Sooooo after listening to Hans breakdown and watching the game again

[EagleMountainUte]

Came to the realization that the defensive game plan Utah used against Wazzu no way it works against SC. There is no way Anae or Tafua cover Pittman.

I think they came into the Coliseum using what they knew. For the most part I believe that loss was by and large on the DBs not playing the ball. I would have liked a third safety maybe. I still feel Utah’s defense did enough to win but could have made plays on those prayer passes.  Blackmon no brace and makes plays. Burgess was amazing against Wazzu. 

Utah oline was exposed at times against SC and suddenly they look better against Leaches fat dumb and happy dline. 

[UtesRule]

Offensive struggles in the red zone and penalties killed Utah in that game!

[MFury]

I thought that Ludwig was more creative in the red zone against wazzu.

[Chidojuan]

He was, and the OL was fixing their mistakes.

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

And not having Zack Moss.

[Chidojuan]

I think it was all on the OL unfortunately.  50/50 balls with those WR’s are ridiculous to defend.  OL needed to step up, and faltered.  Probably got used to Moss and Huntley bailing them out a bit.  I feel like we learned a lot, and Ludwig will take what they give him.  Probably more pocket passing against weak DL’s, and quick release stuff against UW and ASU to help us succeed.

[EagleMountainUte]

ASU has a comparable dline to SC. Washington will be the true test obviously. By then I hope they start to realize their potential and gel. If Huntley plays like he did going forward and stays healthy though they can beat anyone. 

[Chidojuan]

I think they will.  Just need to fix a few things and communicate.  Even though SC has amazing athletes on the DL, we would have won if we communicated.  Don’t know if it was too loud or just nerves or lack of cohesiveness.  When we get to UW, I think it will have been long enough to fix the mistakes and give Huntley time to do his thing.

[EagleMountainUte]

Well those short yardage shotgun plays. I can’t stand them Huntley is so good under center and so good on roll outs. Pass protection just isn’t there. 

[Utahute72]

There is a major difference in the Air Raid as implement at the two schoold. Wazzu uses a schematically well developed scheme. It is generally more effective because it puts receivers in perdictable spots on the field and then the QB can progress through the reads and find the open player. USC’s implementation is less rigorous and therefore less predictable. So when Utah crashes the backfield the Wazzu QB didn’t have time to make the correct read and so had to take the best one he could find. The USC QB, when he was under duress merely threw the ball deep and hoped his receiver could make the play, which they did. Add to this Utah planned for the offense run by Slovin, who has different strengths and weaknesses than Fink. So now with the ability to plan for the offense run by Fink, Washington could game plan more effectively. Utah still probably should have won that game without about four plays where players failed to execute properly.

[EagleMountainUte]

Watching the difference in how Utah played the ball between the two games is interesting. The DBs just expected to make a play. It was laziness. Versus Wazzu it was a sense of urgency. They broke quick and didn’t panic when they gave up some underneath routes.

I would have preferred some aggression and even holds with some PI’s it might have saved some touchdowns against SC. 

[alUmnUs]

Well USC beat Utah playing street ball. SC had no running game. They just big played Utah and Utes answered with gaffe after gaffe.

Whatever changes Utah made for Wazzu, they still could not afford to give up big plays for TDs. Wazzu is a big play team and Utes gave up 1 TD to that offense. How many defenses in the country could do that to Wazzu? That’s elite level D and probably Cal and UW are the only other PAC12 Ds that could limit Wazzu in such a way.

[EagleMountainUte]

I am interested to see Wazzu going forward. Obviously they feel like their season is done. Then combine that with Leach calling you out. Should be interesting to see going forward. They still have a great offense I think with NFL oline up front. 

I do not think many defenses could hold Leach to 13. It probably hasn’t been done very much. I know the second half scoreless thing is a huge anomaly for Leach. 

[Utahute72]

I talked to a Wazzu alum today and he felt they should have used Borghi more to control the ball and get first downs. We had made a similar observation sitting in the stands.

[EagleMountainUte]

They could have made an effort to rush and give their defense a chance. They were getting a fair amount of yards on runs. Leach didn’t adjust and lost which like Utah they never adjusted in the SC game really. 

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