Win the bye week…

[Rick]

I was impressed with Whittingham’s reaction/remarks following the loss. If you haven’t read the piece in the Deseret Morning News focused just on his response, I recommend it.

He’s committed to fixing the red zone issues. I hope so. The program is long overdue to modernize red zone strategy and practice. I love how many of our opponents approach the redzone – especially once they are inside the ten. It’s simply a foregone conclusion that the best programs will score a touchdown if they get a first down inside the ten. Failing all three times Saturday with the weapons we have was the hardest part of the game for me.

It was also difficult to see Arizona gash us running the ball so frequently. It’s not often that an opponent is able to do whatever they want against our defense. That was a game long trend that added to my frustration.

Arizona sure took advantage of the two weeks, didn’t they. I was impressed with their game plan and Fifita’s ability to make plays out of the pocket was tremendous. Our defensive ends have done a good job maintaining their lane integrity. Not so much Saturday. Perhaps it has more to do with Fifita’s athleticism.

Rising will make a significant difference but putting it all on him would be unfair. There are things to work on. I hope this team really is the talented group they appear to be. We’ll need more contributors and some significant progress on both sides of the ball if we’re going to reach the conference championship game.

I certainly believe that’s a possibility. It all starts this week. The U needs to follow Arizona’s lead and make sure they win the bye week.

[stbone]

At a high-level, we all expected a WTF loss, and here we are.

As a side rant, I hate the way Utah LB’s are coached and play, and this game exposed that technique. (The last LB that I enjoyed watching from a technique standpoint was Cody Barton). The LB’s seem to be coached to avoid blocks and quickly flow. That works IF your DL eats the vast majority of blocks. Arizona makes it hard for the DL to eat these blocks by frequent 2-man pulls. As a result, the DL wasn’t eating up as many blocks and the LBs were forced to deal with the linemen. But, instead of violently meeting the linemen near the LOS (per old-school technique), you see LB’s dodging blocks downfield and repeatedly taking themselves out of the play. It is a bit of old-school vs. new school, but I hate new school.

[stbone]

At a high-level, we all expected a WTF loss, and here we are.

As a side rant, I hate the way Utah LB’s are coached and play, and this game exposed that technique. (I should note, it is hard to argue with the results, most of the time, with our LB coaching). But, the last LB that I enjoyed watching from a technique standpoint was Cody Barton. The LB’s seem to be coached to avoid blocks and quickly flow. That works IF your DL eats the vast majority of blocks. Arizona makes it hard for the DL to eat these blocks by frequent 2-man pulls. As a result, the DL wasn’t eating up as many blocks and the LBs were forced to deal with the linemen. But, instead of violently meeting the linemen near the LOS (per old-school technique), you see LB’s dodging blocks downfield and repeatedly taking themselves out of the play. It is a bit of old-school vs. new school, but I hate new school.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Thanks Rick and Stbone. Always appreciate your posts. The red zone performance was bad. It’s been bad for a couple years. Not having that big back hurts. That RPO with Rising and TT was hard to stop. Rising will open the play book more.

Stbone I was watching Barton last game. He over ran a couple tackles and Fano lost containment a couple times. It was almost like they knew what our defense was going to do. I can only remember 1 sack and that was a coverage sack. We need OToole and Reid. Not having them showed up last game.

[Rick]

Jim,
I think they did know what we were doing at times based on the defensive look. They seemed to know some of our calls. It happens with great preparation.

The backers definitely need to accept some blame for Arizona’s success. I agree with ST. I also think the D’line, for whatever reason, weren’t the aggressors the majority of the time Saturday. They seemed to be hugging blocks more than getting in a first punch and directing a lineman.

By the way ST, I loved some of the pulls Arizona ran. There was some really good play design that must have been catered to defensive formations they expected. I have to tip the hat, but I also thought we played below the level of intensity we’ve seen previous weeks.

[Yergensen]

@Jim, it wasn’t having a big back in TT that made us red zone elite in 2021. It was TT’s elite vision combined with a really good OL and an elite pre-snap read QB in Cam.

Yes, TT was big, but he was 4.8 slow and mediocre after contact, not nearly as physical a runner as his size suggested. His height played a part, he ran pads high. But, TT could see the hole or developing hole as quickly as anyone.

TT 5.4 YPC in 2021, his banner year.
MB 6.7 YPC in 2024.

IMO we have the right personnel at RB. A big part of our red zone inefficiency is personnel usage. We’re using the wrong RB in Mitchell. We should be using a productive RB in MB and not an unproductive big back in Mitchell. MB gets yards, even tough yards and Mitchell doesn’t.

We’re also tipping our plays with personnel usage (see Mitchell and Lohner). When Mitchell is in we’re running between the tackles. When Lohner is in we’re throwing and targeting Lohner at the same time. Have to remove some of the predictability from our red zone personnel packages.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Good points. I think the big backs are able to move the pile a little more. JJ would have been a big help. I like MB and I agree he is the best we have in short yardage but he hits the wall and is stopped. A big back might be able get an extra 1/2 yard with body lean.

Mitchell hasn’t shown he can get the extra yard. I don’t remember ever spreading the field on the goal line failures. With Wilson why not roll out and have the run pass option on the edge.

[Kek U]

Definitely not losing this week

I know the future

[Author]

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