We seemed powerless to stop USC’s air raid, which one of Mike Leach’s disciples designed. Let’s see how we handle his mentor’s schemes next week. Fire away.
We seemed powerless to stop USC’s air raid, which one of Mike Leach’s disciples designed. Let’s see how we handle his mentor’s schemes next week. Fire away.
"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 still think we are more or less the same team we've been for the past 5 years. This game is a toss up, as all WSU/Utah games have been in that time span. They will move the ball easily at times, and we will have to score and control the clock.Originally Posted by LA Ute
I hear we’ve opened the week as 8-point favorites. Not sure what to make of that.
"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
You never know how a team will react to a loss, but Wazzu's collapse is the kind of loss that can leave a team hungover. Our loss seems like the kind of loss that should be motivating.
USC and WSU are two totally different pass attacks. USC killed us with the deep ball while Leach will dunk and dink. It is really hard to tell what happened from the television feed, but Blackmon took a terrible angle on one of the long passes and did not high point the ball. He got sucked under on another. Johnson got beat straight up on the first one. I thought the PI penalty at the end of the game was total BS. I also thought a number of the PF's against USC were bad as were a couple of holdings on the Utes. I'm disappointed the Utes did not play more 3 deep zone.
Every week is a challenge and this will be no different. There are no elite teams in the PAC, just a bunch of better than average teams.
Somebody posted a thread on twitter identifying our defense on each long bomb. Every single time, we were in a cover 1 with Burgess close to the line to defend the run. Whenever we were in a cover 2, they never threw deep. They recognized the defense, and tossed it up.
We were in the stands, and not only did Blackmon take horrible angles, Lewis and JJ got abused. Lewis in particular was horrible. He was replaced by Nurse after the last touchdown, where he totally lost Pittman and then whiffed at him all the way to the end zone.
That's our defense, though. We take risks with man-to-man coverage in order to plug other holes. Part of playing that defense is understanding that there is always some small chance of getting burned big. In this game, we got burned big multiple times. The odds of that happening were pretty low - it's like USC rolled snake-eyes 3 times in a row.
If someone hits a halfcourt shot against you once, do you change your defense to stop that from happening again? What if they hit another? At what point do you change? I don't know the answer. We've always been about man coverage, and it's usually been good for us. I'm not sure if/when you change that mid game. And USC was just tossing up jump balls...you can make a case for continuing our defense to encourage more jump balls because that's often how turnovers happen.
What's clear to me is that USC's lines dominated ours. When they were in Air Raid mode, they had all the time in the world. When they switched to power run mode for the last series, they pushed us all over the place. And their defensive line lived in Huntley's face. I think our DBs had a bad game compounded by bad luck, but our lines got beat down hard.
playing BYU, NIU and Idaho St's wide receivers to get ready for USC's wasn't ideal
I agree. From the USC game:
- The first TD was totally covered by JJ until the last second when he fell down. Bad luck.
- The second TD was a totally blown sack (I think, by Lloyd) which allowed the QB to scramble for ten seconds. Then he heaved it up between two backs (Blackmon was one). Bad tackling.
- The third one was on Lewis/Blackmon. Blackmon misjudged the throw and completely took himself out of the play. Lewis got dusted from the start.
Utah gave up a ton of big plays through the air. But they absolutely (until the last drive) stuffed the run. That typically is a winning formula for us. And it would have been on Friday if not for some boneheaded mistakes (the fumble!!!) and a lack of a kicker (one kick blocked and another that we didn't even try).
Dont forget the last bomb that led to the rushing touchdown. Blackmon got beat deep and Fink put it right on the money. Blackmon made an ankle tackle to save the TD.
I agree with Sancho's analysis too, except for the analogy to half court shots in basketball. They saw something in our defense and thought they could beat it. they were right. When you make 4 out of 4 of those, it is not a lucky half court shot. That is what adjustments are for.
Last edited by concerned; 09-23-2019 at 10:27 AM.
I thought on the first two drives we played way too much cover 1: 4 wideouts and 4 dbs and zero help over the top. After the first two TDs, scalley did make some adjustments and I think for the most part they worked. After that point the TDs were on the 80 or so pass and catch with the aforementioned terrible coverage and the pass you describe which was a perfect pass.
I don't know why we came out in one-on-one matchups, however. USC receivers are good.
I would have liked our odds 1-on-1 vs a 3rd string QB. Didn't work out.
Last edited by sancho; 09-23-2019 at 12:21 PM.
Here’s a question that I’ve been wondering about. If a DB sees he has been beaten deep, or that he has no good chance at a jump ball,isn’t the best option to interfere and take the penalty? Then again, maybe Pittman had our DBs beaten so badly that the penalty option wasn’t even available.
I too was surprised and disappointed that when USC started to run we could not stop them, even though we had to.
"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
USC did that on the deep ball to Dixon or Thompson ??, when the db got turned around, grabbed him by the arm. Took the penalty for 15 yards.
I think this is often hard to gauge in the moment. It's 3rd down, you think you're going to make a play on the ball, and BOOM, you get beat badly. We had a DB in position fall down, we had a DB terribly misjudge a ball - neither of those were scenarios when you are clearly beat and decide to take a penalty.
Back to Wazzu, I don't know what to expect out of our defense. We were overmatched vs USC on the lines. I don't think that will be the case again, but we aren't going to pressure Gardner a ton. Wazzu is good with pass protection. Do we come out in our standard man-to-man? Do we drop 8? Does everyone remember when we dropped 8 against WSU for the first half and shut them down and then they figured us out and beat us in the 2nd half? I think we should just mix things up as much as possible and disguise looks. Try to keep them guessing.
A lot depends on our offense. We rack up 450 yards again, and I love our chances!
The old Dan Mullen connection?
I listened to KW's press conference while working out this morning. He said that no matter what defensive look you give them Wazzu has already seen it. You just have to outplay them with assignment-sound football. (That'a Kyle talking, not me.)
"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
He also said that the WSU and USC schemes and routes are pretty similar, and that it is not a bad thing to play them back to back.
I'm sure that's true, but I still see value in deception and in mixing things up.
I am sure we will make them work hard to figure out what we are doing.
"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 apparently Dish and Fox are in a tiff, and Dish dropped all of the Fox channels this afternoon. So if you're like me there's a good chance you won't be seeing the game on your home tv Saturday evening.
Time to cut the cord!
Sorry, though, this really is too bad. If you can make it, you're welcome to watch at my place in CO.
Do any streaming services offer a free trial period?
Well, fortunately enough, Sling is also owned by Dish, so if you typically stream through Sling, you’ll be out of luck this weekend, as well.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That better not be true, or I am going to mad!
It’s true
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/fs1-...sling-tv-dish/
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I stream through youtubetv, so I'm still okay. This is garbage, though. They lock you into contracts, but they're more than happy to change their end of the bargain.
I almost never go to the Fashion Place mall, but today I did. I spotted this, and was impressed.
"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
You a Carhartt guy? I like their work pants.I almost never go to the Fashion Place mall, but today I did. I spotted this, and was impressed.
"Don't apologize; it's not your fault. It's my fault for overestimating your competence."
I went to the Apple Store there. Lots of bright, shiny things!
"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
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