The University of Utah’s 1-0 in the Pac-12. That’s a positive out of this early season, because the Pac-12 South is full of flawed and inconsistent teams. USC lost to Stanford (and got their coach fired). UCLA lost to Fresno St. (after beating LSU). ASU lost to BYU and is surrounded by off-field issues. Colorado and Arizona look bad. The South looks very winnable, if Utah can fix some of their own game issues and find a way to rally around the horrific passing of Aaron Lowe. Here are the PFF grades for the Washington State game:

Here’s the offense:

Quarterbacks

Rising: 65.2 on 54 snaps, going 13/23 (56.5%) for 137 yards (5.95 ypa) plus 5 rushing attempts for 32 yards. He was sacked once and hit twice while throwing, with four passes under pressure. He had only one turnover-worthy play.

Jackson: 60.5 on 4 snaps. I include him only because he had 4 rushes for 21 yards and 1 TD.

Running Backs

Pledger: 86.8 (#1 on offense) on 34 snaps, with 15 passing plays and 10 rushing attempts for 117 yards (11.7 ypc) with 1 TD. He was also one of few offensive players without a fumble.

Bernard: 40.4 (last on offense) on 14 snaps, with 4 passing plays and 7 rushing attempts for 19 yards (2.7 ypc) plus 3 fumbles. The fumbling issues were due in large part to a lingering injury.

Curry: 41.5 (just ahead of Bernard) on 9 snaps with 2 rushing attempts for 7 yards (3.5 ypc) and 1 fumble.

I don’t know what’s going on with the running backs. Thomas was the feature back against Weber (12/107 with 2 TD) and then barely played against BYU, SDSU, or this week (1 carry for 1 yard). Bernard was fantastic against BYU (85.4; 12/146 with 1 TD) but had injury issues against SDSU and WSU. Pledger barely got any carries in the first three games (6/11 for 1.8 ypc), but then went off against WSU (10/117 and 1 TD). Curry had a couple of bright moments against Weber and a good catch against BYU, but then had a rough time this week. If recent history holds, Pledger will start against USC.

Receivers

Vele: 72.5 on 27 snaps. 1 catch for 18 yards. Targeted twice.

Covey: 65.8 on 24 snaps. He had 2 catches for 8 yards and was targeted 3 times.

Enis: 59.9 on 36 snaps. Enis had 1 catch for 14 yards, that was his only target.

Howard: 52.1 on 21 snaps. No catches, no targets.

Tight Ends

Fotheringham: 77.7 on 38 snaps. 3 catches for 33 yards (11 ypc) on 3 targets.

Kincaid: 72.6 on 36 snaps. 1 catch for 27 yards. Targeted 4 times.

Kuithe: 59.7 on 38 snaps. 4 catches for 25 yards. Targeted 8 times.

Offensive Line

Bills: Bills was the highest-rated OL at 75.3 on 57 snaps. That’s a good score (#3 on offense). 66.3 pass blocking and 76.7 run blocking.

Daniels: Daniels was the #2 OL at 74.5 on 57 snaps, another good score. Rated 82.4 pass blocking, 69.3 run blocking.

Olaseni: #3 OL 69.7 on 44 snaps. This is a decent score. He didn’t start, but 44 snaps is most of the game. He had 78.1 run blocking but 21.5 pass blocking (which isvery low).

Laumea: #4 OL at 67.4. This is another decent score. He played 57 snaps. He was rated 77.2 pass blocking and 65.5 run blocking.

Ford: #5 OL at 65.2. This is an average score, on 57 snaps. He was rated 65.7 pass blocking and 63.1 run blocking.

Kump: #6 OL at 61.9. This is an average score. He played 13 snaps. He was rated 36.3 pass blocking and 68.2 run blocking.

On offense, the biggest problem was keeping a hold of the ball. This has plagued Utah this year, but this was by far the worst game, with 7 fumbles (3 by Bernard, 1 by Jackson, 1 by Covey, 1 by Curry, and 1 by Rising). The OL improved significantly, but are still mostly struggling at pass blocking.

Now for the defense:

Defensive Ends

Fillinger: 64.4 on 42 snaps. This is the highest DE score and it’s #11 on the defense. 5 tackles, 3 pressures, 3 TFL, 3 sacks.

Tafua: 57.0 on 75 snaps. This is #19 on the defense. He had 3 tackles, 3 pressures, 1 TFL, 1 sack.

Carlton: 55.6. This is the lowest defensive score. 2 tackles, 0.5 TFL.

Defensive Tackles

Vimahi: 75.7 on 26 snaps. Had 2 tackles, 1 pressure, 1 TFL, and 1 sack.

F Pututau: 69.2 on 10 snaps. 1 tackle, 1 pressure, 0.5 TFL.

H Pututau: 64.1 on 27 snaps. 1 tackle, 1 pressure.

D Kaufusi: 58.6 on 41 snaps. 2 tackles, 1 TFL.

Tafuna: 57.7 on 50 snaps. 2 tackles, 2 pressures, 1 TFL, 1 sack.

Linebackers

Lloyd: 91.9 (#1 on the defense) on 77 snaps. Another fantastic game. 8 tackles, 7 pressures, 3 TFL, 1 sack, 1 INT.

Reid: 76.2 (#2 on the defense) on 76 snaps. He had a great game, as they tried to avoid Lloyd. 15 tackles, 2 pressures, 1 TFL, 1 sack, 1 INT.

Corners

Marks: 75.7 (T#3 on the defense) on 58 snaps. Had a good game. 4 targets with 2 receptions, 5 tackles.

Mataele: 73.7 (#5 on the defense) on 77 snaps. Had a good game. 2 targets with 1 reception, 1 PBU, 2 tackles, 1 TFL.

Phillips: 66.7 (#9 on the defense) on 77 snaps. Had a decent game. 7 targets with 6 receptions, 6 tackles, 1 INT (for a TD).

Safeties

Latu: 67.2 on 23 snaps. That’s an okay score, but he didn’t record any stats.

Davis: 66.7 on 38 snaps. 2 tackles.

Vaughn: 61.2 on 19 snaps. 2 tackles.

Bishop: 56.0 on 28 snaps. Not a good rating. 4 tackles, 1 QB pressure.

Once again, the defensive snaps (77) are still high. The linebackers (Lloyd and Reid) had a fantastic game, and there were some good performances throughout the team. The DE scores were not great, but WSU’s offense has a tendancy to cause poor scores for DEs even if the defense holds them to lower scores.

Again, there are some good players on this team. The OL improved significantly over the first two games, but there’s still significant room for improvement. Rising was okay, but will get better as he settles in. The main problem was holding onto the ball. Without the three lost fumbles (out of seven total) Utah is easily in control right from the outset.