Wednesday, October 16. 2013Red, Blue And Pigskin
Well that just happened!
As fans of Utah and Byu, we've seen plenty of National Championship hopes and dreams die on our own home fields. But that's because, if we're being honest, any national championship hope was false to begin with. Especially in today's climate of College Football. Last Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium, we saw an entirely different National Championship dream die. And it was glorious! But before we get to last Saturday's major upset for the Utes, there was another unexpected event down in Provo last week, and no not the outcome of that game. Where Has That Been
The fact that Byu beat Georgia Tech isn't that surprising. After all Byu embarrassed a superior Georgia Tech team last year at home. Plus there isn't a better coach in the country when it comes to defending the Triple Option than Bronco Mendenhall (Something I forgot in my pre-season predictions). No the surprising aspect of the game was the performance of Taysom Hill, both from an efficiency standpoint, and an accuracy standpoint. I've said before, that I have seen nothing from Taysom to make me think he's anything more than a faster, smarter Riley Nelson. In otherwords, a 1 Read, Huck and Pray, or Take off running type of Quarterback. For once, Taysom actually showed the ability to sit in a pocket, make a couple reads, and actually throw some nice passes. The first Touchdown pass to Cody Hoffman was beautiful, not just because it was a long pass, but because it was dropped perfectly for only an in the process of being absolutely mauled Hoffman to catch. There were other passes as well. On the next drive, Hill threw a perfect pass down the field that hit Ross Apo square in the bread basket. Although Apo didn't catch it, and was bailed out by a pass interference call, doesn't change that Hill made a beautiful throw. On the day Hill was 19/27 (70%) for 244 yards (9.0 ypa) and 1 TD. Now granted, Hill wasn't pressured much, and that will change in the future when the terrible Byu offensive line faces tougher defense such as Notre Dame and Wisconsin, but for the first game Taysom actually looked like he could be a decent QB. Of course the fact that the Go fast, Go hard, has slowed down just a bit helps Hill out as well. An Intriguing Stretch At the halfway point of the season Byu sits at 4-2. Which is better than I expected. I am 2-3-1 in my pre-season predictions for the Cougars. As expected they loss to Utah, and Beat Middle Tennessee. I predicted both Byu and Utah State would lose the USU game, but I thought it would be closer, and might have been had Byu not decided to blast the Aggies back into irrelevance by ending Keeton's season. Where I missed was the Georgia Tech game, and of course the two surprising outcomes of the season, the Great win over Texas, and the embarrassing loss to Virginia. What comes next for Byu is a very intriguing stretch of games. Of the next 5 games, only 1 game is without a doubt, the annual prostitution game, this year against Idaho State. Of the other 4, All of them are up in the air. Byu could go anywhere from 4-0, to 0-4 in them, and I wouldn't be all that shocked. First up is a road game against untested, and undefeated Houston, Than a wounded Boise State Broncos team comes to Provo, after that is the biggest remaining test of the year for the Cougars as they travel to Wisconsin. Idaho State follows that before Byu goes back to Notre Dame for another matchup. While the Cougars do have one more game following this stretch, the perception of the season, and of this year's squad will be written over the next six weeks (Bye week between Boise and Wisconsin). 5 wins, and you can't help but think of this season as a resounding success. Even if this schedule didn't end up as tough as it looked before the year began, it's still a much tougher schedule than the Cougars are used to. 4 wins, and this season is still a success, 3 wins, and it'll depend on which games were won or lost. But that's the story still to be written, and the ink begins to flow Saturday in Texas. Who Are The Cougars Byu travels to Houston to face the Houston Cougars. Houston, has in previous years been known for the high powered, high scoring offense that former Head Coach Kevin Sumlin is now unleashing upon the SEC. Last year, Houston fell flat ending the season at 5-7. This year has been different. Currently the Cougars are sitting undefeated at 5-0, averaging 287 yards passing and 188 yards rushing per game, while scoring 40 points and giving up only 19. The only problem is, that we have no idea if they are any good. The level of opposition they've faced up to this point, have been dreadful. Their 5 opponents have 0 (Temple), 1 (Memphis), 2(UTSA), 3 (Division 1-AA Southern) and 4 (Rice) wins. Byu will be the best defense they've face, and represent the start of an great increase in schedule difficulty. Byu's defense will be the toughest test to date for Houston, but one also has to wonder. The key to this matchup will be how the weak point of the Byu defense, the secondary, handles an extremely potent passing threat. This is the best passing team that Byu has faced since the rivalry game. Hunting For That Elusive Win The University of Utah is in it's third season in the Pac-12. During each of it's first two season, the Utes never beat a Pac-12 foe with a winning record. It's best win since joining the Pac-12 came against Georgia Tech in the 2011 Sun Bowl, and it's best win in each of the past two regular seasons was the victory that year over Byu. Utah has been in dire need of getting a victory over a winning Pac-12 conference mate. A win that would say to the rest of the conference we aren't just a doormat. Unfortunately, they've gotten more laughable losses (2011 Colorado), than quality wins. That's not to say they haven't been close. In 2011, in their first every conference game in the Pac-12, the Utes were lining up for a final play, game tying field goal against Usc in the Coliseum. Only to see it blocked and returned for a touchdown. Last year, in Travis Wilson's first game, the Utes lost by 7 to Ucla, and lost a close game against then 8th ranked Oregon State. This year, they again lost to Oregon State in a nail biter in overtime, and despite 5 turnovers, the Utes had the ball in the final minute looking to tie the game up against Ucla, before Wilson threw his sixth interception. Utah has been close, but had never been able to get over the hump. They had never been able to get that statement win. That changed Saturday night. Statement Made Saturday night the 5th Ranked Stanford Cardinal came in with National Championship aspirations. They came in with a 13 game winning streak. Their quarterback came in, having never lost a game as a starter in his college career. They left having suffered the biggest upset of the year in a 27-21 defeat, and were the biggest upset ever by the Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Utes meanwhile, finally had their statement game. A statement made all the louder by the way they won the game. This wasn't simply a lucky win by an underdog. This was a team that came out against a bully, and owned the game. Although, that doesn't mean Utah didn't have to survive the initial wave of the game. On their first drive, Stanford marched down the field for a quick Touchdown. When Utah answered with a Touchdown drive of their own, Stanford followed it up with a Kickoff return for a touchdown. Utah teams of the last few years would have folded, but not this one. From that point on Utah's offense was almost unstoppable, and the defense held the Cardinal power offense in check. Credit goes to Defensive Coordinator Kalani Sitake who's called three great defensive games in a row since his defensive line crapped the bed against Oregon State. The line pressured Kevin Hogan, and kept running back Tyler Gafney in tow, never letting either get comfortable. With the defense doing it's part, the offense took care of it's side of the ball. Offensive Coordinator Dennis Erickson must have seen during film study that Stanford didn't have the speed to protect the edges, because they attacked the edges all game long. Wether it was Bubba Poole and Lucky Radley running to the outside, or Travis Wilson picking apart Stanford's defense with Bubble Screen and quick slants on the edges, the Utah offense moved down the field drive after drive. That said, what good is a statement, without a little bit of intrigue, and with 40 seconds to go, Stanford down by 6 on the 6 yard line. 4th and 2. Utah sends a blitzer, and pressures Hogan. Two plays later, Wilson snaps the ball, takes a knee, flashes the U, and the Utes finally, after oh so many close calls, and moral victories, finally have a victory that counts. Building On The Progress So now that Utah has their statement victory, it's time to forget all about it. It was great, it was arguably the greatest regular season victory in Utah history, but it means nothing if Utah doesn't answer the bell the rest of the year. Don't forget the last time an unranked Utes beat a near top 10 pac-12 team at home, it followed it up the next week by losing 27-0 to an eventual 2 win Unlv team. The good news for the Utes is that Unlv isn't on their schedule. The bad news for the Utes is every team left on their schedule is better than those old Unlv Team. Utah sits at 4-2 just like Byu. Right where I thought they'd be, only I figured they'd swap the Oregon State and Stanford results. And while it's tempting to want to bask in the glow of the Stanford victory and raise the expectations for this season, they still are the same. This team has to get bowl eligible first, and then move on from there. Of their remaining 6 games there's only one that Utah will be the clear favorite (Colorado), and only one they'll be the clear underdog (Oregon). The rest of the games are close to even. The hard part of the second half of the season, is this weird thing the Utes have yet to discover this season. It's called an out of state game. That starts with this week's game against Arizona. The View From The Red Zone There was a strange feeling at the game. The crowd started the game extremely tight and tentative. It seemed like they knew that Utah could possibly keep the game close, but also very easily let the game get away from them and it turn into a blowout. I think that's why it also took awhile for the crowd to feel in. The first quarter really had the sway of emotions in the crowd. When Stanford scored, you could feel the crowd sinking. Utah's quick answer gave the crowd some hope, that was quickly dashed by Montgomery's kick return. There was almost a feeling the other shoe was going to drop. Utah's ensuing quick drive and punt didn't help. It wasn't until Stanford missed a field goal, and Utah tied it up, and the 2nd quarter reached the midway point before the crowd really started to get into it. As the crowd began to realize they were about to see something special, the stadium began to reach it's normal levels of loud. And then with about 7 minutes to go in the game Utah went three and out giving Stanford the ball with a 6 point deficit. Fans who had been beaten down by those close calls could sense "it happening again". The final drive was a true roller coast, as Utah would force third down getting the crowd into it, and than allow Montgomery to get a first down, deflating the crowd. In the end the crowd was ecstatic, but throughout the game the desire to believe, combined with the shell shock of the close calls made for one of the more roller coaster crowds in recent memory. Wait Not All Football Games Are Played In Utah? For the first time this year, the Utes leave the state of Utah as they face the Arizona Wildcats. Last year the Wildcats ended the Utes bowl hopes in a 34-24 victory at Rice-Eccles. In that game Travis Wilson had the best game of his young career with 311 yards and 2 Td's, but it was all for naught as Ka'Deem Carey ran for 204 yards, while the Rich Rodriguez spread offense absolutely took advantage of Utah's overmatched line backing corps with Matt Scott running the zone read option to perfection and adding in another 74 yards rushing. This year, the Cardinal offense has struggled in finding it's footing. This year, it's all about Ka'Deem Carey for the Wildcats. Quarterback Bj. Denker often struggles with efficiency in passing, and is more a running threat than he is a passing threat. In truth the Wildcats offense is very similar to that which the Utes saw against Byu. And much like that game, the outcome of this game is going to come down to how well Utah's defensive line is able to contain Carey, and stop the run option. Much like the Byu game, if Utah can turn Arizona into a passing team, it plays into their favor. However, if Utah's defensive line isn't able to get pressure on the QB, and the Utes line backing corp, which will most likely be without Jason Whittingham (much like the Byu game) don't play their angles, and contain their responsibilities, Carey and Denker will run all over the Utes defense. Weird as it is to say, this game can earn the Utes more respect than the Stanford victory did. Any team can beat another on any given Saturday, but if the Utes can continue and build upon the Stanford victory by going on the road, and beating an average Arizona team, it can show that the Utes may finally be making the turn in their whole transition in the Pac-12. A loss, and it's just the Utes will be much like the Aggies, still struggling to be relevant. Schedule Notice The Utah game in the Coliseum against Usc has been schedule for 2p.m. Mountain time and be displayed on the Pac-12 network. Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
|
Handy LinksItems of InterestCategoriesBlog AdministrationSyndicate This BlogPowered byTheme dropdownBookmark |