The University of Utah throttled a struggling Stanford team on Saturday, 42-7. I thought Stanford would be able to get one more FG, as I predicted 42-10. Still, it was an overwhelming game from Utah on both sides of the ball in preparation for the biggest remaining test of the season, this week’s game with Oregon.
Here’s how the individual scores looked this weekend:
QB - Rising: 68.7 on 71 snaps, Rising improved over his Arizona score, going 20/33 (60.6%) for 219 yards (6.6 ypa) with 3 TD and 1 INT. He also had 39 rushing yards on 2 scrambles
QB - Johnson: 72.0 (#5) on 4 snaps. Again, I normally wouldn’t include 4 snaps, but Johnson went 1/1 for 16 yards and a TD plus 1 rush for 21 yards. He’s looked very good in limited action and shows some exciting potential for next year or the year after, depending on Rising’s decision about this year’s NFL draft.
Rising improved noticeably over last week, which was one of his toughest weeks ever as Utah’s QB, but he’s still clearly not quite 100%. Still, he looked much better than last week and appears to be on the road to full recovery.
RB - Thomas: 85.2 (#1) on 37 snaps, Thomas has clearly improved his mental/attitude issues, rushing 22 times for 180 yards (8.2 ypc) with 2 TD. He had more yards than Stanford’s entire offense (177).
RB - Bernard: 66.2 on 31 snaps, Bernard had 5 carries for 11 yards plus 3 catches on 4 targets for 57 yards (19.0 ypc) with 1 TD.
Utah ran the ball very well, with 36 attempts for 279 yards (7.75 ypc) with 2 TD on the ground. Notably, these were the first rushing yards ever for Utah punter Jack Bouwmeester, who ran for 14 on the fake punt. Glover and Vincent also played a couple of snaps each.
WR - Vele: 65.5 on 69 snaps, Vele had 6 catches on 9 targets for 61 yards (10.2 ypc) with 1 TD.
WR - Parks: 52.4 on 46 snaps, Parks had 2 catches on 4 targets for 14 yards (7.0 ypc) and 1 drop.
TE - Yassmin: 55.4 on 41 snaps, Yassmin had 1 catch on 2 targets for 14 yards and 1 TD.
WR - Enis: 57.1 on 36 snaps, Enis had 1 catch on 1 target for 16 yards.
TE - Kendall: 76.3 (#2) on 31 snaps, Kendall had 1 catch on 1 target for 16 yards and a TD.
TE - Kincaid: 70.2 (#5 among players with at least 20 snaps) on 22 snaps, Kincaid had 3 catches on 7 targets for 22 yards (7.3 ypc).
WR - Dixon: 59.4 on 20 snaps, Dixon had 3 catches on 3 targets for 22 yards (7.3 ypc)
Somewhat the opposite of last week, there were very few good scores this week, but overall the passing game was pretty good, going 21/34 (61.8%) for 235 yards (6.9 ypa) with 4 TD and 1 INT.
LT - Daniels: 70.5 (#4 among players with at least 20 snaps) on 70 snaps, Daniels was rated 55.9 pass blocking and 73.4 run blocking.
LG - Bills: 67.4 on 70 snaps, Bills was rated 82.0 pass blocking and 63.8 run blocking.
C - Faaiu: 74.4 (#3) on 47 snaps, Faaiu was rated 61.8 pass blocking and 73.6 run blocking.
RG - Mokofisi: 65.6 on 70 snaps, Mokofisi was rated 61.5 pass blocking and 66.0 run blocking.
RT - Laumea: 51.5 on 63 snaps, Laumea was rated 36.4 pass blocking and 57.5 run blocking.
C - Maea: 54.9 on 25 snaps, Maea was rated 80.2 pass blocking and 51.2 run blocking.
Maea started the game but only played 25 snaps before Faaiu took over and did a great job. The OL was rated all over the place, with two good ratings, two average, and two bad.
Now let’s look at the defense.
DE - Elliss: 63.8 on 41 snaps, Elliss had 2 QB pressures, 4 tackles, 1.5 TFL, and 1.5 sacks.
DT - Pepa: 91.3 (#1) on 37 snaps, Pepa had 5 QB pressures (#1), 6 tackles (#1), 3 TFL (#1), and 2 sacks (#1).
DE - O’Toole: 64.7 on 33 snaps, O’Toole had 2 QB pressures and 2 tackles.
DT - Tafuna: 50.9 on 28 snaps, Tafuna had 1 QB pressure and 1 tackle.
DE - G Reid: 60.2 on 26 snaps, Reid had 3 tackles.
DT - Vimahi: 78.8 (#4)on 15 snaps, Vimahi had 1 QB pressure, 1 tackle, and 0.5 TFL.
DE - Suguturaga: 65.7 on 15 snaps, Suguturaga didn’t have anything on the stat sheet.
No missed tackles and a good amount of pressure, particularly up the middle from Pepa, who had an incredible game, ranking first in pressures, tackles, TFL, and sacks.
LB - Barton: 72.4 (#6) on 39 snaps, Barton had 1 QB pressure, 5 tackles, 0.5 TFL, and 0.5 sacks.
LB - K Reid: 67.3 on 39 snaps, Reid had 2 QB pressures, 3 tackles, and gave up 1 catches on 1 target.
LB - Diabate: 89.6 (#2) on 38 snaps, Diabate had 4 QB pressures, 3 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1.5 sacks, 1 PBU, and gave up 2 catches on 3 targets.
The linebackers had a very good game, holding Stanford to 22 rushing yards on 26 attempts (0.8 ypc).
S - Bishop: 83.3 (#3) on 38 snaps, Bishop had 4 QB pressures, 5 tackles, 1 TFL, 0.5 sacks, 1 PUB, 1 missed tackle, and gave up 1 catch on 2 targets.
CB - Phillips: 65.9 on 38 snaps, Phillips had 1 PBU and gave up 2 catches on 6 targets.
S - Hubert: 61.4 on 38 snaps, Hubert had 4 tackles and gave up 1 catch on 1 target.
CB - Broughton: 65.0 on 36 snaps, Broughton had 2 tackles and was not targeted. His low score was in part because of a personal foul penalty that looked unfair unless he said something that we couldn’t see on TV.
S - Vaki: 71.0 (#7) on 31 snaps, Vaki had 1 QB pressure, 2 tackles, and gave up 2 catches on 3 targets.
CB - Vaughn: 60.1 on 31 snaps, Vaughn had 2 tackles, 1 missed tackle and gave up 3 catches on 4 targets.
S - Reeves: 74.6 (#5) on 15 snaps, Reeves had 3 tackles.
The secondary played well, holding Stanford to 12/25 (48%) for 155 yards (6.2 ypa) with no TD.
Unlike against Arizona, Utah played a fairly mistake-free game. The one INT was right at the end of the first half and was a good play by the defender, and Utah had only 4 penalties for 50 yards (including the penalty on Broughton that seemed somewhat questionable on replay unless he said something that the official heard). Stanford is a bad team, so it is hard to make predictions, but if Utah plays like this against Oregon, they have a good chance to come out of Eugene with the win.
