Utes took advantage of situations better than OSU
Still shell-shocked from last night? Are your ears still ringing from the on-field celebration? I bet the answer for a lot of you is yes for both questions.
What a wild finish it was for the Utes. I'm sure as the game is rehashed and dissected in the next few days a lot of critics are going to point to that pass interference call on Utah's two-point conversion and say the Utes were given a gift, that it was as bad of a call as the celebration penalty against BYU at the end of its game at Washington.
Personally, I did think it was a bad call because I thought it was an uncatchable ball. The swirling wind caught Brian Johnson's pass and put it behind his intended target, David Reed and Oregon State safety Greg Laybourn. One ref signaled incomplete then many, many seconds later another threw a flag.
But you know what? The difference between being a winner and loser in tight games is taking advantage of the situations you are given and that is what the Utes did better than Oregon State Thursday.
Oregon State probably would have won that game if its kicker Justin Kahut hadn't missed on a PAT or hadn't missed a 43-yard field goal. He also had a bad kickoff of just 45 yards after the Beavers went up 28-20 that gave the Utes the ball on their own 40-yard line. He didn't come through for his team and Louie Sakoda did for the Utes.
Oregon State probably would have won if it played solid defense on the Utes' ensuing possession. Instead Johnson was able to complete a 24-yard pass to Brent Casteel on one play, then throw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Bradon Godfrey on the next. The Utes made the plays and the Beavers didn't.
Same thing can be said of the two-point conversion redo. Johnson found a way to score instead of the Beavers finding a way to stop him.
Oregon State probably would have won if it hadn't played not to lose at the end of the game. Oregon State, a team that went for the Utes' throat at the end of the first half using timeouts and getting out of bounds in a failed attempt to get a few extra points on the board, seemed sloppy and disorganized on its final possession. Were the Beavers playing for the win or playing for overtime? Hard to tell because the offense suddenly seemed disjointed and rattled. Three and out it went, using just 23 seconds to gain four yards.
"I guess they didn't know we had this guy right here," Johnson said sitting next to Sakoda, as he reviewed OSU's poor plays on that drive.
The kicking game got the Beavers again when punter Johnny Hekker managed only a 31-yard punt setting up Utah's dramatic drive at the end.
"I was thinking, just get to the 40, get in Louie's range," Johnson said.
The Utes did better than that, getting down to OSU's 20-yard line to give Sakoda an easy make.
In the end Utah made the plays on the chances it was given and Oregon State didn't. You can't argue that regardless of what you thought of the PI call.
Overall Utah's offense still drives me nuts, and I know it did many of the fans in attendance because I heard the boos directed at Johnson. That is something the Utes have to figure out and get more consistency, enough of the off again, on again stuff. Luckily for the Utes the schedule gives them plenty of time to take care of those problems. Wyoming (2-3), Colorado State (2-2) and New Mexico (2-3) should be easy games for the Utes before they play TCU (4-1) on Nov. 6. I know Wyoming will have revenge on its mind and New Mexico can be a tough place to play even if it lost its starting quarterback for the season, but if the Utes indeed are a top team in the nation worthy of a Top 15 ranking, they need to play like one in those three games and win convincingly.
Here is the link to all of our game coverage.
Here is how the Corvallis Gazette saw the game and another view from The Oregonian.
What a wild finish it was for the Utes. I'm sure as the game is rehashed and dissected in the next few days a lot of critics are going to point to that pass interference call on Utah's two-point conversion and say the Utes were given a gift, that it was as bad of a call as the celebration penalty against BYU at the end of its game at Washington.
Personally, I did think it was a bad call because I thought it was an uncatchable ball. The swirling wind caught Brian Johnson's pass and put it behind his intended target, David Reed and Oregon State safety Greg Laybourn. One ref signaled incomplete then many, many seconds later another threw a flag.
But you know what? The difference between being a winner and loser in tight games is taking advantage of the situations you are given and that is what the Utes did better than Oregon State Thursday.
Oregon State probably would have won that game if its kicker Justin Kahut hadn't missed on a PAT or hadn't missed a 43-yard field goal. He also had a bad kickoff of just 45 yards after the Beavers went up 28-20 that gave the Utes the ball on their own 40-yard line. He didn't come through for his team and Louie Sakoda did for the Utes.
Oregon State probably would have won if it played solid defense on the Utes' ensuing possession. Instead Johnson was able to complete a 24-yard pass to Brent Casteel on one play, then throw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Bradon Godfrey on the next. The Utes made the plays and the Beavers didn't.
Same thing can be said of the two-point conversion redo. Johnson found a way to score instead of the Beavers finding a way to stop him.
Oregon State probably would have won if it hadn't played not to lose at the end of the game. Oregon State, a team that went for the Utes' throat at the end of the first half using timeouts and getting out of bounds in a failed attempt to get a few extra points on the board, seemed sloppy and disorganized on its final possession. Were the Beavers playing for the win or playing for overtime? Hard to tell because the offense suddenly seemed disjointed and rattled. Three and out it went, using just 23 seconds to gain four yards.
"I guess they didn't know we had this guy right here," Johnson said sitting next to Sakoda, as he reviewed OSU's poor plays on that drive.
The kicking game got the Beavers again when punter Johnny Hekker managed only a 31-yard punt setting up Utah's dramatic drive at the end.
"I was thinking, just get to the 40, get in Louie's range," Johnson said.
The Utes did better than that, getting down to OSU's 20-yard line to give Sakoda an easy make.
In the end Utah made the plays on the chances it was given and Oregon State didn't. You can't argue that regardless of what you thought of the PI call.
Overall Utah's offense still drives me nuts, and I know it did many of the fans in attendance because I heard the boos directed at Johnson. That is something the Utes have to figure out and get more consistency, enough of the off again, on again stuff. Luckily for the Utes the schedule gives them plenty of time to take care of those problems. Wyoming (2-3), Colorado State (2-2) and New Mexico (2-3) should be easy games for the Utes before they play TCU (4-1) on Nov. 6. I know Wyoming will have revenge on its mind and New Mexico can be a tough place to play even if it lost its starting quarterback for the season, but if the Utes indeed are a top team in the nation worthy of a Top 15 ranking, they need to play like one in those three games and win convincingly.
Here is the link to all of our game coverage.
Here is how the Corvallis Gazette saw the game and another view from The Oregonian.
8:19 AM
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5 Comments:
Yeah, the offense drives me nuts too (you may have heard me yelling all the way from Denver).
I want to like Johnson, I really do (he is a very nice and respectable guy off the field), but sometimes I just can't take it. Here we have a quarterback that is SO talented in many ways, but almost afraid to use those talents. I think ultimately he holds on to the ball too long. Seriously dude, you can run with the best of them, do it! If there isn't anything open down field, get something, instead of a 4th and 5 you might have a 4th and 1 or 2.
Case in point, he finally made the right call to run at the end, gets 2-points and opens the door for the eventual Sakoda kick.
Seriously, it's ok to run, honest!
The pass on the two point conversion was a catchable ball. I was sitting right above the play. The receiver made the adjustment abd would have caught it. It was a good call. Did you have a better vantage point.
I don't like the comparison to the BYU/UW bad call. That call was historically bad and unusual. This was just another PI penalty. What percentage of pass interference calls are not controversial? PI is a tough judgment call every time. I think refs are more likely to throw the flag at the end of close games (see BYU-Utah the last two years), and this was not an exception to that rule. Nothing unusual about it. Riley didn't disagree with it. It certainly won't set off a national media outcry they way the BYU/UW call did. Two completely different things.
The only thing about this team that I worry about, is the offense. Too inconsistent.
Say what you want about pass intereference calls, fans rushing the field, etc. It was one of the funnest endings to a game that I have been a part of. They made plays when they had to, and Louie is clutch.
6-0 and still going strong. GO UTES!
http://scoopsmangum.blogspot.com
I watched the game on TV since I live in Florida. From watching it on TV Johnson looked horrible. I love Johnson but he was a head case on thursday night.
I blame some of Johnsons hesitancy on Andy Ludwig. Why does he love running all the deep paterns that take too much time to develop. He only comes back to the short passes after Johnson has thrown a pick and lost his confidence.
I liked the old Urban Meyer spread when the quarterback ran the ball a lot more and we lived off of the quick short passes. We need to get the ball into the hands of the playmakers. Maybe throw some more screen passes and passes to the tight end as well.
Ludwig is killing me as much as Johnson is.
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