Troy and Troy march into Troy: Utah @USC 2017

[sancho]

Judgment, of course, can be passed on the actual play call, but let's be honest -- there's not a whole lot we do in the pass game from the 2. That's probably the best argument that exists for kicking the PAT.

This was my reasoning. When we came out after the time out still intending to go for it, I figured we must have something lined up we felt strongly about. Of course, if we had such a play, we'd have used it last week against Stanford on third and goal.

In the end, I don't know what more we could've done to win this game, but I can't for the life of me explain how we lost it, save for the fact that USC had Sam Darnold. We played great and lost. That's unfortunate, but that happens in football.

To be fair, USC moved the ball easily for most of the game and finished with over 500 yards. If not for their turnovers in the first half, the game would have been lopsided.

[justaute]

Good comment here. I think many Utes fans with red goggles overlooked this.

To be fair, USC moved the ball easily for most of the game and finished with over 500 yards. If not for their turnovers in the first half, the game would have been lopsided.

[Utebiquitous]

There are always multiple ways to look at things. Sure, USC moved the ball on us the whole game but where have you been for all of the Kyle's career at Utah? Teams get yards on Utah but the Utes tend to keep the score down. Besides, Utah had it's own stumbles in the first half. A missed field goal - an easy field goal at that, and an interception in the redzone (great play by Cameron Smith). That's ten points. Could we just call the game what it was - close, hard fought, another awesome game in the USC-Utah series? I'm going to choose that narrative if you don't mind. In this case, it's a lot closer than the fiction you and Sancho want to embrace.

[hostile]

There are always multiple ways to look at things. Sure, USC moved the ball on us the whole game but where have you been for all of the Kyle's career at Utah? Teams get yards on Utah but the Utes tend to keep the score down. Besides, Utah had it's own stumbles in the first half. A missed field goal - an easy field goal at that, and an interception in the redzone (great play by Cameron Smith). That's ten points. Could we just call the game what it was - close, hard fought, another awesome game in the USC-Utah series? I'm going to choose that narrative if you don't mind. In this case, it's a lot closer than the fiction you and Sancho want to embrace.

We did score on the fumble by Darnold in the series following the INT so we effectively did get seven points on that drive. The missed FG hurt.

[LA Ute]

There are always multiple ways to look at things. Sure, USC moved the ball on us the whole game but where have you been for all of the Kyle's career at Utah? Teams get yards on Utah but the Utes tend to keep the score down. Besides, Utah had it's own stumbles in the first half. A missed field goal - an easy field goal at that, and an interception in the redzone (great play by Cameron Smith). That's ten points. Could we just call the game what it was - close, hard fought, another awesome game in the USC-Utah series? I'm going to choose that narrative if you don't mind. In this case, it's a lot closer than the fiction you and Sancho want to embrace.

USC’s turnovers were not gifts. One of them was forced and produced an immediate TD. Also, it seems to me that if one team has fewer TOs than the other, that means the team with fewer TOs has outplayed the other team in that regard.

[sancho]

it's a lot closer than the fiction you and Sancho want to embrace.

Hey, don't put words in my mouth. No one claimed this was not a close, hard fought, awesome game. I believe Utah played a great game, and USC moved the ball easily. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

By the way, since you mentioned it, was the Cam Smith interception really a great play? Troy threw it right at him. He was caught between a blitz and pass coverage (no man's land), and Troy tried to throw it through him. Cam jumped, but he didn't have to. It hit him in the numbers. Cam is clearly a great player, but just about any LB makes that pick.

[Utebiquitous]

Sancho,
Don't mean to offend - I did come off a little to flippant to you and justaute. My apologies.

As to Cam Smith - I just think an interception that close to the line of scrimmage is pretty remarkable because the ball's traveling at a pretty good speed. Definitely a poor play by Williams who needed to find another way to get the ball to Nacua who I think was open on the play.