Washington Game Observations

Gameday was a rough day.  Tailgating was great though.  We had greek lamb and “manestra,” which is like greek spaghetti.  On the way from the tailgate to the game though, my friend started to feel ill.  In line to get in the game, my lovely bride couldn’t find her ticket.   She went back to the tailgate while I went in with my friend who didn’t feel well.  My wife ran back to the tailgate and found her ticket on the GROUND.  The high winds didn’t blow it away and amazingly nobody found it and scalped it.  During the national anthem my unwell friend yacked.  Not thrilling. Hope it wasn’t the lamb.  That’s the game setup for you.

Washington Comments

Washington was an extremely balanced and disciplined team. They were not weak in any area.  D, O, and special teams for them were all solid. Not many penalties and not many mistakes.  Peterson is hell of a coach, unfortunately for us. 

The biggest thing that stood out to me was that their offensive line pretty much owned our defense.  They were gashing 10+ yard runs.  In the first quarter they were getting outside and burning us.  So we adjusted.  Then they gashed us in the middle.  Nice chess match.  The holes and cutbacks for their solid running back were large.  

I didn’t think “Jack” Browning looked like a Heisman contender.  He was solid of course, but not like when we had Marcus Mariota at our place.  Big difference.  Maybe that was a little bit of our defense.  Let’s go with that.

I didn’t feel they were that far beyond the Utes in talent, but they did have an advantage.  The differences were in their discipline, lack of penalties, and I think superior play calling/coaching.

That pooch kick in the 4th was tremendous, leaving the Utes on the 1.  Many people look at the punt return for a TD as the back breaker of the game, but pinning us on the 1 and then playing very good defense set all of that up for Washington.

Utah Comments

I figured the Utes would get Washington to play the Utah game, which they did. I’m guessing we held them to some of their lowest offensive outputs of the season.  That’s how the Utes are. 

The Utes shot themselves in the foot on many occasions with overthrows, balls going right through receivers’ hands, and penalties.  There were other mistakes which were costly like the punt coverage (despite the blocks in the back there was no contain), and going for a hail mary when all we needed was a first down.

I’m surprised that we have NOT been unable to get to opposing quarterbacks this season, like we are accustomed to over the past few seasons. It seems like we are half a second from making a sack, but the opposing QB gets off some great play.  3rd and 10 and they get a first.  Frustrating.  So close but so far.

Our tackling has been suspect this season and there were some very bad missed tackles against Washington.  Domo got juked out of his jockstrap and it seems like our linebackers were not getting free to make tackles.  I’m beginning to fear that our defense is becoming an average Pac-12 defense.  In other words, mediocre.  

On the positive sides are Chase Hansen and Joe Williams.  Joe was fantastic, with around 200 yards.  Chase was all over the field, including a rare interception of “Jack” Browning. 

Hats off to Washington.  They were the better team.  It was impressive that the Utes had a chance to win it at the end, despite the mistakes.