We have 2 weeks before the game with Arizona. Several players are out with injuries. Conner Pay is a major injury. However, as Matich said today on BYUSN, his replacement played extremely well and was prepared. Hopefully LJ will be back for Arizona. And, defense has to be strong and healthy because Arizona is capable of scoring as they showed with Utah at Utah.
and their secondary was lights out. I think the best way to beat them is to do what KS did, have a strong running game that includes the QB.
I saw parts of the game and the parts I saw Arizona was impressive. I looked at the game stats today and it looks like Utah threw for 280 yards and the offensive stats were about even in overall yardage. Utah moved the ball well at times but their drives stalled. That seems to be one of Wilson’s problems so far this year. He doesn’t finish drives and Whittingham turned his back on a couple of easy FG attempts and went for it on 4th down and Utah came away with no points.
In the 2nd half I noted Wilson’s passes were on the money in the parts I saw but the Az dbs were all over the Utah receivers knocking down accurate throws. It could be Wilson being a true freshman was locked in on his primary receiver and wasn’t seeing open secondary receivers.
I thought AZ looked very good against the U but in their other 3 games not so much. Maybe Utah without Rising isn’t that good. Their road win over Ok St not looking so good after K St routed Ok St.
A lot of times it’s about matchups too. It’s a long season since most athletes in college stick to just one sport. Motivation isn’t always the same from game to game. That’s on the coaches. From year to year, it’s not the same for coaches either. So far, this year BYU as a team is clicking on all cylinders. Hopefully, we can limit injuries to where we can stay on all cylinders. Not half way through yet.
The red zone problems is plaguing Utah to the point that Whittingham was making comments how the players were doing AND not being happy with the play calling in the Red Zone.
All is not happy in “Utah sphere”.
Defenses seem to be playing better red zone defense this year. That would make sense if teams are trying to get better at that. So, offenses have to get a bit creative and try different things then. Like Goff handing off to his RB and going out for a pass in the end zone last night. Don’t see that in the NFL much at all.
We are talking a true freshman here. Isn’t this the way BYU stomped on KSU? We intercepted Johnson, got into his head and made KSU one dimensional, game over. Whitt depends on the run and defense. Once Zona got ahead, it was over. Utah is not made to come back from being behind, unless Cam Rising is the QB. I watched the 1st half. Utah moved the ball well but stalled on 3 and short in the redzone, 3 times. That is all on the OC or Whitt if you will. Zona knew all about the 3 or 4 tightend stack on power runs and stuffed Utah. If you are going to stack TEs on the line, run Wilson out on a wing, that DE has to either commit to Wilson or defending a TE, either way you have a play that gets 5 yds minimum.
Wilson played a great 1st half making plenty of passes, sometimes with defenders in his face. They really pummeled him physically and here’s Whitt having Wilson do a 1/2 dozen QB runs. Not too bright over there.
The refs allowed a lot of DB interference. ticky tack stuff before the ball got there but as you say, Wilson was locked on either his wideout, Singer or TE, Kuithe…There should of been some flags.
But…Utah hangs it’s hat on ball control and rushing 200+ yds per game, they got 84 total yds for the game.
I heard from my little birdy friend at Utah that Whittingham was not exactly pleased with the play calling in the Redzone…
Sounds familar doesn’t it?
It’s interesting that most of the time, losers look for scapegoats to blame.
It was a fake reverse to his WIDE RECEIVER, Amon Ra St. Brown. He is not a running back.
I’m trying to help with your understanding and knowledge in the hope that it will improve the logic and clarity of your posts.
BYU is #1 in the West
College Football Stats - College FB Team Red Zone Scoring Percentage (TDs and FGs) | TeamRankings.com
I wouldn’t get to hyped on BYU just yet, Zona has all the tools to come into Les and humble BYU. Notice that in all these big 12 teams that are losing games they are favored in??? The defense stopped their best weapon and made the teams one dimensional.
Zona’s weapon: passing
Then let’s pick off 5 next week! There’s the challenge.