[d4cohn]

I want to first preface my comments by saying I love this program, and what it stands for, and the men of character that we have coaching the team and on the field (which is ultimately most important).  Even though the past couple of weeks have been tough, I think it is important to remember this perspective amid our collective disappointment.

Tonight was a tougher loss than Notre Dame for me, because unlike Notre Dame, where I felt the Irish were clearly the better and more talented team, I felt that we were the more talented (but obviously not better) team tonight. However, we made more avoidable mistakes than I can recall us making in a long time that gifted points to Utah, or took points off the board on our end:

1) The running into the punter penalty, ultimately leading to Utah's 1st TD, instead of us getting the ball in a scoreless game (albeit likely backed up)
2) The most costly was the pick six, which turned a likely 7-7 game (at worst 7-3 game), into a 14-0 game
3) 2nd INT, which took a likely 3 points off the board
4) The very poor defensive scheme with :08 left (even though I know we nearly got burned for a TD on the previous play), to leave the intermediate pass wide open (thanks to dropping three guys at the goaline), with the space completely vacated, leading to the necessary yardage to tack on 3 points before half (another big back-breaker)
5) Missed sack, and blown coverage by No.5, compounded by another poor angle, leading to TD that made it 37-21 and once and for all iced the game

Very thankfully, we have a bye after this, because I think we are clearly in need of a reset (not necessarily so much in scheme, though there are some scheme changes that might be made on defense). Other solace we can take is that this is only the first Pac-12 loss, and the loss was to a team from the South, rather than the North.

However, any margin of error is completely gone, and we are staring at a very tough road game in a week and a half against a desperate (but I think pretty solid) ASU team. I hope we are ready for the challenge.

[d4cohn]

I want to first preface my comments by saying I love this program, and what it stands for, and the men of character that we have coaching the team and on the field (which is ultimately most important).  Even though the past couple of weeks have been tough, I think it is important to remember this perspective amid our collective disappointment.

Tonight was a tougher loss than Notre Dame for me, because unlike Notre Dame, where I felt the Irish were clearly the better and more talented team, I felt that we were the more talented (but obviously not better) team tonight. However, we made more avoidable mistakes than I can recall us making in a long time that gifted points to Utah, or took points off the board on our end:

1) The running into the punter penalty, ultimately leading to Utah's 1st TD, instead of us getting the ball in a scoreless game (albeit likely backed up)
2) The most costly was the pick six, which turned a likely 7-7 game (at worst 7-3 game), into a 14-0 game
3) 2nd INT, which took a likely 3 points off the board
4) The very poor defensive scheme with :08 left (even though I know we nearly got burned for a TD on the previous play), to leave the intermediate pass wide open (thanks to dropping three guys at the goaline), with the space completely vacated, leading to the necessary yardage to tack on 3 points before half (another big back-breaker)
5) Missed sack, and blown coverage by No.5, compounded by another poor angle, leading to TD that made it 37-21 and once and for all iced the game

Very thankfully, we have a bye after this, because I think we are clearly in need of a reset (not necessarily so much in scheme, though there are some scheme changes that might be made on defense). Other solace we can take is that this is only the first Pac-12 loss, and the loss was to a team from the South, rather than the North.

However, any margin of error is completely gone, and we are staring at a very tough road game in a week and a half against a desperate (but I think pretty solid) ASU team. I hope we are ready for the challenge.