As you might expect, last week’s game against SUU was the highest-rated game the University of Utah has played since PFF began tracking, going back to 2014, with an overall score of 95.2. Last year’s two highest games were Stanford at 91.3 and Colorado at 91.1. It will take a few weeks before we know if Utah used this to get into a good rhythm for the rest of the season, or if this is an outlier for a team that is still developing. Still, there were a lot of good scores this past week.
Let’s take a look at the individual scores, offense first.
QB - Rising: 89.8 (#1) on 45 snaps. Rising went 17/23 (73.8%) for 254 yards (11.0 ypa) with 3 TD and 0 INT. This was a very good game for rising against an FCS team.
QB - Barnes: 87.9 (#3) on 20 snaps. Barnes went 6/6 (100%) for 98 yards (16.3 ypa) with 1 TD. Again, great game for Barnes in limited action against an FCS team.
QB - Jackson: 75.1 on 10 snaps. Jackson didn’t throw a pass but ran twice for 29 yards (14.5 ypc)
Both of the throwing QBs played well, going for 352 yards and 4 TD, and Jackson was rated well for his limited action as well, although we didn’t get to see him throwing.
RB - Bernard: 69.5 on 20 snaps. Bernard started the game and played the most snaps (by 1). He had 3 carries for 41 yards (13.7 ypc) plus 2 catches for 33 yards (16.5 ypc).
RB - Thomas: 58.0 on 19 snaps. Thomas had his worst game as a Ute, according to PFF. This is largely due to his fumble. He was still the #1 running back, getting 11 carries for 48 yards (4.4 ypc) and 2 TD.
RB - Glover: Glover was rated 75.2 on 16 snaps. He had 9 carries for 53 yards (5.9 ypc) with 2 TD.
RB - Curry: Curry was rated 81.0 (#7) on 14 snaps. He had 6 carries for 60 yards (10.0 ypc) with 1 TD.
RB - Vincent: The walk-on from East played really well, rating 73.0 on 7 snaps with 4 carries for 15 yards (3.8 ypc).
While no individual RBs really stood out, having 6 players with 15 or more yards is pretty impressive, and 246 total rushing yards on 42 carries (5.9 ypc) with 5 TD is great.
TE - Kincaid: 88.4 (#2) on 44 snaps. 7 catches on 7 targets for 107 yards (15.3 ypc) with 2 TD.
WR - Vele: 62.4 on 39 snaps. 2 catches on 4 targets (50%) for 38 yards (19.0 ypc).
TE - Kuithe: 64.7 on 35 snaps. 3 catches on 5 targets (60%) for 22 yards (7.1 ypc) with 1 TD.
WR - Enis: 52.2 on 33 snaps but wasn’t targeted.
TE - Yassmin: 66.5 on 27 snaps. Had 1 catch on 1 target for 29 yards and a TD.
WR - Parks: 82.7 (#5) on 18 snaps. Had 3 catches on 4 targets for 71 yards (23.7 ypc)
WR - Cope: 59.7 on 18 snaps. Had 1 catch on 1 target for 5 yards.
Kincaid and Parks both had great games, and Kuithe and Yassmin both caught touchdowns. Kuithe had a great game. Vele had an okay game. Kincaid was okay but was rated fairly low. Enis caught both of his targets, but didn’t really make an effect.
LT - Daniels: 72.0 on 45 snaps, better pass blocking (87.3) than run blocking (64.4).
LG - Bills: 81.3 (#6) on 45 snaps, also better at pass blocking (86.2) than run blocking (70.7)
C - Maile: 71.4 on 45 snaps, similarly way better at pass blocking (83.4) than run blocking (66.4)
RG - Mokofisi: 69.8 on 45 snaps, again better at pass blocking (86.2) than run blocking (73.5)
RT - Laumea: 77.6 on 45 snaps, the only starting OL rated higher at run blocking (83.4) than pass blocking (52.0).
That’s the starting OL. They played OK, especially the left side, but there are a couple of backup OL that are itching to take over if they can. Here are the backups:
LT - Williams: 71.0 on 30 snaps. Like most, better at pass blocking (81.2) than run blocking (67.2)
LG - Togiai: 58.6 on 30 snaps. 79.2 pass blocking and 62.5 run blocking.
C - Maea: 66.2 on 20 snaps. Much better run blocking (71.5) than pass blocking (15.0).
RG - Kump: 51.1 on 30 snaps with 79.2 pass blocking and 49.0 run blocking.
RT - Kaumatule: 84.6 (#4) on 30 snaps with 78.9 pass blocking and 81.8 run blocking.
There were also two TE who only blocked, didn’t run any passes.
TE - Kendall: 73.9 on 17 snaps. No targets but blocked pretty well (76.2 pass blocking and 74.0 run blocking)
TE - Taniela Pututa: 68.0 on 16 snaps. No targets, all run blocking snaps (65.9 run blocking).
Overall the offense really overwhelmed SUU’s defense, with the only dark spot the fumble. They put up 598 yards of offense on 75 snaps, which is almost 8 yards per snap.
Now let’s take a look at the defense:
DE - Elliss: 59.1 on 28 snaps. 2 tackles, 1 QB pressure, 1 TFL.
DT - Vimahi: 54.3 on 25 snaps. No tackles.
DT - Tafuna: 74.6 (#3 of players 20+ snaps, #6 of players with 10+) on 25 snaps. 3 tackles, 1 QB pressure, 0.5 TFL, 1 INT.
DE - O’Toole: 68.9 on 24 snaps. 5 tackles, 1 QB pressure, 0.5 TFL, 0.5 sacks.
DE - Gabe Reid: 71.5 on 22 snaps. 2 tackles, 2 QB pressures, 0.5 TFL, 0.5 sacks.
Several other DL had double-digit snaps, but the five above were the only ones over 20. Tanuvasa had 15 snaps (74.6), Suguturaga started but only had 13 snaps (58.1), Pepa had 12 snaps (88.5, which would be #2 among players with 10+)), and Fillinger had 11 snaps (60.1).
LB - Barton: Lander played the most snaps of any defensive player with 36 and was rated well at 73.9 (#4 of players with 20+, #8 of players with 10+). He had 4 tackles, 1 QB pressure, 1 TFL and 1 sack.
LB - Karene Reid: 89.1 (#1 of players with 10+) on 24 snaps. He had 3 tackles and 2 PBU.
LB - Mata’afa: 55.5 on 20 snaps. He had 3 tackles and 1 QB pressure.
LB - Diabate: 74.9 on 16 snaps. He had 4 tackles and 1 QB pressure.
Barton and Reid played great, and the rest of the linebackers players pretty well. Shout out here to Furey, who only played 9 snaps but was rated 91.2 and had 3 tackles, 1 TFL, and 1 PBU.
CB - Broughton: 68.4 on 28 snaps, 3 tackles and 2 receptions on 3 targets.
CB - Phillips: 70.7 on 27 snaps 2 tackles and 2 catches on 2 targets.
CB - Mataele: 70.3 on 22 snaps. 1 tackle and gave up no catches on 5 targets.
CB - Savage: 63.8 on 17 snaps. No stats and wasn’t targeted.
CB - Marks: 64.2 on 16 snaps. No stats and wasn’t targeted.
CB - Vaughn: 78.2 (#3 of players with 10+) on 15 snaps. 1 tackle, 1 reception on 2 targets.
Like most of the defense, the corners rotated a lot. Beyond the 6 listed, Lawler also got 6 snaps. As a result, it’s hard to take anything from these stats, although PFF really liked Vaughn in his limited action.
SS - Bishop: 77.1 on 28 snaps (#2 of players with 20+, #4 of players with 10+). He had 3 tackles, 1 QB pressure, 0.5 TFL and gave up 1 catch on 1 target.
FS - Hubert: 69.5 on 28 snaps. He had no tackles but 1 great INT return for a TD early in the 3rd.
FS - Isbell: 63.5 on 18 snaps. No stats and wasn’t targeted.
SS - Vaki: 59.1 on 14 snaps. No stats and wasn’t targeted.
The defense played great, holding SUU to 43 yards rushing on 21 attempts and 42 receiving yards on 11/23 passing with 2 INT. Utah held SUU to 1/13 on 3rd down and 0-1 on 4th down. If not for the fumble Utah would probably have prevented them from crossing the 50.
Overall this was a good game against an overmatched FCS opponent. Utah has some areas to work on, notably 3rd down (5/10 isn’t bad in normal circumstances but against SUU it’s troubling) and the fumble, but the young players got some game snaps and now Utah’s ready to prepare for SDSU, who lost to Arizona in Week 1 before beating ID ST 38-7 last week.
