The frustration was visible on the faces of every Utah player — quarterback Isaac Wilson, running back Micah Bernard and safety Tao Johnson — during the Utes’ postgame press conference.
“You see it all over my face. I mean, not much words. I’m pissed,” Bernard said.
Later, Utah’s senior running back summed up the overall feeling in the locker room neatly.
“I don’t get too upset, I don’t get too mad. I just almost want to just smack something right now, so I’m going to use that this whole next two weeks and when we go to (Arizona State), they gonna feel me. They gonna feel me,” Bernard said.
While Utah’s players might want to play as soon as possible to get the taste of a 23-10 home loss to Arizona out of their mouths, the first of two bye weeks comes at the perfect time. Just like Arizona used their bye week to its advantage last week, looking like a new-and-improved team on Saturday after two disappointing games prior, the Utes need to reset and fix some glaring issues.
Priority No. 1? Fixing the red zone inefficiencies that have plagued the team for much of the season. After last night’s end-of-drive debacle, the Utes rank No. 87 in FBS in red-zone scoring, which includes field goals and touchdowns, cashing in on just 81% of their possessions inside the opposing 20-yard-line.
Against Arizona, three straight red-zone trips to open up the game ended with only three points for the Utes after two failed fourth-down attempts. Instead of potentially leading 21-10 or 17-10 at halftime, Utah trailed 10-3.
Aided by true freshman Isaac Wilson, who had a great connection with receiver Dorian Singer, and some timely runs by Bernard, Utah marched up and down the field between the 20s during the first three drives, but once they entered the red zone, trouble struck.
A mix of uninspired play-calling and poor execution turned the red zone into Utah’s worst nightmare.
“Left points out there. We were horrible in the red zone. Awful, awful, and until we get that fixed, we’re going to continue to have problems,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.
Utah will reevaluate everything in their red-zone offense, especially play-calling, during the break.
“We’re looking at everything but it starts with me. You got to have a better red-zone package. The buck stops right here and so if we don’t have a good enough arsenal in place, enough creativity down there, then that’s something we got to look at,” Whittingham said.
“Execution — I’m not going to blame the players though, but sometimes it goes down to being a little off with your timing or just a little bit off with your execution. But we will work long and hard on it. I can guarantee that, this bye week. And so that’s the No. 1 objective right now is red zone production for us as a team.”
Another thing Utah absolutely needs before its showdown in Tempe with Arizona State in two weeks? Returning to as close to full health as they can, starting with quarterback Cam Rising.
Once again, Utah’s coaches felt like a healthy true freshman quarterback would be better than their veteran due to Rising’s lack of velocity on the ball. It worked for the Utes at Oklahoma State, but against Arizona, Wilson struggled in the second half. Perhaps if the Utes would have cashed in their early red-zone chances, the game would have gone differently, but besides a nice touchdown drive led by Wilson in the fourth quarter, Utah couldn’t put together sustained drives in the second half.
Would things have gone better with a less-than-healthy Rising in the game?
Play-calling and pass protection didn’t help matters for Wilson, and too much of the game was put on the true freshman’s shoulders in the last two quarters. Bernard, who rushed 16 times for 91 yards, only carried the ball six times in the second half, while Ludwig called 20 pass plays for Wilson, who completed eight of those for 115 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
In the second half, Arizona locked down Singer, and Utah’s star receiver had two catches on eight targets for 51 yards. But even as the Wildcats looked to take away Singer, Utah kept throwing the ball his way, and it didn’t work.
“They cheat the safety to him and (Tacario Davis) shadowed him for quite a bit of the game and just like we did with Zemaiah Vaughn on (Tetairoa McMillan). They had more success doing that than we did,” Whittingham said.
Postgame, Whittingham said Rising was “really close” to playing. It’s pretty cut and dry — in two weeks, Rising has to be under center when Utah plays Arizona State.
“If there is a silver lining here, we’ve got a week off and hopefully he’s ready to go by then,” Whittingham said.
Utah’s defense certainly missed two of its best players on Saturday — linebacker Karene Reid and defensive end Connor O’Toole. Lander Barton struggled against Arizona, and Utah’s defensive line sorely needed O’Toole opposite Van Fillinger.
Getting those three players healthy is going to be key for the rest of the season.
Aside from fixing the red-zone issues and getting star players healthy, there’s plenty to improve on during the bye week, from pass protection and play-calling to rush defense and missed tackles.
It was a frustrating defeat for Utah’s team and fanbase, but it is just one loss.
Everything Utah set out to accomplish this season — winning the Big 12 Conference and making the College Football Playoff — is still in front of it. After the loss to Arizona, though, the margin of error is slim to none, and if the Utes turn in another performance like yesterday, any Big 12 title hopes could go up in smoke. While there may be a two-loss team that makes the Big 12 championship game, there’s no guarantee, plus Utah doesn’t want to be at the mercy of a tiebreaker.
Whittingham said that the loss “should hurt,” but after they point out all the flaws in film review and implement ways to fix those issues, it’s time to turn the page and regroup for the second half of the season.
“That’s exactly what I told them after the game. I said I’d be amazed if you have one loss if you’re not in the championship game. In fact, I can totally guarantee it,” Whittingham said.
“… All is not lost. I don’t want to paint the picture that the season is over. We got a good football team, we got a really good football team and we just got to figure out some situational football, like I said, and have everybody recommit and rededicate themselves and finish the second half of the season.”
