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SALT LAKE CITY — Eventually, Utah will win a game against a Pac-12 opponent.
Preferably, it comes sooner rather than later. Especially if Utah is to get to six wins and become bowl eligible.
The good news? Utah's next six opponents feature a combined record of 12-26. The bad news? This week's opponent, Cal, has had a gauntlet of early games against top-tier opposition as well, having lost to USC, Washington and Oregon. Plus, the game is on the road, albeit at AT&T Park while Cal's home stadium undergoes renovations this season.
With both teams entering the game at 3-3, Saturday's contest very well could be the springboard both teams need to string together wins and rise in the standings. So what can Utah do to get to the right side of .500?
Jon Hays needs to outplay his counterpart, Zach Maynard. With nearly three games under his belt and not a single above-average showing to show for it, Utah fans should be past putting statistical expectations on Hays' shoulders. All he needs to do, as evidenced by the Pittsburgh game, is to be better than the opposition's quarterback for Utah to have a chance at winning.And it's completely do-able. Maynard's passer rating is only 75th nationally, as he's thrown for 11 touchdowns against six interceptions while completing a rather pedestrian 53 percent of his passes. Conversely, Hays' rating of 120.55 would rank him 78th nationally; alas, he does not have enough attempts to qualify among national leaders. For the second consecutive matchup, Utah enters the game on equal footing at the game's most important position.
Utah must finish drives in the red zone. There's no sugar-coating this bitter statistical morsel: Only two teams nationally have converted a fewer percentage of red zone trips than Utah, and only four more are in the same boat as Utah and its 67 percent conversion rate. In 21 trips to the red zone, Utah has just nine touchdowns to go along with five field goals.
Defensive touchdowns, long John White IV scoring jaunts and tipped passes that result in long touchdowns are nice, but the Utah offense has to start earning its keep inside the 20-yard-line.
Play clean. In all of Utah's three losses, the inability to perform basic tasks proved fatal. Against USC, it was an atrocious third-down rate (5 of 15). Turnovers were decisive in losses to Washington and Arizona State. Even the Pittsburgh victory wasn't without two collosal breakdowns on special teams. Utah cannot stand to chance another breakdown by any unit it fields if it expects to get on a roll and consistently win games, much less its first against a Pac-12 opponent.
Patrick Sheltra is sports editor of the Twin Falls (Idaho) Times-News and the author of "100 Things Utes Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die." Read more of his thoughts on University of Utah sports at scriptutah.blogspot.com, or follow him on Twitter @100ThingsUtah.
