Looking back at that game, if someone had told me that the Utes would only be down 3 going into the 4th, I take that every day. I expected them to get worked early and often and that didn't happen. Big ****ing deal. There were some plays in that game that I am still trying to figure out. Why in the **** do you send your ****ty kicker out to try a 48 yard attempt on third down with 13 seconds left in the half? I can't see any reason for it. Maybe it's because you had no timeouts, which goes straight into my second bitch: Why in the **** do you call a timeout on defense when USC has 3rd and goal and trying to get their offense set with 3 seconds left on the play clock? The Utes did them a favor by calling timeout. No way were the Trojans getting that play off, in fact, it looked like they might have called a timeout at the same time. We were confused who called it, as were the officials as one pointed toward Utah and one toward SC. Still, why call it if the offense is scrambling?
As for the Utes' struggles on defense, yeah they gave up some yardage but I thought they held up pretty well (except for the bomb). USC is an extremely talented team and the Utes stopped them a few times, obviously not enough times. It gets pretty discouraging when you're forcing a punt or a long field goal and then your offense repays you with a 3 and out, a fumble, or a pick six. I would like to see more pressure put on the QB than what they did and better tackling, but I wasn't disappointed in the overall defense.
The bottom line is that this team is nowhere near as good as we hoped it would be and there needs to be a collective look at philosophy on both sides of the ball by the coaching staff. Starting with scrapping the East-West passing scheme.
As for the Utes' struggles on defense, yeah they gave up some yardage but I thought they held up pretty well (except for the bomb). USC is an extremely talented team and the Utes stopped them a few times, obviously not enough times. It gets pretty discouraging when you're forcing a punt or a long field goal and then your offense repays you with a 3 and out, a fumble, or a pick six. I would like to see more pressure put on the QB than what they did and better tackling, but I wasn't disappointed in the overall defense.
The bottom line is that this team is nowhere near as good as we hoped it would be and there needs to be a collective look at philosophy on both sides of the ball by the coaching staff. Starting with scrapping the East-West passing scheme.