Not a great opener.
I’m beyond thankful that there were no injuries; although I hope Handley is okay, otherwise we are very thin at TE (again).
Defense:
Looked okay. Not a lot of pressure on the QB. But I expect that this was a result of a vanilla playbook. We rarely rushed more than 4-5. Didn’t see Lotuleilei taking up blocks like I had hoped.
Secondary needs improvement. Too much soft coverage. No ball hawks. We had the one pick, which he could’ve turned up field but was conservative and ran out of bounds (which I understand week one).
Offense:
O Line: what was going on? Couldn’t run block to save their lives and several false starts. There was decent pass protection, but not nearly what I expected from what was touted as one of the best lines in the conference.
Run game: Joe Williams clearly hasn’t fixed his fumble problems. Hold on to the goddamn ball. McCormick had some great runs, but I think it’s clear that he can’t run between the tackles.
Receivers: Saw some drops. Hoped to see some more aggressive route running. That ball that hit a ref was infuriating.
QB: One of few bright spots on the offensive side. Made good decisions. Had some good throws and only ran when he needed to. Hoped to see Huntley get a TD.
Overall: I’m worried for next week. I understand that we probably kept things vanilla for this week. But next week is a rivalry game. Early. It’s the Holy War. What was put on the field tonight will not win a game against TDS-P. Or a game against USC, UCLA, UW, Oregon, etc.
I hope that tonight was a result of playing conservative and not showing much, and I’m thankful that nobody got seriously hurt (hope Handley is okay)
Go Utes!