The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

[UTE98]

Okay, I’ll go in reverse order, I can’t sleep and thought I’d throw these out there.

The Ugly 

Our special teams, other than the kick offs, and receving kick offs. I’ve been watching for which teams take the fair catch inside the 25 and which don’t, I think the fair catch is the best option, unless the ball is kicked directly to you and the kicking team hasn’t had time to run down yet. Take the ball on the 25. (Side note, I saw a player call for a fair catch right by the sideline today, why not just let that go out, ball still goes to the 35 right? Hope we don’t see a Ute make this mistake.)

Our offensive line – I think part of tonight’s problem is our OL isn’t set up to block undersized speedy guys. We’re built for the Pac12, and I hope it plays out that way. Tyler seemed to get flushed out of the pocket too much, there were a couple plays he took off and the pocket hadn’t totally collapsed.

Turn over battle, if it weren’t for Hanson’s pick-6 I’d rate this really ugly.

Agasiva – yes you get a special call out. We all know your name, and we wish we didn’t know it so well from the penalties.

Blackmon – maybe you should cover your man from the same county. If you fear getting beat deep run more wind sprints and hills.

We lost the field position battle, 11 of our drives started inside our own 30, the two fumble recoveries and interception were around their 40 yard line, then the last turnover on downs we got at our own 47.

The bad

Our offense, we haven’t seemed to have a plan yet. Maybe we’re just playing vanilla because of the first two opponents, but I really haven’t seen a lot of imagination or originality in the play calling. Doesn’t seem we’re using more than just the play action from under center to set up a different play.

The line on FG attempts, whatever the problem, whether it’s the snap, the hold, the kick, something needs to get fixed and fast. Do you bench a Groza award winner? Sure he got the job based on one missed FG, why not give his backup the same shot?

Nacua – self explanatory

Wishnowsky – the fake punt last week was great but kick the ball far down the field, preferable inside the 20.

The Good

As wimpy as our offense has been I’ve got to give credit to a few position groups/players.

TEs – these guys have surprised me thus far, good receiving, good blocking and not too many mistakes.

Covey – he is a game changer, and he appears to make good decisions. He’s bailed Tyler out a couple times coming back to the ball when he is scrambling.

Enis – Not much from him this game, but last week he showed how good he could be.

Mariner – he didn’t show much tonight but had a good game last week.

Dixon – he has just made plays, catching the difficult balls by making great adjustments.

Green – he appears to be a better back than Shyne. Sadly I think Shyne sees less and less time as the year goes on.

Hansen – you covered the spread, why I care is sad. Should have been more offensive points on the board.

Penisini – Anae had a good game last week, but Penesini has been more stable.

[Duhwayne]

Good list.

[tarheelute]

Thanks – missed watching the game.  

[EagleMountainUte]

The best:

Health other than Moss and his ankle. This might be the healthiest Utah team heading into conference play we have ever had. Whitt said on Moss we just have to wait a day and see if it is ok. It will be talked about on Monday’s presser I am sure. 

Don’t understand you bagging on Blackmon he saved a TD late with an athletic jump. JJ is the one who had a poor game imo. 

[Wilson’s Mustache]

You both are crazy. I thought both Blackmon and JJ played well. We held NIU to 111 yards on 35 attempts. What exactly are your expectations?

[ironman1315]

JJ made a couple of bad decisions that he lucked out of. I don’t expect it to happen again.

[RiseasUtes]

Yeah, he was easily beat for a TD if the QB didn’t overthrow that ball.

[EagleMountainUte]

Poor by his usual outstanding play. First half was rough. Overall defense played well despite TOP. A

[//r00t4Utes]

Other than a few plays in the 1st Qtr (I think he was slow to react and thinking too much early) I thought Chase was the defensive player of the game and the Oline needs to buy him all his meals for the rest of the season because he saved their pathetic butts.

Believe Chase had 2 sacks and an INT for TD and a good amount of tackles, I would guess 2nd highest last night, that is just a guess going off of memory.

[UTE98]

Yes, Chase did have a pretty good game, forgot about his awesome sack and pretty good overall play. Overshadowed by his pick 6.

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