My thoughts on the Utah game

[Hot Lunch]

1. Utah is fast very fast. Their skill positions have some really good speed.

2. Matt Asiata looks quicker and faster yet still packs a mean punch. I will say this, having him carry the ball as much as he did every week will not be good for him IMO. That can take a toll on a back. He was a work horse tonight though and had to be.

3. David Reed is a stud. Big time play maker. He made a great catch and and and even better run on his big score. He received a nice block by Peel as well. I do think that one of the other guys needs to step up as a go to guy as well. Teams will start to zero on him more than they did Collie last year.

4. Cain was better than I thought he would be. He did a good job in the first half moving the ball and completing short passes. He did struggle throwing the ball further down the field though.

5. Very surprised that Utah only scored once in the second half. Gary must have made some really good half time adjustments.

6. I know Misi was not playing tonight but their D line isn't nearly as good as the were last year. One person I think they miss is Newman in the middle. The guy was under sized but he played well.

7. Utah St. is a much better team than they were last year. I think they can win 5 games this year in their league. I also think that if Burel could hit a wide receiver down field the game would have been even closer than it was. He is a great athlete and made some incredible runs but man he can't throw the ball.

Good win. It wasn't pretty but a win is a win.

[SeattleUte]

JUcos suck. Asiata, Cain and Reed: worthless.

[Hot Lunch]

JUcos suck. Asiata, Cain and Reed: worthless.

3 out of 20 is a great percentage.

[Mormon Red Death]

Well, they did win by 18. USU scores came off of a 60 yard catch. 96 yard run and a tipped ball interception in Utah's red zone. That being said the inside run/trap/counter was there all day for usu.

as for the speed Luke Mathews has some serious wheels.

[Hot Lunch]

as for the speed Luke Mathews has some serious wheels.

There are a lot of guys that looked fast. Utah has some serious speed on that team.

[SeattleUte]

Utah might have won by 100. Utah St. had some freak plays go their way. I'm pleasantly surprised. The defense will improve. That's a sure thing.

[Hot Lunch]

Utah might have won by 100.

Not the way they moved the ball in the 2nd half.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Utah might have won by 100. Utah St. had some freak plays go their way.

Might have? That's a lot of freak plays to account for an 82-point difference.

[BoylenOver]

Thanks for the observations. A very fair and insightful take on thr game.

[scottie]

I think Utah beats Oregon and goes into their game at TCU undefeated. The term "Asiata Formation" is no doubt going to get way over used this year (they even used it on Sportscenter).

[Commando]

How about that Aggie goal-line defense, eh? That was some freak play.

[All-American]

The problem with playing Utah State is that you really don't know anything after the fact unless you played poorly. If you performed well, you did so against Utah State.

Defensively, Utah clearly has good playmakers, but have the potential to give up some big plays. From the looks of it, those two big offensive plays for the Aggies came in part because somebody on defense missed an assignment. If those problems don't get fixed, Utah will lose games to teams with the talent and time necessary to exploit defensive mistakes.

Offensively, Cain was able to make quick decisions and accurately dump off the inside routes to receivers who were much faster than the USU secondary players. There wasn't really any success doing anything else through the air other than the short inside passes-- but then again, he didn't need to do anything else to win this game. We do not yet know how effective Cain will be against a team that can contain the YACs, but Utah can win several games on their schedule relying on nothing but the dump passes, given the speed of their receivers.

For now, we know that Utah was better than what USU could throw at them. That may or may not be significant, depending on how much Utah State has improved.

[UtahDan]

Good post HL, lots of the same thoughts I had. The only things that really bothered me on a fundamental level last night was the apparent softness at DT and giving up the big play. I can attribute the bigs plays to blown assignments and hope they will be fixed. But I am worried about the middle of that defense going forward. That said, my goodness is there some speed there and that makes up for a lot. OTOH, that defense needs to create turnovers and didn't really.

Offense I can't really complain at all for a first outing with 4 starters coming back. Cain was better than expected, Asiata looks great (though 35+ carries is way too much and will result in him being injured), and I can hardly keep track of the weapons at WR. I think we are going to see a lot of dinks, dunks, end arounds and short passes this year mixed in with heavy doses of that little option between Cain and Asiata. That is what Utah can do well. Cain didn't throw mid range or down field much and when he did the accuracy was not good. At some point, someone will force us to beat them that way. The interception wasn't really his fault...the fumbles don't concern me unless we see repeats.

I also think that it was very purposeful that you almost never saw Cain keep the ball on that option and it looked on a number of plays that if he had he would have have very long runs and he seems very fast. I think in the right game we will see a lot more of him running, but at 175 lbs there is a huge durability question there. It will be difficult to mix in enough of him running to make teams respect it and not get him hurt. He is quick enough that we will see him take a run 50+ yards a couple times this year and not get caught.

Overall, sloppy at times and lacking the killer instinct you want them to have, but IF the big mistakes can be limited or corrected the pieces are there for nine wins if things break right, though 8 is also realistic and would not be bad for this team particularly will all its tough games on the road.

[Indy Coug]

If you have to keep giving Asiata 35+ carries a game, you are setting yourself up for trouble.

[DrumNFeather]

Good thoughts HL.

It really seemed like Utah started going through the motions there in the second half...and I agree that Asiata can't carry it that much, but I also think we'll see a lot of Eddie Wide as well. He's a nice change of pace back. When Asiata was running deep into the 4th all I could think about was Marty Johnson blowing out his knee in garbage time vs. Indiana in Macs last year. Glad that didn't happen.

This team has enough speed that it doesn't need to go down field a ton, but you still have to know that option is available, so Cain needs to work on some of those deeper passes...and once he settles into the position, he'll hit on some of those passes he missed on in the 2nd half. That probably cost him 75-100 extra yards of passing to miss a few of those.

The defense needs to play better. Almost no mention of Robert Johnson (aside from the Ute walk story, which was nice) or Nai Fotu (until the safety at the end where he flipped the QB....jeez that was a big hit).

John Peel was a real nice surprise offensively and Christian Cox was a nice surprise on the defense.

I'm with Kyle, this team has a long ways to go, but not bad for a first game against your old DC.