Utah Left With More Questions Than Answers Following Disappointing Loss
It was almost too good to be true.
Utah entered Saturday's night season-opener against Pac-12 south division rival USC having not played a game in nearly a calendar year. Forget the time in between games, Utah had been devastated by a recent COVID-19 outbreak within the program that forced the many players to miss multiple practices and the cancel the first two games of the season.
So when Utah found itself tied at 10 with No. 19 USC early in the second quarter following a scoop-and-score by junior linebacker Nephi Sewell, one couldn't help but wonder if the #Pac12AfterDark special would go down in the Utes' favor.
Alas, that wasn't to be the case.
Utah was outscored by 16 points the rest of the way as the offense struggled to find a consistent rhythm in its 33-17 loss.
"Overall, a tough way to start the season," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "It was a disappointing game. ... We've got a lot of improvement we can make and need to make between games one and two. But, like I said, there are some encouraging things there."
What makes the game even more disappointing apart from the result was how the Utes got to that outcome.
The offense was supposed to be the star this season. A veteran-laden group armed with playmakers all over the field and a talented offensive line led by two all-Pac-12 performers, this unit was supposed to make up for the shortcomings the defense was to have.
And shortcomings were expected, as Utah was replacing tasked with replacing nine different starters on defense. Nearly half of those new starters were underclassmen, including four of them in the secondary alone.
Yet for some unknown reason, the roles were reversed Saturday night.
The defense was physical and feisty, albeit making some mistakes due to its youth. The offense on the other hand was downright atrocious, particularly the offensive line.
"A lot of positives, however, especially on the defensive side. Our defense played scrappy. The run defense was solid," Whittingham said. "The thing we didn't count on was not being productive on offense. We thought we'd be much more productive offensively. We have a veteran group. It's tough to win games when you turn the ball over five times—one of those turnovers was a Hail Mary at the end—and only score 10 points offensively. You aren't going to win many games in this league doing that."
Utah left late Saturday night — or shall I say early Sunday morning — with more questions than answers after playing its first game of the year.
Among those questions are...
1.) Will starting quarterback Cam Rising be healthy?
2.) What exactly went wrong with the offensive line?
3.) How do they find more consistency in the passing and running games?
4.) Why weren't Brant Kuithe and Bryan Thompson involved more?
5.) What sort of steps will the defense take next?
6.) How do the Utes respond in the face of adversity?
7.) When will Britain Covey be healthy and see the field?
That's a lot of questions to answer for, very few of which will be known within the next couple of days. Whittingham said Rising, who left following the first play of the second quarter when he was sacked and fumbled deep in Utah territory, suffered a shoulder injury and his status moving forward is unknown.
"Cam did all the things we needed to see throughout camp," Whittingham said. "But Jake is probably going to be the guy now. Cam took a pretty good shot with that shoulder. We'll find out more tomorrow, but if Jake is the guy then we will rally around him."
Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports
Much of the talk this upcoming week will be about the offensive line and how porous a performance it was by them. Make no mistake, it was a disappointing effort as they combined to give up three sacks and five tackles for loss, not to mention at least double-digit quarterback hurries.
But taking a closer look and you'll see that apart from center Orlando Umana and left tackle Nick Ford, two all-Pac-12 performers from last season, the Utes started three freshman alongside them; Keaton Bills (left guard), Sataoa Laumea (right guard) and Jaren Kump (right tackle).
Reports surfaced last week that this group was hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak within the program, so practice time and continuity were scarce leading up to Saturday night. This unit played like one that didn't have much practice time as a lot of the mistakes came down to communication and failure to slide protections.
It's assumed that with more practice time that will get figured out. The good news is that figuring out that problem would help solve other problems, for instance the turnover issues and finding more consistency for sustained drives.
Courtesy of Utah Athletics
For its first game of the season, the defense was shockingly impressive given the multiple situations it found itself in throughout the game.
Seven of USC's 14 drives started past the Trojans' 35-yard line, four of which began in Utes territory. Utah surrendered just 17 points in those seven drives, while also forcing two punts and two turnovers.
Altogether, they forced USC to kick field goals four times the Trojans entered into the redzone. That showed a real moxie as their 'bend but don't break' philosophy was more than successful enough to get the win.
"We want to compete now and we want to win now," Whittingham said. "It will take some time to get these guys up to speed. We lost a heck of a defensive unit that had nine guys move on to the NFL. We had some guys who got an opportunity tonight, they made some mistakes, but there are some things we can build on on that side of the ball."
Moving forward, there is a lot of work to be done — and that's to be expected. But what isn't expected were the number of questions still left to be answered. The Utes have one week — and for intensive purposes, this entire season — to iron out their issues.
Their next opponent is unknown, and maybe that's a good thing. Right now Utah should focus solely on itself and the rest will come.
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