The No. 16 Utah Utes came out of their bye week the same way they went into it: desperately looking for answers as they lost to Arizona State, 27-19, in Tempe. The excitement of having starting quarterback Cam Rising back under center was short-lived as he suffered an early blow to his ankle and tried to play through it. While the offense struggled with a hobbled quarterback, the defense performed almost just as badly.
Here are the takeaways from the road loss:
What’s wrong with Ludwig?
After hearing all offseason that Ludwig had been dialing up creative plays to open up the playbook, those plays seem nowhere to be found. Utah’s offensive coordinator has been handcuffed without his star quarterback healthy and having to roll with a limited playbook for freshman Isaac Wilson. That still doesn't explain why Utah continues to struggle in the red zone, scoring just one touchdown on four opportunities against the Sun Devils. The play-calling continues to be jaw-dropping at times, like running tight end Brant Kuithe in a Wildcat formation on third and long.
Heading into the game, Utah was No. 89 in the country for red zone offense and they were No. 113 on third-down conversions — areas that got worse statistically after the loss.
Most Utah fans would be fine with some of the gutsy calls that the analytics tell the offensive staff to go for it. It’s the predictability and lack of creativity that’s been difficult for everyone to process and justify those decisions.
Rising was visibly hurt and it's crushing to see
The secrecy behind Rising’s finger injury has done him no justice. He got the call on Friday night with Utah’s season on the line - still not 100% - and it got worse immediately as he took a hit and the defender rolled up on Rising’s ankle. From that moment forward, he was never the same. His passes would go low, short, or float and be picked off. His final line was 16-37 for 209 yards and three interceptions. Rising couldn’t plant, so he missed several open receivers.
Right or wrong, Rising stayed in the game and battled. Why the call was made to keep him in the game as his injuries hampered his play, is open to interpretation after both Whittingham and Rising spoke in the postgame press conference:
"Yeah, he got rolled up on — that lower leg injury that limited his mobility for the rest of the game," Whittingham said. "And, of course, he's wearing the glove, so we can increase the grip — help the grip on the football — so, yeah, he's banged up."
"It was very apparent that he's not 100%. ... You can see the rust; it was three weeks off, four weeks — whatever it's been — but he's a heck of a quarterback and he'll bounce back."
"No, he wanted to play, and he felt very strongly that he wanted to stay in the game. He's won a bunch of ball games for us. ... But it's a coaching decision to decide who gives you the best chance to win the game, and that's who you put in there," Whittingham said. "And, like I said, Cam has been terrific for us in the past."
“I wasn’t playing well, " said Cam Rising. “Guys were doing a good job of getting open and stuff, and I wasn’t able to get them the ball accurately and move it because of that.”
When asked about the decision to keep him in the second half, Cam’s response was, “Ask coach”.
Defense needs to get back to the basics
Another game with another handful of missed tackles. Another dual-threat quarterback and more struggles with containment. The Utah defense played the game without six Game 1 starters. That can somewhat justify the bad performance, but so much of the glaring miscues seem to be coming from fundamental football. It’s not like Arizona State lit Utah’s defense up all game, but running back Cam Skattebo and receiver Jordyn Tyson could do no wrong every time they touched the ball. Of the Sun Devils 343 yards of total offense, 283 came from the duo. Skattebo was one yard short of 200 total yards.
Additionally, Utah used to toy with teams by deploying late play clock substitutions. Now, it’s something that seems to be working to Utah’s detriment.
The defense will get figured out, but two poor outings in a row with a bye week sandwiched in between are a cause for concern.
No one knows what’s next
Unlike past years when Utah has had their backs against the wall only to go on dominating runs, this time feels different. Something seems off. It’s up to the players to rally around each other and figure things out because some the coaches can only do so much, and just as Whittingham said, the staff has been out-coached two games in a row — an observation that has rarely been needed to be said throughout his tenure.
The Utes are beat up both physically and mentally. They’re dealing with their second season in a row of several key injuries. They’ve also been noticeably off mentally ever since the Rising was thrown into the Gatorade cooler against Baylor — a vibe that has seemed to get worse, aside from some brief moments.
Why this is, is up for Whittingham, his staff, and the captains and leadership council to figure out. In what many believe to likely be Whittingham’s final year coaching, the team needs to dig down deep and remember what makes Utah Football so feared. Right now, they feel like a shell of themselves. All of this coming after a bye week in which they already tried to heal and regroup.
Up next
Utah needs to get healthy and immediately figure out their quarterback situation for the TCU game, Saturday, October 19th at 8:30 PM. The Utes will likely enter that game unranked after the ASU loss or right at the edge of the Top 25.
