Due to some family issues, I was unable to attend the game Saturday. But two things stood out that absolutely drives me nuts. We are not unique with this as I see this all the time. In essence, it’s coaches out coaching themselves.
Example one: We were basically steam rolling Colorado in the ground game. Practically everytime we ran, we got really good yardage. I get in the first half, you want to mix it up, so I was ok with the amount of passes. But then in the 3rd, we went heavy on the pass game and light on the run. Why? It made no sense. We gave the ball back to CU 2 or three times after very short drives.
Example two: We played man coverage almost exclusively in the first half. CU got nothing on us. They had one decent drive and that was it. 3rd Qtr comes along and we switch to mainly zone. CU exploits it at will and marches down the field 3 drives in a row (we did switch to man on some key downs, but it was the exception). Again, why?
The offensive was the most confusing as I cannot for the life of me figure how TT thought that was what was needed. My only conclusion was that he figured CU was going to stack the box and the passing lanes would be there. But I guess he failed to notice that in the 2nd they were already stacking the box and it didn’t help.
On Defense, one could argue that Scalley was trying to play it safe, keep the plays in front of us and clamp down when needed. If so, why? If you defense got you to that point, stay with it! It’s no larger of a risk than you were dealing with the first two quarters.
I really do believe that coaches worst enemies are themselves. Isn’t that correct Pete Carroll?
Regardless, they got it figured out and that is what matters. Good job overall. Go Utes!