1. As I said last night, with just a normal, mediocre, pedestrian performance by the Utes, this game is an easy W. The Utes had to actually work hard to lose and, even with that, were just a couple of plays from victory.
2. Either Rising is still injured, he’s been figured out by opposing defenses, or after a long string of good games he’s regressing to his actual skill level. Since the USC game, he has just been off and not playing well. He’s been missing easy throws, making bad decisions, and just being wildly inconsistent. In a game like last night, a Rising that just stays within himself and plays mistake-free football contributes to an easy Utah win.
3. The playcalling and personnel usage in some critical parts of the game was just not up to standard. Why the f**k do you use Nate Johnson to wild success in games that don’t mean crap and then, in a game, that means everything, and where his wheels could be useful, he doesn’t get a sniff of the field?
4. Big props to the defense for carrying this game and especially for the adjustments made in the second half. The defense limited the Ducks to just 100 yards in the second half, contributed seven points to the effort, held Oregon to just three points, and were a shoestring tackle to CP3 from adding another seven points to the total. Again, in a normal Ute game, those stats are part of an easy Utah win.
5. Unbelievably, Utah is still not eliminated from the CCG. If everybody that’s supposed to win next week does so and Oregon State beats Oregon in Corvallis (which wouldn’t surprise me at all, given how they’ve been playing), then Utah will play USC in the CCG. The problem with that scenario is that Utah will be playing USC in the CCG and USC has all their injured guys, with the exception of Dye back. I just don’t see Utah being able to keep up with USC’s firepower again, especially if Utah is in USC’s way before playing in the CFP.
BYU @ 
Utah 
.
