Barking up the wrong tree... Utah at Washington

[Mormon Red Death]

10:30 EST ESPN kick

I bet wash will run qb read option about 20 times at Anae.

[NorthwestUteFan]

Uh, Jake Browning won't finish the season if that is the case.

[UTEopia]

I can't remember the last time I believed we had 0% chance of winning a game. It is actually sort of liberating.

[sancho]

I can't remember the last time I believed we had 0% chance of winning a game. It is actually sort of liberating.

UW lost to ASU, so they can lose to anyone. There are 4 good teams in the Pac-12 (no great teams), and we have played basically even with 3 of them. So UW is a winnable game. It's also a game we could lose by 25.

[concerned]

UW lost to ASU, so they can lose to anyone. There are 4 good teams in the Pac-12 (no great teams), and we have played basically even with 3 of them. So UW is a winnable game. It's also a game we could lose by 25.

I would hold out Chase Hansen, Fitts, Agavisa, and anybody else who may get well with an extra week recovery, and save them for Colorado. Dont play anybody who is a game time decision.

[sancho]

I would hold out Chase Hansen, Fitts, Agavisa, and anybody else who may get well with an extra week recovery, and save them for Colorado. Dont play anybody who is a game time decision.

I'm with you. If I have to sit in a cold 8:00 PM kickoff at the end of November for Utah to become bowl eligible, we better win.

[SeattleUte]

I'm with you. If I have to sit in a cold 8:00 PM kickoff at the end of November for Utah to become bowl eligible, we better win.

That's what I'm doing this Saturday! I want to see everyone play.

[sancho]

That's what I'm doing this Saturday! I want to see everyone play.

Fair enough! Let's play 'em all both games and win twice. You know, compromise.

[Mormon Red Death]

I would hold out Chase Hansen, Fitts, Agavisa, and anybody else who may get well with an extra week recovery, and save them for Colorado. Dont play anybody who is a game time decision.


I wouldnt hold out Fitts. Just wait till he gets injured after the 2nd quarter.

[UTEopia]

UW lost to ASU, so they can lose to anyone. There are 4 good teams in the Pac-12 (no great teams), and we have played basically even with 3 of them. So UW is a winnable game. It's also a game we could lose by 25.

So, you're saying we have a chance?

[Scorcho]

I know this may sound ironic coming from a Mormon, but the fact that UW's Chris Petersen is a Scientologist sorta creeps me out.

I have watched a few of those Anti-Scientologist shows with the TV wife of Kevin James from King of Queens, and I want Utah to defeat the Huskies simply to squash any Scientologist good will.

[Dwight Schr-Ute]

930911523001606144

[NorthwestUteFan]

I know this may sound ironic coming from a Mormon, but the fact that UW's Chris Petersen is a Scientologist sorta creeps me out.

I have watched a few of those Anti-Scientologist shows with the TV wife of Kevin James from King of Queens, and I want Utah to defeat the Huskies simply to squash any Scientologist good will.Wow. Really? I had no idea.

Leah Remini's show is very eye-opening. Mormons watch it and say, "Wow, at least we aren't Scientologists..."

[Diehard Ute]

Per Bill Riley

Chase Hansen, Sunia Tauteoli, Casey Hughes and Kylie Fitts are all OUT tonight.


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[Applejack]

Per Bill Riley

Chase Hansen, Sunia Tauteoli, Casey Hughes and Kylie Fitts are all OUT tonight.


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Uhh...why not hold out moss, Carrington, and lotulelei while we are at it?

[Diehard Ute]

Uhh...why not hold out moss, Carrington, and lotulelei while we are at it?

Updated....Carrington is out as well.


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[Diehard Ute]

Updated....Carrington is out as well.


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Updated update.....Carrington has appeared and is warming up. He was not on the field for receiver drills.


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[Diehard Ute]

Apparently Bill Riley needs new info. Chris Kamrani just posted video of Tautoeli warning up.


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[sancho]

Go Utes!

[LA Ute]

Lots of designed QB runs tonight.

[Mormon Red Death]

That fake punt was awesome

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[sancho]

Been waiting two years for that fake punt! Awesome.

On every obvious passing down, we get sacked, hurried, or pressured. I think that's why we ran it on 3rd and goal from the 8. We can't trust the pass protection.

[sancho]

That fake punt was awesome


Onside kick. Going for it on 4th down. Fake punt. Leaving it all out there.

[Mormon Red Death]

Been waiting two years for that fake punt! Awesome.

On every obvious passing down, we get sacked, hurried, or pressured. I think that's why we ran it on 3rd and goal from the 8. We can't trust the pass protection. We run Huntley up the middle way too much

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[Mormon Red Death]

We run Huntley up the middle way too much

Sent from my SM-G930T using TapatalkIt's ok when we score a td though

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[Mormon Red Death]

How do we not get inn the grasp called on that 3rd down???

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[sancho]

Browning found his missing game when he converted that 4th and 10.

[LA Ute]

Wish we could get those crucial 1st downs with the game on the line.

[Diehard Ute]

Worst time out call ever


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[sancho]

Worst time out call ever


That made no sense at all. What was that?

[Diehard Ute]

Made no sense at all.

Kyle may as well have gift wrapped that with a card.

[LA Ute]

Tough game, the guys played their heads off, but we did choke at the end. Too bad.

[Diehard Ute]

Tough game, the guys played their heads off, but we did choke at the end. Too bad.

You mean Kyle choked.


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[sancho]

Worst decision of his coaching career.

We deserved that game. What a way to lose.

[LA Ute]

You mean Kyle choked.


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Yes, he got outcoached.

[sancho]

Yes, he got outcoached.

I guess. I mean, he outcoached Petersen for 59.5 minutes and then made an inexplicable mistake. The onside kick, going for it on 4th, the fake punt. It was all brilliant. He just made a really horrible mistake at the end to undo it all.

[LA Ute]

I guess. I mean, he outcoached Petersen for 59.5 minutes and then made an inexplicable mistake. The onside kick, going for it on 4th, the fake punt. It was all brilliant. He just made a really horrible mistake at the end to undo it all.

What do you think of the decision to start milking the clock so early?

[sancho]

What do you mean? We got our 4th down stop with 4 minutes left? Nothing early about that. We even threw on 2nd down.

[sancho]

What a season. There are four good teams in the conference. We go 0-4 in four games that we could've/should've won. Tough.

Gotta think it will be hard to rebound for CU next week after losing like this.

[DrumNFeather]

Yes, he got outcoached.

Gets out coached by Petersen pretty much every single time.

[LA Ute]

What do you mean? We got our 4th down stop with 4 minutes left? Nothing early about that. We even threw on 2nd down.

I didn’t know what to make of it. That’s why I was asking. It does seem to me that the Utes are often in end of game situations where we need to make crucial first downs to run out the clock and can’t get that done; then we give the ball to the opponent with plenty of time to score; and then we let them march down the field, completing short pass after short pass, until we have them in the red zone and we try to win there. Seems to me that happens a lot with Utah. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that happens just as much with other teams.

[sancho]

Maybe that happens just as much with other teams.

I don't know if it does. Maybe.

We went run-pass-run on our last possession. We tried to pick up a first down. On 3rd and 12, though, I think running it was fine. Under that situation, it's tough to lose in regulation without turning the ball over (we figured out a way to do it, though!).

Remember last week? We had a chance at OT because Wazzu didn't run out the clock. They tried to ice the game by going long. It can work both ways.

At any rate, the play calling in the final 4 minutes was at least defensible. The timeout was a mistake, pure and simple.

[sancho]

Two thoughts after sleeping on it:

1) Maybe Kyle thought we had three timeouts? That would be a dumb but explainable mistake. As is, there's no explanation.

2) LA, maybe the issue is our lack of creativity on first down when running clock. We already showed willingness to pass - why not try it on first when is unexpected? Or try a run that is less vanilla. If you can get 4+ yards on first, running on second and third both chews clock and gives a shot at a first down.

[Diehard Ute]

Two thoughts after sleeping on it:

1) Maybe Kyle thought we had three timeouts? That would be a dumb but explainable mistake. As is, there's no explanation.

2) LA, maybe the issue is our lack of creativity on first down when running clock. We already showed willingness to pass - why not try it on first when is unexpected? Or try a run that is less vanilla. If you can get 4+ yards on first, running on second and third both chews clock and gives a shot at a first down.

I don’t know if that’s explainable.

And, if that were the case, Kyle should have said that after the game.

His lame reasoning has done nothing but make this worse.


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[UTEopia]

In this case we all have a free pass to point out the timeout mistake, because nobody will be critical of it more than Kyle. I think Kyle was aggressive the whole game and at that final moment that got the best of him. Just think, if this was the old days, our record would be 5-4-2.

This game did answer an important question for me and that is whether the guys would continue to play hard after a tough defeat against WSU. They played their collective tails off and that tells me that they believe in Whit and the other coaches and they believe in them. Sometimes you have a year when you win most of the close games and other years when you lose them. We have a lot of experience returning next year. We lose Carrington, the TE's and one OL on offense. I think Falemaka likely gets a medical RS. We lose Lowell, Fitts, Moko, Sunia, Kavika on D, but the guys who have stepped up when these guys have been injured have done well. I have no information on this, but it would not at all surprise me if Chase decided to give it a go in the NFL. He isn't getting any younger or healthier and he might just think that he needs to give it a shot now.

I was worried about this team after the performances against ASU and Oregon, but I see a better future. That doesn't mean I will be picking the Utes to win the south next year. Like this year, every game will be a dogfight.

[UTEopia]

His lame reasoning has done nothing but make this worse.


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I was in a baseball game onetime and playing third base. On a routine grounder to SS, the SS picked up the ball and inexplicable threw it to me at third. Nobody was on base at the time and the only play was at first. I was lucky to catch the ball. In explaining it afterwards, he said, I just blacked out there for a second and forgot where I was and what I was doing. Years later, I still call him blackout. That might have been a better explanation.

[sancho]

I think Kyle was aggressive the whole game and at that final moment that got the best of him.

I can believe this.

[LA Ute]

Washington's season per-game average vs. what Utah produced last night:


Points allowed: 13. Utah had 30.


Offensive yards allowed: 257. Utah had 410.

Passing yards allowed: 156. Utah had 293.

First downs allowed: 15. Utah had 22.


Rushing yards allowed: 101. Utah had 117. (This is the only offensive area where we did not shine. UW has the best run defense in the PAC-12. And yet we mostly ran when we absolutely had to make a first down.)


So our offense did more than enough to win, against a great defense. Kudos to them and to Troy Taylor.

[LA Ute]

Kyle Whittingham attempts to defend bizarre timeout decision that doomed Utes vs. Washington

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/11/19/kyle-whittingham-attempts-to-defend-bizarre-timeout-decision-that-doomed-utes-vs-washington/

[Clarifying edit: I'm posting this just because it's of interest to most of us. I don't think the timeout lost us the game.]

[Solon]

Kyle Whittingham attempts to defend bizarre timeout decision that doomed Utes vs. Washington

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/11/19/kyle-whittingham-attempts-to-defend-bizarre-timeout-decision-that-doomed-utes-vs-washington/
We can talk about the timeout all day, and appropriately so.
but the defense has to get the stop.

[USS Utah]

We can talk about the timeout all day, and appropriately so.
but the defense has to get the stop.

Utah's defense fell apart after the Huskies converted on 4th and 10. The offense did next to nothing on its last two possessions.

The timeout just ripped the bandaid off.

[LA Ute]

We can talk about the timeout all day, and appropriately so.
but the defense has to get the stop.

Completely agree. I think the timeout was the least of our problems in the last 3-4 minutes. We get another first down or two, we win the game. We stop them on 4th and 10, ditto.

[Old Standing ute]

Completely agree. I think the timeout was the least of our problems in the last 3-4 minutes. We get another first down or two, we win the game. We stop them on 4th and 10, ditto.

Hard for old school football coach to not get conservative at the end of the game. I hope Kyle can learn to keep the throttle down & go for it—like Mike Leach. He did go outside his mold hiring Troy Taylor, can he stretch further & finish game by throwing & blitzing??

[sancho]

Hard for old school football coach to not get conservative at the end of the game. I hope Kyle can learn to keep the throttle down & go for it—like Mike Leach. He did go outside his mold hiring Troy Taylor, can he stretch further & finish game by throwing & blitzing??

Leach is not a good end-of-game role model.

We did blitz a lot in on UW's game tying drive. It worked...until it didn't.

[sancho]

We get another first down or two, we win the game. We stop them on 4th and 10, ditto.

This is the case with the Stanford, USC, WSU, and UW games. Each one had 4-5 single plays that could have changed the outcome of the game.

[LA Ute]

This is the case with the Stanford, USC, WSU, and UW games. Each one had 4-5 single plays that could have changed the outcome of the game.

True. I was mainly trying to say that the outcome of the Washington game hung on much more than just that one time out.

Frank Dolce made an interesting comment on the post game show. He noted that the
failure of individual Ute players to make plays at key moments was a common theme this season. I don’t see that as a criticism. It’s probably more about the players’ experience and maturity than anything else. There’s reason for hope that next year we will see people making the plays that those opposing teams made, and winning games as a result.

[sancho]

True. I was mainly trying to say that the outcome of the Washington game hung on much more than just that one time out.


I think all close games are like this. I can live with those kinds of losses. The time out is much harder because there was no reason for it. It wasn't about execution.

As for next season, yes, lots of hope, but I'm not sure about the defensive line. It is our weakest unit this year.

[concerned]

I think all close games are like this. I can live with those kinds of losses. The time out is much harder because there was no reason for it. It wasn't about execution.

As for next season, yes, lots of hope, but I'm not sure about the defensive line. It is our weakest unit this year.

You could have a spirited debate as to whether the d line or the o line was the weakest unit.

[sancho]

You could have a spirited debate as to whether the d line or the o line was the weakest unit.

I thought about that, and I would argue on the side of the Dline. But the fact that those are the two weakest units has to make everyone a bit nervous about next season.