[fullmetal]

Please enlighten me about your game with the Utah Utes, as I am having trouble comprehending the result of that game.  What went wrong?  I'm assuming something went terribly wrong. 

One thing to remember is that MSU has yet to lose a game on the field of competition, whereas Stanford has two losses.  I see no reason to take MSU's higher ranking as a sign of disrespect or an indication of one team being considered superior to the other.

My personal, unsubstantiated opinion is that the loss was a bad confluence of several factors.  First, the altitude--no joke up there.  4,600+ feet can hit you a little hard when you're doing athletic things.  Secondly, there was some micro-holding on those screen passes Utah used to carve up our front seven.  They used their numbers well and showed some very impressive speed running that screen.  Good speed + microholding = lots of yardage on well-blocked screen plays.  Third, their then-QB Travis Wilson was a very good player.  He was lost for the season with a right hand injury the game after Stanford--Utah was 1-5 without him and 4-2 with him, for whatever that's worth.  Fourth, the refs made a few terrible calls, the most egregious of which was a non-call offensive PI that allowed a receiver to move a DB around to make a reception for a touchdown (51 yds).  Finally, some terrible offensive playcalling had two effects: one--we didn't score on our final possession, which led to the loss, and two, earlier in the game, our offensive woes led to a lot of short, futile drives, which meant our defense gassed out much more quickly.

[fullmetal]

Please enlighten me about your game with the Utah Utes, as I am having trouble comprehending the result of that game.  What went wrong?  I'm assuming something went terribly wrong. 

One thing to remember is that MSU has yet to lose a game on the field of competition, whereas Stanford has two losses.  I see no reason to take MSU's higher ranking as a sign of disrespect or an indication of one team being considered superior to the other.

My personal, unsubstantiated opinion is that the loss was a bad confluence of several factors.  First, the altitude--no joke up there.  4,600+ feet can hit you a little hard when you're doing athletic things.  Secondly, there was some micro-holding on those screen passes Utah used to carve up our front seven.  They used their numbers well and showed some very impressive speed running that screen.  Good speed + microholding = lots of yardage on well-blocked screen plays.  Third, their then-QB Travis Wilson was a very good player.  He was lost for the season with a right hand injury the game after Stanford--Utah was 1-5 without him and 4-2 with him, for whatever that's worth.  Fourth, the refs made a few terrible calls, the most egregious of which was a non-call offensive PI that allowed a receiver to move a DB around to make a reception for a touchdown (51 yds).  Finally, some terrible offensive playcalling had two effects: one--we didn't score on our final possession, which led to the loss, and two, earlier in the game, our offensive woes led to a lot of short, futile drives, which meant our defense gassed out much more quickly.