Thursday, November 13. 2014Red, Blue And Pigskin
Just another boring old weekend of football in the Beehive State where nothing at all memorable whatsoever happened.
Okay maybe not true, but it was, what has become this year, just another Saturday Night at Rice-Eccles. Also did you know that teams from the state of Utah have now lost 5 QB's, who have started at least one game, to season ending injury. One Play
I could bring up how Utah came out on fire and jumped to an early lead by moving the ball down the field, and by harassing the heck out of Mariota. I could bring up how Utah overcame the loss to the QB who started the game when Kendal Thompson went down with injury. I could bring up how the much maligned Travis Wilson overcame Booker fumbling on the first play after Wilson came into the game, and still managed to get 297 yards passing. I could mention how the Utes fought back and was within 3 points of the Ducks with just under 12 minutes to play in the game. I could bring up that Dave Christensen did a good job of completely changing the game plan for Kendal Thompson to start the game and gave fans a glimpse of how Thompson actually could be effective before his knee just collapsed on him. I could talk about how injuries just suck, and make you feel for these players after watching Thompson go down. After watching Tim Patrick go down. After watching Oregon TE Pharoah Brown go down with an injury severe enough he's still in a Salt Lake hospital. But none of that is what will be remembered about that game. Instead this game will forever be remembered for one play. It's a play that will go down in Utah lore. A colossal, monumental blunder. A moment of selfishness that turned what should have been a 14-0 lead for the Utes, into a 7-7 tie ball game. A play that the Utes took the rest of the quarter to shake off. A play that hung over every minute of the rest of the game. But everyone else is, or already has, talked about that play so much, including the Taiwanese, that I want to focus on other aspects. Like how Kaelin Clay shook off the blunder and still helped rack up the 3rd most all purpose yards by a single player in Div 1-A this season with 339, and in the process looked like the player to take over the stretch the field duties of Dres. Something that's going to desperately be needed with Tim Patrick going down. Or how Travis Wilson was actually able to be effective, once they stopped trying to make him a mobile QB, and instead put an extra back in the backfield, and let him set his feet. The 7 Also with Kendall Thompson out now, and Travis having thrown his first interceptions of the season, Wilson doesn't have anyone to look at over his shoulder. Maybe now he can just relax and go sling it. The score eventually got away from Utah, but Oregon is really good at taking close games and making them seem not close. Who knows what would have happened had Utah got that 14-0 lead with the way their defense was playing and the way the offense was moving the ball, but it was nice to see Utah fight back. The 7 points scored on that play were the first of 24 straight points by the Ducks, and with just over 2 minutes to go in the half, trailing 24-7, the Utes easily could have folded. They didn't, and in doing so have shown how far they've come in the last few years. View From The Red Zone Have you ever been in an car accident? Ever notice how when you see it coming, it's like time slows down? As if the world is slowing things down in order to give you a chance to avoid what is happening, only in a cruel irony there is absolutely nothing you can do. That's how it was Saturday Night. To go from the elation of seeing Travis throw the best ball any Utah QB has thrown all year that was actually caught, and seeing Clay streak down the field, and then he dropped it. From the vantage point of the North End Zone, it was clearly evident he dropped it early, and time slowed down. As everyone in the area is screaming to go get the ball, as you watch the official on the sideline, standing at the 1 yard line not making any gestures. As you watch Clay in the back of the end zone hamming it up with the crowd. As you see three Utah teammates come celebrate with him. The whole time an emptiness is starting to form in the pit of your stomach as you know this is not going to turn out well. As you hope and pray that somehow the ball rolls out of bounds, or that at the very worst it's a turnover. Then you see it. In what was only seconds, but literally felt like minutes, you see an Oregon player start to recognize what's going on, and he picks up the ball, and you see nothing but grass ahead of you. But wait, Tonga is there, and yes he forces the fumble. But no he can't get to it, and instead you see the convoy form. 14-0 becomes 7-7. The elation that was there literally about a minute ago is gone, as you see the team realize what happened. It's now despair. You can't help but feel that was it. That was the Utes chance to win the game, and now it's gone. You see Clay feels it too, as he's hitting himself in the helmet in anger. Then of course, you have to relive the moment as it's reviewed. You hope that maybe you were wrong and it was closer than you thought, close enough you might get the crappy Pac-12 refs to overturn it. But no, it's clear as day. The Stadium goes flat. Kaelin Clay, who had many good plays for Utah this year, and will be needed the rest of the season, had managed to do something most teams can't, which is take the crowd out of it. It says flat. The despair, of that play is palpable. It hangs over the stadium the rest of the game. Every play, every score from that moment on is a what if. Oregon goes up 24-7 and the first thing everyone in the stadium thinks is, it should only be 17-14. Utah pulls to within 27-20, and everyone does the math, it should be 27-20 the other way. As Utah pulled to within 3 there was renewed hope, but there was also the worry that maybe the Utes expended too much energy overcoming the mistake. And as you left the stadium there was a "what could have been" feeling, as well as the realization that the only thing people were going to talk about was that drop, forcing you to see it again, and again, and again. Misfits In The Land Of Offenses This week the Utes battle their Mirror image team from the Pac-12. In a conference that is known for high powered offenses, and great QB play, Utah and Stanford are the outliers. Utah and Stanford are mirror images of each other. Both play teams have a defense first mentality. Stanford has the 4th ranked scoring defense in the country, while the Utes lead the nation in Sacks and Tackles for loss. Both teams have more of a power offense, choosing to rely heavily on their running backs. Both teams have also been forced into the power running due to weaknesses at the QB position (Utah more so, than Stanford.) Both teams seem to really struggle in short yardage, and red zone situations. Both teams enter the game 3-3 on the year in conference play. Last year, the Stanford Cardinal brought an elite, 5th ranked team into Rice-Eccles stadium. At the end of that game the Utes had their first signature win in the Pac-12 after they upset the Cardinal, in a game the Utes controlled for most of it. This year, the Cardinal will look for revenge at home on the Farm, after a bye week, but with a team that has severely fallen off from the elite teams of the past 4-5 years. The problem for the Cardinal is that their offense struggles with consistency. You've heard the saying "strength against strength"? Well this game will be a battle of team weaknesses. As in which teams weak offense can do enough, and be consistent enough to make the defensive effort pay off. Season Reclamation Project Byu will try to continue reclaiming their lost season this week with a visit from an old conference mate in Unlv. Now while it may have been awhile since these two teams saw each other some things never change. One such thing is how a school in Las Vegas simply cannot attract recruits who are any good. They don't have this problem in Basketball, but man do their Football teams continually just suck, and the 2014 edition of the Rebels is no different. Unlv ranks towards the bottom of the country in all major statistical categories, except passing yards. But when you are as bad as Unlv is, you end up passing a lot, because you are down often. The Rebels do have 2 victories on the season, by a combined 4 points. One against Div 1-AA Northern Colorado, and an overtime victory over equally awful Fresno State. The Cougars are looking to reclaim a season that is now void of any major meaning. The lofty goals early in the season are gone. Now the Cougars are still looking to become Bowl eligible (the last of the three Utah based team to become eligible), and find some way to make the final month of the season have meaning. Byu should have no problem accomplishing that feat this week. Marketing Gimmick Alert While the quality of opponent is clearly not enough to generate even a mild pulse of excitement regarding this week's game, the Cougars are hoping making the game a This week the Blackout will mark the third marketing gimmick this season for Byu. The Cougars are 1-1 so far during those games. A record that will have no problem going to 2-1. Football In The Daylight For the first time in the while, not only will the Utes kickoff on Saturday night, but they'll finish the game on Saturday as well. The Utah game will kick off at 4:00 p.m. MST and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 networks. An hour later the Cougars will begin as their kickoff will be 5:00 p.m. MST on ESPN U, which means that now that the sun sets so early, shortly after the Cougars come onto the field in their dark uniforms, it'll start getting dark period (they way it should be for blackouts.) Trackbacks
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