good idea, he was making some bad decisions and was overwhelmed by a Lobo defense that blitzes in very unique ways. Sit the kid down for a series let him catch his breath. Plus the coaches, the mental stuff is way down this year but more importantly they have been able to prevent it from snowballing when it does happen.
Third a conference championship is there for us. We can beat everyone left, I'm certain we have the best defense in the conference and our offense has improved and can get better.
Finally WE ARE 3-1. DO YOU GET THAT. WE ARE WINNING GAMES. WE SCORED 37 POINTS while there is no reason to be complacent THERE IS NO REASON FOR ALL OF YOU TO COMPLAIN AS IF WE WERE 1-3. Get over yourselves and realize there is a whole lotta good going on with this team.
There is some sort of syndrome among Utah fans that has the bulk of us beliving that we are always worse than we are. I've never understood it but then again I was not a Utah fan till 1989 and I never knew the years and years of losing. Think how much people have complained in the 7-4 years. Hell we won 9 games in 1999 but you would have never guessed it talking to U fans. Somehow when we went 4-7 Utah fans look at it as if we actually lost more games than we played 0-16 on an 11 game schedule. When the team does well few are happy, can't wait to point out the negatives and are always waiting for the shoe to drop.
I guess its because Utah football was so bad for so long that everyone has trouble accepting that we're not so bad anymore.
The other thing is that BYU had so much success in the 70's and 80's beating teams with high scores that too many football fans in Utah equate scoring high as the only way of being truly successful. BYU fans point to a 52-52 tie with SDSU in the early 90's as a great glory. Few people have an appreciation for a defensive buttwhooping. Utah has had some amazing defenses under Mac but it somehow goes unappreciated. I've always had this theory that BYU fans would rather lose a game 58-56 than win 10-3. I think alot of Ute fans have fallen into this offensive trap.
This new Ute offense is a thing of beauty. No it won't put up 70 but it leaves the defense running all over the field and in the 4th quarter we can simply run down their throats. There is no way to really stop it, you can slow it down but thats half the goal of the thing anyway. But if its not doing oopdeoops and triple reverse passes people just scream its boring. I'll never leave a game where the Utes score 23 second half points and 37 total and go it was boing.
This was a ramble but its a problem created from several causes.
1. You thought the attendance for the UNM game was bad, wait until this week. I don't know who the genius who puts together the schedules is, but he scheduled it to start exactly the same time as the General Conference Priesthood Session. We'll be lucky to pull 15,000.
2. Those middle screens to Russell are a thing of beauty. It's really a simple thing, he gets the ball, he stutters, the down field blocks hit, and BAM!, he's gone. You can't turn your head fast enough to keep up with him. It's nice to see his speed when he doesn't have to worry about timing or underthrown balls, etc.
3. Once again I ask, how awesome is our offensive line? UNM came into this game with 13 sacks. They left with 14. UNM came in averaging 27 yards per game on the ground. The Utes put up 10x that amount. Rice and Breska weren't even really hurried that much. If they keep playing like that, I don't think there's a team out there that can hold our rush O under a buck fifty.
4. We actually were able to learn something about Breska in his 3 series this weekend. We learned that he's pretty freakin' slow. WOW, is he slow. On that one scramble, I thought he was walking. He's John Walsh slow. He really does have a gun, though. I'll bet there's a nice little bruise on Arceneaux's chest from where the ball hit him on that 3 yard crossing route.
5. After watching the game on tape last night, I can't really blame the interception Rice threw entirely on Rice. Yes, he shouldn't have thrown the ball into double coverage like that, but that was his only option - other than throwing it into the stands. Tate and Hunter stayed home to pick up the blitz, Fortune fell down, and Dennis Smith didn't turn around and look at Rice after releasing. He was wide open 6 yards down the field, but looked like he was still looking for someone to block. Russell was the only one out on a route. That said, the pass was still underthrown pretty badly.
6. All of a sudden, I'm confused about what to think of our offense. We looked unstoppable in our first drives the last two weeks. Then we've stalled for long periods of time. Then, we've exploded. I learned this weekend that this offense DOES have the potential to score quickly and be explosive. We already knew that this team can put together long, time-consuming drives. What we also learned this weekend is that this team can look remarkably like last year's offense in spurts. I'm not going to complain about 37 points and a 3 TD victory, but I'd still like to see a little more consistency in the offense.
7. I officially withdraw the Antwoine Sanders/Harold Lusk comparisons. Sanders IS capable of tackling people. Lusk's specialty was slowing them down - usually only allowing 5-7 more yards - until the other DB's could get over and help.
8. I also officially withdraw my pre-season comment that we probably wouldn't have a 1,000 yard rusher, but have 3 700 yard rushers. Hunter's already at 508. Tate's right around 180, I think. Hunter's on pace for 1,400, but I don't think he'll get that many. I'd imagine he'll be well into the 1,100-1,200 range. Tate's yardage will depend a lot on when Marty Johnson gets back, and how many carries he gets. I also think I may have underestimated the 2,100 rush yards our team would rack up this year. We're at 818 already, and we're only 4 games in. Granted, we see some good defenses later in the season, but we're on pace for 2,250 and that's without Marty Johnson.
8. Did I mention that Jason Kaufusi is good? When I saw the game I realized that he's only 249. Nevertheless, he buckles TE's and Tackles with alarming regularity. He's already got 7 TFL. Also, it was nice to see Marcus Jones have a decent game. We need more speed in the pass rush. We got 3 sacks against UNM, and he was in on two of them.
9. There are an awful lot of one dimensional offenses in this league. UNM looked a little better in the pass game when they switched QB's. Camaano looked awful in his few series. UNLV can't pass to save their lives. SDSU's passing game is questionable, as is CSU's. How sad is it that Utah will probably put up over 2,000 yards on the ground this year, and still have the second most balanced offense in the conference. The days of the Wacky WAC are gone, folks.
10. The D was incredible again. They held UNM to 14 points, and they haven't scored under 24 all year. However, I don't buy the people saying, "Yeah, and one of the drives was only 9 yards because of a Ute turnover." UNM in the drive previous to that had rammed it down our throats til they got to the 9, and they fumbled. Breska fumbled back on the 9 one play later. I count that as one sustained drive. That said, UNM only put together 2 solid drives all day - the one described above, and one resulting in a missed FG. That's nice defense.
GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last modified .