My two cents on the game

[ProudUte]

First of all, I believe we learned very little last night.

My Positives:

Kincaid was a nice surprise.  Runs good routes and has great hands.

Lloyd played as expected.

Tavion ran for 9 yards a carry and had two TDs.  I believe he will be RB1.

Very happy for Enis.

Goal-line stand.

Brewer looked good/not great

My disappoinbtments

Too many dropped passes including two missed TDs.

There has been a lot of comments on the Oline.  I have to admit I did not watch the line in detail.  IMO they allowed too much pressure on Brewer and the holes for the running game were not great.  KW said he was a bit disappointed in the line.  Obviously, some guys were missing, but not being able to get the push to get a guy in from 18 inches out against WSU is a huge failure IMO.  I don’t think they were terrible, just not good enough against an FCS team.

2nd string defense was bad.

Kickoff coverage was terrible on the kick return.

Conclusion

We did not look great IMO last night, but there were some good things to build on and most problems are fixable.  I am one who thinks we need to play better to beat our other in-state rival and I think we will play better.  The team from Provo has much more talent than the one from Ogden.

I would have liked to play better overall, but I am not really worried.

Go Utes!!!

 

[MDUte]

I’m with ya Proud…good synopsis! I too believe the issues are all fixable and lucky for us our season opener this year was against an FCS opponent. 

Degree of difficulty goes up next week. But with an extra 2 days of preparation, I’m confident Whitt and staff will have our guys dialed in and ready to go.

Go Utes!!

[AlohaUte]

Good synopsis and I agree. I will say, I was very pleased with Brewer and Rising. Both are huge upgrades over Bentley. I didn’t see hardly anything to complain about with Brewer.

[GameForAnyFuss]

A couple thoughts to add to your (very good) thoughts:

– Weber rushed 6 or 7 all night long. The sheer number of bodies was bound to give our patchwork OL some trouble. Of course, the downside of that strategy is that a poised QB like Brewer can just sidestep the pressure and then pick apart the coverage downfield, which is exactly what he did. If BYU-Provo Campus tries the same thing (which I expect they will), the result will be similar.

– We had the dropsies. It’s the first game of the year – I expected this. It will get better next game. I was honestly pleased with the discipline and lack of penalties. I thought there would be more.

– The biggest improvement a team makes is between the 1st and 2nd games of the year. I expect we’ll see something more like the finished product next game.

[Central Coast Ute]

Exactly. Sometimes you just don’t have enough blockers. They rush 7, we have 5 lineman and then you get people screaming about how the O line is horrible and Harding needs to be fired. Smh.

[Dresden_Stormblessed]

I’ll add my two cents as well here.

Brewer’s the real deal gents. He threw guys open and made great reads and decisions. Our drops were on the receivers and they were shaking their heads and upset at themselves instead of at the QB. With that said, Rising is a beast too. For the first time in I don’t know how long, I am confident in both QB1 & QB2. There’s some serious relief that I didn’t know was possible.
I can’t give the O-line play a grade because I think in order to see how good they actually were, you need to see the film and study it. There were a few broken plays and several times we got pushed back which was surprising. Some blown assignments but that’s expected on game one. I don’t have any complaints other than surprise at a few mistakes on Ford for his snaps. Nothing he can’t clean up though. When I’m watching the game, I track the ball. In film though, I’m watching the trenches because SO much is going on and it takes time to digest it all.
Lloyd is a freaking beast. Pick, forced fumble, most tackles on team, most solo tackles on team, sack, and just rocking the field. Because of how good he is, Sewell needed to step up and I believe he did. I’m so happy we have such a stacked LB team.
I was happy to see Sack Lake City back in action. We could have gotten a few more I think but their QB impressed me, especially given that he’s a freshman. He seemed composed and he juked our guys a couple of times. I give him props honestly. Overall though, our defense dominated as expected and were free of mental errors. That one drive though wasn’t fun to watch ngl.
I think Xavier had a great game.
Dalton Kincaid is the TRUTH and I can’t handle it.
Tavion needs some polishing but he is GOOD.
That said, I find it interesting but not surprising that Micah Bernard, who wasn’t recruited by any blue blood program, is honestly better than both TJ Pledger and Chris Curry. TnT and Bernard will be our 1-2 punch. TnT impressed me by his quickness in decision-making. Micah impressed me with his hands. He’s a versatile weapon and I’m glad we have him.
Jaylen Dixon was surprisingly not utilized that much except distraction. Same goes for Vele.
Super happy for Solomon to get his TD. Means a lot to him. I was surprised that the team didn’t swarm him too quickly which makes me question whether the team is all in with him i.e. if they know he’s unhappy being here?
Brewer could have had 3 more TDs to his name: drops by TJ & Fotheringham and Covey didn’t stretch for the goal line and all 3 should have had those. This would be a significantly different post-game experience if Brewer had 5 TDs. I’m honestly not worried whatsoever about our passing game. What a statement that is being a Utah fan.
I think our CB’s played great. Several good, smart plays.
Mental errors were few and far between it looked like to me. There’s stuff we have to work on but honestly? Who DOESN’T say that after their first game of the season. Heck, we’re still saying it halfway through the season let alone our first game in front of fans in two years. 
If I were to be disappointed in any performance, it would be Fotheringham since he dropped a TD and he was the reason Curry didn’t score on the 1 (he got BLOWN UP). The rest of the line was fine on that play. The others is special teams for obvious reasons.

Go Utes! Get ready for next week boys!

[Yergensen]

A couple of things to add…to be fair to the receivers the drops last night were committed by a couple TE and a RB.  Not nitpicking here but our receiver group has received a rap over the years as being drop prone, they weren’t last night.  

Bernard will be in the mix because he does everything well.  He’s best in pass pro, ball security, catching the ball and he ran for 6 ypc last night overshadowed by Thomas’ 9 ypc.  We started to see those 2 in a tighter rotation towards the end and could be where things go.

[MDUte]

Couldn’t agree more…well said, as always, Dres!!!

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