We are in full blown tailspin mode right now with Utah football, the worst we’ve seen in 4 seasons. There are a lot of questions marks with this team, especially losing to a team that they should have beaten. The first question is, can they get bowl eligible? I think they can beat the teams remaining on the schedule, but they just haven’t been able to put it together on both sides of the ball of extended periods of time.
Even in the loss there were some good things that we saw. Tyler Huntley looked significantly better this week, throwing for almost 300 yards. He was pretty efficient too, throwing for almost a 60% competition percentage. Zack Moss, when given the chance, was effective, averaging over 5 yards per carry on 10 total carries. Darren Carrington had a good game too, with 130 yards in his return to Autzen Stadium.
With all that said, there are some serious issues. The first that pops out to me, at least on offense, is the offensive line. Their pass protection is spotty, at best. They had some very nice moments, but they allowed people to get to Huntley all game long, they couldn’t blow open holes early on for Moss, and they gave up pressures on three man rushes! On defense, the rush defense is as porous as I’ve seen in a while. The ends are beat up and that’s hurting the Utes. Utah lost to basically a triple option team tonight, and couldn’t close gaps. The secondary wasn’t really tested, because the front seven allowed Oregon to run mad. Big issues there, and it has been for a few games.
The young team is having a hard time getting their feet back underneath them, and they need to do quickly, because a struggling UCLA team is coming to town on a short week this Friday night. A team that is fighting for their season, just like the Utes.