The University of Utah cruised to a 30-12 victory over the BYU Cougars on Thursday night, for a victory that seemed like a forgone conclusion, even well before the kickoff.
Here are the takeaways from the Utes' ninth straight Holy War victory, in a rivalry that is starting to feel like just a regular game:
The Utes’ offensive gameplan was stupid easy and it worked
So here we are, it’s 2019 and the Utes attacked BYU with a game plan that is often used for FCS opponents. Save your game one complaints about Utah's new offensive coordinator, Andy Ludwig. He went into this matchup not wanting to show his cards and he did just that. All they had to do was feed the beast—kind of nice when you have one of the best running backs in college football. Oh and get used to it for the next two weeks, because they don’t plan on rolling out their bag of tricks until September 20th, against USC.
Most impressive to me was the nine minute drive after the weather delay, 14 plays, 68 yards before downing it inside the 5-yard line, with the BYU offense never getting the ball back.
Ludwig knew exactly what he was doing and he’ll do exactly what he needs to do to win ball games.
Special Teams isn't special...yet
From Louie Sakoda to Matt Gay and Mitch Wishnowsky, Ute Nation has been spoiled over the past decade in the special teams department. Graduating a Ray Guy or a Lou Groza winner is difficult enough for a team, let alone former winners of both at the same time. Kyle Whittingham oversees this group himself and after Thursday night, it's safe to say that the competition for the placekicker spot will extend at least one more week. Left-footed UCLA transfer Andrew Strauch earned the start and looked the part with a 41 yard field goal, but some snap holding issues leading to a missed extra point and shanked field goal attempt opened the door for freshman Jadon Redding, who went two of two on extra points. Matt Gay got his chance in a similar situation, so only time will tell if Redding or Strauch follows a similar path. Ben Lennon struggled with spinning and holding the ball for the lefty Strauch, but had a solid night punting, with two averaging 40.5 yard, one of which was downed inside the BYU 10.
Halftime adjustments were key for the defense
One of the biggest difference makers in Thursday night’s contest was the Utah defense’s adjustments they made throughout the game. Similar to last year’s game, Matt Bushman found some momentum in that first half. He had a big 26-yard catch on third down on BYU’s first drive and finished the half with 62 yards. Utah went to the locker room, Morgan Scalley made some adjustments in the secondary, and Bushman finished the game stuck on 62 yards. His one target in the second half was broken up by Utah safety Terrell Burgess. Almost every Utah defensive back and linebacker took a turn on Bushman and the Utah defense was able to take away Zach Wilson’s only reliable threat down the field. This caused Wilson to have to try and do too much on his own and he ended up hurting his team more than helping it in this case. For Utah to have success on defense against Pac-12 offenses, these in-game adjustments must be fluid like they were on Thursday night.
The offensive line is better off than first advertised
Utah's offensive line answered a lot of questions last night, and they did so while starting two freshmen guards, and without the help of Bam Olaseni. Really the only thing to complain about were a couple of penalties that will need to be cleaned up, but both the run blocking and the pass protection were excellent.
On the night, the big guys paved the way up front for 262 total yards of rushing, and helped the team to average 5.5 yards per carry. They also kept Huntley clean all night by not allowing a sack and giving him plenty of time to throw. I'll have to rewatch the game, but I don't believe they gave up a single pressure, either. Part of that has to do with the fact that BYU's pass rush doesn't look to be very good this year, along with them choosing to line up in a three man front most of the time, but that shouldn't take anything away from this line's performance. They were dominant up front.
