Monday, October 3, 2011

Utes face must win game vs ASU

5 turnovers and 4 quarters of undisciplined, uninspired play on Saturday has the Utah Utes with their back against the wall.  The Utes fell to Washington 31-14 in front of shocked sellout crowd on Saturday.  The loss leaves Utah with a 2-2 record and 0-2 in the PAC 12 and now they face the presumptive favorite for the South division championship. 

Whats the good news?

Well...The Utes aren't dead just yet.  If (huge if) the Utes with Jon Hays as the new starter at quarterback can somehow pull off a win this Saturday against Arizona State, they're right back in this thing.  Arizona State plays Oregon the following week and Utah would gain the tiebreaker with a win on Saturday.  Theres plenty yet to play for.  The Utes need to regroup this week and address a great deal of issues.  Here are some of my keys to winning this game--

  • The Utes must win the turnover battle.  This is an ASU team with a clear NFL caliber quarterback in Brock Orsweiller and plenty of weapons offensively.  They cant give up anything cheap as they did only 8 seconds into the ballgame on Saturday against Washington.

  • The Utes must find a way to possess the ball.  They ran a total of 6 plays in the 3rd quarter against Washington and the defense wore down as the game went on.  They must ways to run the ball and with a healthy body at quarterback the Utes might open up the playbook a little more....They have no choice.

  • Special teams must make some plays in this game.  With the second string quarterback running the offense, the defense challenged by all the fire power the Sun Devils possess, the Special Teams must win this matchup.  Wether its a blocked punt, a fake field goal or a kick return, the Utes need a boost from these guys.

3 comments:

  1. Good post yet again. It's sad seeing how well they played against BYU and then seeing them play like they did on Saturday. I missed most the game though due to having to work. Wynn isn't starting anymore? Did he get injured? I saw Jon Hayes playing during the second half, but didn't know why. I'm worried, but have faith that the Utes can get it together and beat Arizona State here next week.

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  2. About half way through the game Wynn stepped out with an injury to his left shoulder. He will be out for 2-3weeks.

    After the last drive to our second touchdown against Washington I'm hopeful that Hays can do what needs to be done against ASU as long as he keeps cool and plays his best.

    I agree that the Utes must find a way to possess the ball, and I think a big step towards that will be not turning over the ball. After that its up to the defense to do their job and stop the drives.

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  3. Wynn hurt his shoulder on Saturday, I read in the paper this morning that it was "coming in and out of socket." Has anyone else heard anything else about it?
    I have faith that the U will be able to win, if not, there's always next year.

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