replay gimp!
replay gimp!
"Be a philosopher. A man can compromise to gain a point. It has become apparent that a man can, within limits, follow his inclinations within the arms of the Church if he does so discreetly." - The Walking Drum
"And here’s what life comes down to—not how many years you live, but how many of those years are filled with bullshit that doesn’t amount to anything to satisfy the requirements of some dickhead you’ll never get the pleasure of punching in the face." – Adam Carolla
Oh, no. Other than the screen at Michigan that Poole should have taken to the house, I don't recall gaining a yard on a screen play all year.
Going forward, I think we should run a two QB system. I know, I know, it never works. But neither does playing an ineffective QB all game. We should start Travis against USC and then mix it up a few drives in with Kendal. I'd like to see 75% of series for Travis and the rest for Kendal.
Any info on the disappearance of K. Scott the last 2 games?
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
So...UCLA and OSU. These are close games where the breaks went our way. Last year, we lost the close games. Are we a very different team, or are we just luckier so far this year?
Kaelin Clay (or McClellon or one of the other speedsters) needs to get a few shots on a jet sweep, especially the type where the qb just bats the snap right into the arms of a receiver at top speed. The line is quite good at seal blocking for run plays, so there is a chance we could spring one for a big play. We have several players with elite speed and could get this to work from the Pistol formation when the D fully expects a run up the middle...
TW looked like he had a fire lit under him. I was glad to see him relax a bit and throw a few good passes with a nice touch.
Absolutely. If I were the opponent's DC, I would stack the box even more; hell, leave Utah's receivers completely alone -- a bit of hyperbole here. QB's not getting enough pass-protection. QB's throws aren't crisp. Irrespective of the pass-protection and the pass accuracy issues, WRs had opportunities in the last three games and couldn't deliver. WR's from WSU, AZ, Cal, etc., usually make their QBs look good.
For whatever reason, I pulled out the Fiesta Bowl DVD a couple of nights ago -- wow, just wow. I love short and intermediate routes.
This was a comment from a columnist at the Oregonian:
Before the game:
At the end of regulation:--- Utes in white pants. Not a great look. We're spoiled with uniform combinations these days. I'm wondering how it is that everyone once wore white pants. Utah is apparently waiting for it to cycle back into style.
After the game:--- Trevor Romaine drilled a 49-yard field goal as time expired. Mike Riley, arms raised, celebrated. Oregon State and Utah headed to overtime tied 16-16. I did not like how much the Beavers celebrated on the sideline after the kick. Nice, you're in overtime. Pat the kicker on the back, smile, then, get your head into overtime. OSU was acting like it won something. What? An overtime date with Utah. Get dressed.
--- Guys with white pants won game. Guys who celebrated making the overtime period won an overtime period.
It is really hard to establish much of a passing game if you only throw the ball 18 times as we have in the past two games. I think there are two things that we tend to do on this and other message boards is over rate the talent and speed of the WR group as a whole when compared with the talent and speed of the opposing defensive backs. We have above average speed with Dres, Clay and McClellon and average speed with Scott and Patrick. The problem is that the guys we are going against have above average speed.
I think the there were several problems with the pass game last night. First, OSU primarily plays quarters coverage ( a deep 4 man zone) with the LBs covering underneath. That should give you mid level crossing routes and outs. I don't think the coaches believe that KT can make those throws so what they do is throw the long ball hoping that it will connect and if not, at least force the safeties out of the box and make the running game more successful. Second, OSU's LB's are very good. They are very athletic and can play the run but also get back into coverage pretty quickly. The passes over the middle that TW threw were well covered. Third, our OL is not very good at pass blocking and our QB's tend to panic before they need to.
"Be a philosopher. A man can compromise to gain a point. It has become apparent that a man can, within limits, follow his inclinations within the arms of the Church if he does so discreetly." - The Walking Drum
"And here’s what life comes down to—not how many years you live, but how many of those years are filled with bullshit that doesn’t amount to anything to satisfy the requirements of some dickhead you’ll never get the pleasure of punching in the face." – Adam Carolla
One of my favorite tweets from last night:
Utah football is basically Stanford football with worse grades and better social skills.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Uteopia,
We play some quarters to, don't we? It seemed like we were in that on the deep ball Mannion completed for six.
I'm curious what you think about the quarter-backing from here forward. Which would you choose and why?
One other question since once upon a time you were in the offices daily. Does Kyle, or other staff members, help the players decompress at all during the season or even during a game? I'll tell you where I'm coming from. It looks to me like Travis is far too stressed, pressured, afraid - pick the adjective. I love Kyle's intensity but sometimes I worry that he's wound too tight and thus coaches and players end up too tight as well.
Any thoughts or insights?
Fans are now arguing about how we win, instead of about why we are not winning. Good!
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
That's a fair comment. To present the other side of the coin, I believe there are fans who are honestly interest in the Xs/Os of the game. I know I am very much into the "theory" of games in general, which perhaps can be attributed to my coaching background.
What irks me is people who use simple stats to argue their position to no-end, and then get mad and start calling those who disagree with them "dumb" or "morons". There are so many variables at play and people often don't consider sufficient contextual information. And, in the end, we are all Utes and are on the same side. Aren't we? Reasonable minds may differ. Unreasonable minds behave immaturely.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
We don't play much quarters. We rarely play 2 deep safeties as a primary focus is always to defend the run. Without looking at the play again, I would say that we were probably in a cover 1. There is a chance we were in cover 2. Cover 1 has 1 deep safety with the corners playing man on the outside. Cover 2 has 2 deep safeties with the corners playing man on the outside. I actually thought that Hatfield was in pretty good position on that pass and that Blechen was a little late getting over and when he did he jumped too early and into Hatfield which caused Hatfield to slow down. On top of that, the pass was perfectly thrown and the WR showed great concentration to catch the ball.
I go back and forth on the QB situation. I think KT is a better passer than I originally believed, but it is clear to me from the types of passes thrown against OSU that Christensen does not yet trust him to throw the long out or the deeper crossing and middle routes. IMO, like Travis, he is too quick to leave the pocket and his scrambles have led to as many sacks as breakout runs. He is certainly a weapon in the run game but my heart stops when he runs because he carries the ball so loosely. Travis has not progressed the way I anticipated. He has eliminated his bad decisions in the pass game, but has not shown an ability to consistently put the ball where it needs to be. Although a good runner, he does not give you the same thing that KT does in the run game because he does not have the same quick, shifty feet. If I am making the call, I go with Travis because I think he protects the ball a little better than KT. That being said, both QB's have shown the ability to come off the bench and spark the offense so I would not hesitate to switch things up if they are not going well.
You did not ask this, but although KT fumbled the ball at the end of the first half, I put a lot of that on the decision to try to pass the ball. If I recall correctly, we had the ball on our 30 with about 30 seconds left in the half. We had done nothing offensively to suggest that we were going to drive the ball 50 yards in 30 seconds and kick another FG. I believe we ran the ball on first down for 0 yards. Why risk a pass? To me, given the tempo of the game, the decision to try to score, while aggressive, was not a good decision.
The blurbs we see on the media are of pretty intense locker room and sideline scenes. Kyle is intense. He expects a lot of himself and of those around him. However, he isn't that was 24/7. He knows there are times when he needs to show intensity and times when he can lighten the mood. The players spend much more time with their position coaches at practice and during the games then they do with KW. I think the players look to their position coaches for a lot of stuff especially during the games. If you watched the sideline after the KT fumble, there is a shot of ARod and you could tell from his arm movements that he was just telling KT and everyone else to calm down.
The reality is that in this league, there are no easy games and very little margin for error. It is easy to be cool, calm, collected and aggressive when you are beating everyone by 4 touchdowns. Every game we will play will be a tight, sphincter clutching, bitch. It is not for the faint hearted.
Listening to some of Reilly's post game comments, sounds like he wanted to go for 2 in the first OT. They probably would have gone right back to the fade...but I'm sure glad they kicked it.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Doing 'just enough' works for Utah
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- By no means was Utah’s 29-23 overtime victory at Oregon State pretty. It was far from it, and not an apples-to-oranges kind of far. It was more like an apples-to-zucchini squash kind of far.
It was an ugly, gut-check, props to anyone who stayed through the first three quarters and only saw five field goals kind of ugly. It was a combined 1-of-19 on third downs at one point kind of ugly.
It was the kind of ugly that necessitates the winning team’s coach to say he thought it was "an outstanding job by our football team [of] hanging in there."
Which Utah coach Kyle Whittingham did. "Our offense did enough to get us enough points to win," Whittingham said. "Our defense did enough to keep us in the game."
They did enough. They didn’t dominate. They didn’t own the Beavers. They just won. Ugly.
And you know what? It was the kind of ugly that looks like it could be enough to take the Pac-12 South Division this season....
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
i dont know if it showed up on tv, but the OSU receiver dropped an easy touchdown pass in the third quarter. At least as easy as the one Dres dropped against WSU. There was noone between him and the end zone. So I guess you could say it sort of evens out.
Thanks so much for replying Uteopia. Terrific insight.
I was watching the game down in Zion's streaming on my phone, so I couldn't see much of the details.
I rewatched the game last night on my TV and paid attention to that particular play. We were in cover 2. I agree that Blechen got there maybe a step late, but the larger OSU receiver made one hell of a catch. Both Hatfield and Blechen were swiping at the ball, but the receiver's concentration and length won out.