Washington Game Observations

[Tony (admin)]

Gameday was a rough day.  Tailgating was great though.  We had greek lamb and “manestra,” which is like greek spaghetti.  On the way from the tailgate to the game though, my friend started to feel ill.  In line to get in the game, my lovely bride couldn’t find her ticket.   She went back to the tailgate while I went in with my friend who didn’t feel well.  My wife ran back to the tailgate and found her ticket on the GROUND.  The high winds didn’t blow it away and amazingly nobody found it and scalped it.  During the national anthem my unwell friend yacked.  Not thrilling. Hope it wasn’t the lamb.  That’s the game setup for you.

Washington Comments

Washington was an extremely balanced and disciplined team. They were not weak in any area.  D, O, and special teams for them were all solid. Not many penalties and not many mistakes.  Peterson is hell of a coach, unfortunately for us. 

The biggest thing that stood out to me was that their offensive line pretty much owned our defense.  They were gashing 10+ yard runs.  In the first quarter they were getting outside and burning us.  So we adjusted.  Then they gashed us in the middle.  Nice chess match.  The holes and cutbacks for their solid running back were large.  

I didn’t think “Jack” Browning looked like a Heisman contender.  He was solid of course, but not like when we had Marcus Mariota at our place.  Big difference.  Maybe that was a little bit of our defense.  Let’s go with that.

I didn’t feel they were that far beyond the Utes in talent, but they did have an advantage.  The differences were in their discipline, lack of penalties, and I think superior play calling/coaching.

That pooch kick in the 4th was tremendous, leaving the Utes on the 1.  Many people look at the punt return for a TD as the back breaker of the game, but pinning us on the 1 and then playing very good defense set all of that up for Washington.

Utah Comments

I figured the Utes would get Washington to play the Utah game, which they did. I’m guessing we held them to some of their lowest offensive outputs of the season.  That’s how the Utes are. 

The Utes shot themselves in the foot on many occasions with overthrows, balls going right through receivers’ hands, and penalties.  There were other mistakes which were costly like the punt coverage (despite the blocks in the back there was no contain), and going for a hail mary when all we needed was a first down.

I’m surprised that we have NOT been unable to get to opposing quarterbacks this season, like we are accustomed to over the past few seasons. It seems like we are half a second from making a sack, but the opposing QB gets off some great play.  3rd and 10 and they get a first.  Frustrating.  So close but so far.

Our tackling has been suspect this season and there were some very bad missed tackles against Washington.  Domo got juked out of his jockstrap and it seems like our linebackers were not getting free to make tackles.  I’m beginning to fear that our defense is becoming an average Pac-12 defense.  In other words, mediocre.  

On the positive sides are Chase Hansen and Joe Williams.  Joe was fantastic, with around 200 yards.  Chase was all over the field, including a rare interception of “Jack” Browning. 

Hats off to Washington.  They were the better team.  It was impressive that the Utes had a chance to win it at the end, despite the mistakes.

[Anonymous]

Great summary Tony.

Sorry that your friend got sick. Was he able to stay for the game?

[Anonymous]

I agree with most of what you said but I still don’t understand the average defense comments or the criticism with Scalley…..Utah’s defense did its job.  This is the same ole Utah unexplainable offense which cost them the game.  (Special teams coverage has been pretty gross all season, the only reason why punts don’t go for big gains is because of Wishnowsky)

[rbmw263]

allowing 8 yards per play is its job? It wasnt average defense. It was bad defense.

[Anonymous]

Yeah and you have to score more than 30 to win in the PAC12 which Washington clearly did.  This is just like the Cal game crap offensive play calling.  

[Crow]

They did not own us it is tough to get a pass rush when they are holding the majority of the time.

[Anonymous]

Re-watched the game on Football in 60.  I counted 4 dropped passes.  People complaining about that are off base.  That said, if Simpkins catches his missed pass on next to last possession, it’s likely a different game.  Moeai not getting out of bounds before the half, very likely cost us 4 points.  Moeai did redeem himself with two huge catches.  We were a split second late punching the ball out from Browing, which would have won the game.  There was a UW scoring drive in the 3rd where Gaskin just gashed us.  Tauteoli was whiffing on tackles.  Lot of missed tackles.  Then Utah tightened up quite well on the run in the 4th and really pressure Jack Browning.

The punt return, what can you say.  The initial missed tackle set it up, the the illegal blocks in the back finished it off.  I will note the Refs got Utah for an illegal block in the back earlier in he game.

We were very close.  Other than that 3rd quarter drive, they really did not dominate us.  I think a full team without our injured players wins it like they did last year.

[noneyadb]

What’s the down vote for this is a valid assesment? Utah played a terrible game and had the chance to win it… Hopefully they can get a rematch.

[Utahute72]

As much as drops, which always seem to come at critical times, it was noticeable in how much more space Browning had to throw into than Troy did. I receivers simply don’t do a good enough job of getting open.

[Author]

Posts