So, is playing an undefeated 5-0 UCLA on the road going to be considered a “trap game” when we have USC the next weekend at a likely Game Day event?
I have grown more concerned over this one and sure hope we are firing on all cylinders. Fortunately, we have heading west with only one time zone change and playing at sea level in our favor. I’m not sure if Chip has actually turned the program around as they have only played one decent team in Washington. Should be a good one, and if we can get a win, then the next week will be off-the-charts big. Colin Cowerd said a couple of weeks ago that he thought the college game of the year was going to be Utah-USC and he was getting tickets to attend. And there’s a chance that there may be more Utah fans in attendance than Bruins from their dismal attendance so far this year.
I’m actually more nervous for UCLA than I am USC, since we get the Trojans at home.
DTR has experience and we didn’t have to face him last year at Rice Eccles. I fear his mobility is going to be a serious problem, and let’s be honest, the secondary hasn’t really been great outside of Phillips. If our run game doesn’t show up (and who knows WTF is going on with Thomas) to control the clock and keep DTR on the sidelines, he’s going to have a field day.
Utah’s favored by 4, which feels really high to me. I’d put this as a pick 'em.
KW is keeping them one week at a time. UCLA is a serious threat, but …
UCLA defense is not good. Their offense is ok but same players we’ve seen before (DTR, Charbannet). DTR is an athlete but not elite so if we can disrupt him (and contain as he can run), we should be ok. Still will be a good game and we need to execute and not make many mistakes (probably need to avoid losing the TO battle). PAC12 road games are always trap games.
They have a little more attendance now that the students started school (I think it was 3 games before they were on campus) and momentum of 5 wins - tough to look good in a 100k stadium. They had 41k for Wash.
USC has a more potent offense but Ore St. held them pretty well. USC defense isn’t so great. Again, we need to play our game and execute and avoid major errors and avoid too many 3-and-outs. Glad we have them at home.
I am still trying to get a ticket to the game. I was hoping USC would lose 1 to drop prices, so if anyone is sick or has other conflicts, I am looking.
Utes - 38, UCLA - 23. Hopefully Ludwig / Whittingham will choose to kick the easy red zone field goals on 4th and short, instead of being shut down repeatedly
One thing that gives me a bit less concern is that Coach Whittingham seems to have Chip Kelly’s number. Utah seems to play well against Kelly coached UCLA teams. I’m also very glad that Southern Cal is at home. That’s going to be a wild game.
I thought the Utes struggled back in 79 when I started following them (and in our first home game, the Aggies waxed us) but then I read about the mid 70s.
But indeed any team on the schedule is a potential road block particularly in their own back yard.
Fun to have a good number of quality teams in the conference this season.
Truth is the PAC 12 is competitive top to bottom. Only the Buffaloes are playing bottom-feeder football. Hope we keep bringing the fight to the other teams and keep the winning streak alive.
I’m not one to get excited about analytics, but Sagarin likes us. I’m mildly surprised. (Warning: Embedded link is to the Deseret News.)
Utah’s latest victory — a 42-16 win over Oregon State — had the Utes climbing up in the latest power rankings and advanced analytics.
The advanced analytics, in particular, liked the Utes’ win — in the Jeff Sagarin ratings, Utah jumped three spots to No. 4.
(BTW, I didn’t know BYU played USU last week until I saw that DesNews article.)
It’ll be interesting to see how many Bruin fans show up at the Rose Bowl this Saturday. I usually go to this game but will have to watch on TV this time.
Hard to tell, but I suspect it won’t make much difference.
He was a DL, moved to OL, apparently got beat out by some new guys. One of the biggest differences between OL & DL is there usually is very little rotation among the O-linemen, where DL is such a high-energy position it’s often a high rotation position.
So, he could have gone from 20-30% of snaps to essentially none, and now wants to bail. That would be my hunch.
It could make a difference if there’s extended physicality up front and one of the new guys gets dinged.
No matter what, we need to bring the physical, win the trench battle.
And…. control the QB and keep him from running all over and around us a la Richardson. For one game we made him the number one draft pick for next year.