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How much of last night’s performance was playing down to a lesser team?

Welcome Cyclones Fans! Forums Utah Utes Sports Football How much of last night’s performance was playing down to a lesser team?

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    • #66611
      Larry B
      Participant

      NIU looked much better than I expected but there is no reason that we shouldn’t have been able to push them around. So, either we’re not nearly as talented as we think, or we just expected to show up and go through the motions.

      My guess (or hope) is it’s more of the latter. I mean, would this be the first time you’ve seen a good Whitt coached team play down? I think we tried getting away with vanilla play calling against a good team that had everything to gain with a win and nothing to lose with a loss. They got some momentum early and ran with it.

      One thing that I noticed that makes me think the players just didn’t want to be there was the lack of energy. After Moss scored his TD, everyone just kinda jogged off the field almost as if they had been stopped on 4th down. I didn’t see hardly any passion all night.

      I still think there is a lot to work on before next Saturday but I’m not convinced we’re as bad as we showed last night. That game was the definition of a trap game and we nearly fell into it.

      Who knows, maybe that poor performance will light a fire under their asses and make them realize there are no days off. Here’s to hoping.

    • #66614
      ironman1315
      Participant

      This. From pregame comments by Whitt and from other things I read here we may have completely overlooked this team.

    • #66616
      2
      Utahute72
      Participant

      None.

      Sorry but Northern Illinois is a really good defensive team. As was pointed out they held Iowa to a single field goal until midway through the third quarter, at Iowa. This was going to be a tough game, and their defensive line is really quick.

      I think it points more to ingrained issues within our team than the old bromide of overlooking a team.

      • #66625
        UtahFanSir
        Participant

        I agree. The Utes have issues on the OL, play calling, special teams, to name a few. They had 9 days to prepared for NIU. Nine days. If the coaches did not overlook that team, then the issues are ingrained and systemic.

    • #66618
      EagleMountainUte
      Participant

      You can choose to believe whatever you want. I said the season begins the 15th all summer. We find out what this team is made of Saturday. I will be there. 

    • #66635
      Chidojuan
      Participant

      I choose hope.  The line wasn’t great last year, but they had some games when they played well.  It’s almost the same group of guys.  They have their issues, but I think they can be good enough to keep us competitive.  Coaching is a huge factor with them.  If Harding phoned it in against NIU, then you can bet the OL did the same.  If Harding keeps them focused and dialed in, we can actually compete.

    • #66662
      1
      Tacoma Ute
      Participant

      Hopefully we were just looking ahead to UW.

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