Utah fails to capitalize on 3 USC turnovers and falls to the Trojans 17-14. The biggest hit came on the final play when John Cullen got blown up by a USC lineman (again) and a 41 yard field goal attempt by Utah was blocked and ran back for a touchdown that was called off because of an unsportsmanlike conduct call on the USC bench (long enough sentence for you?).
A lot of people will talk about how competitive Utah looked and the how they fought to the end blah blah blah. What should be talked about is how will Utah over come the 2 glaring flaws on the team. The Offensive line is not only bad, but it makes swiss cheese look like a better choice. Even worse than that, Jordan Wynn looks really bad. I mean really, really bad.
I'm not a QB coach nor could I be, but almost everything I have seen from him this season looks wrong. I don't know if his shoulder hasn't rehabbed correctly so his shoulder no longer rotates right (see my dad's shoulder injury) or what else could be wrong. I'll tell you though, that side arm delivery is a new thing that developed at the end of the season last year after his injury. It's what get the ball knocked down at the line of scrimmage. It's what floats the ball to the receivers. It's what takes the any zip out of the ball. Zip? What am I talking about? I've seen 4 year old's throw a ball with more power.
His 3 step drops don't look right either. He steps back 2 and 1/2 steps and tries to launch the ball off his back foot. What should happen is he takes 3 steps back and than throws it, not on his 3rd step. The best throws were when he was either in the shotgun or a 5 step drop (only if he had time). Wynn had no time to make any good decisions and couldn't make the quick throws that were needed when USC blitzed.
When he got any kind of pressure he would spin, turning his back to the play and not looking downfield. You can't do that and expect to know where everyone is on the field. That was very evident as well and USC started blitzing because of it.
Also, every deep throw was under thrown and at least 4 times the balls that were caught could have been bigger plays if they were on target. Particularly on that last drive. Twice he over threw the wideout and on one of those plays the WR dove out and caught the ball with no one within 20 yards of him. The second one was so over thrown that the diving attempt by the wide open WR was still not good enough. If he is 100% healthy, he is having the same mental block that you see some catchers do where they can no longer throw the ball back to the pitcher. If he's not, it may be time to move onto the back up.
I also want to blame this on the O-line. I haven't seen a Utah team with only 82 yards rushing for a long time. This Utah O-line has done it 3 times in the last two years. Aside from Tony Bergstrom, this line looks like Carlos Boozer on defense. John Cullen, the LT looks good but makes too many mistakes. Most of the sacks came against him, or the LG on that side as well. Plus his play on that field goal attempt was ridiculous. He is suppose to be this strong thug of a man and got stood straight up and walked back into the kicking lane. It was absurd and shouldn't have happened. I don't care who or what is pushing against you, your job is to not let him do that. They only time I've ever seen anything like that is when Bingham had a DT who picked up a guard and threw him at the QB. The DT was 6'4" 335 lbs and the OG looked like he was 5'5" and 185 lbs. John Cullen is HUGE. 6'5" and 300 lbs. It is not OK that Utah's best option at LT is getting thrown around like that.
The defense of Utah looks pretty good right now, but not great. The bend but not break philosophy works well for them but they bent a LOT. It seems as though they got a lot of breaks by the turnovers, but they were great plays by the defenders, not mistakes by the offense of USC. In fact, Utah could have and should have had 2 more INT's. One could have even been a pick 6 and would have changed the game from the get go. I do feel bad for them though because the offense put them in bad spots every time.
I don't want to get on the Norm Chow head hunt band wagon... yet. But I will say this, why not call plays that work? I saw 2 run plays work really well for Utah and they never called them again. The toss sweep worked really well to the left side and the stretch play worked really well to the right. Every other run I saw was either off tackle or A gap and it just wasn't working. It almost looks like Norm Chow doesn't have the faith in his athletes to call the outside plays.
I didn't watch the BYU game enough to break anything down. From what I've heard, Brandon Doman called a pretty conservative game plan in the second half. Even running the ball on a crucial 3rd and 8. Hopefully for Y fans, Jake Heaps can learn to put the ball in the end zone sooner than later. I just hope it doesn't happen next week.
Go Utes!
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