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SALT LAKE CITY — Week three was not kind to the University of Utah’s football team.
The Utes were slow to start, didn’t get a consistent pass rush and failed to stop Oregon State’s Sean Mannion when it counted.
Utah is now 0-1 in the Pac-12, and still needs four more wins to be bowl-eligible.
With that in mind, the Utes will now prepare for latest version of the Utah-BYU showdown.
BYU had a bye week in week three, and the Cougars’ confidence is sky-high after their blowout win over Texas.
The Cougars ran the ball like they never have in the past and offensive coördinator Robert Anae’s changes on the offensive line seemed to help.
With the most recent performances for both teams in mind, the showdown’s key matchup will be the battle between BYU’s offensive line and Utah’s defensive line.
#Holy
Why this matchup?
It can be argued Utah’s defensive line was a non-factor for the first quarter, as Oregon State scored 10 points with Sean Mannion sitting in the pocket and all the time in the world.
The Beavers racked up 443 passing yards and a lot of it was due to the Utes’ struggles to collapse the pocket.
Utah’s secondary isn’t good enough to cover receivers for more than five seconds, so the defensive line has to force an opposing team’s quarterback to stop looking downfield and instead, getting away from the blitz. If Utah’s line doesn’t play good, the defense will struggle as a unit.
This week the defensive line gets a chance to prove itself against an offense that gained 679 yards, including 259 rushing yards by Taysom Hill.
- Utah (2-1, 0-1 Pac-12) vs. Brigham Young (1-1)
- Date: Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013
- Time: 8:15 p.m. MDT
- Site: Lavell Edwards Stadium (63,470/Grass)
- TV: ESPN2
- BYU Radio: KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM
- Utah Radio: ESPN700, Sirius 112/XM 190
- Series Record: Utah leads 56-34-4
- Last Meeting: 2012 (Utah 24-21)
- Kickoff Weather: Mostly clear; temps in the low 70s
In its loss at Virginia, BYU looked slow, sluggish and out of sync. In the win against Texas, the Cougars appeared fresh, fierce and completely prepared.
For BYU to again rush for big yardage, the Cougars need to drive Utah’s defensive line off the ball and get secondary blocks on the linebackers.
Conversely, Utah needs its sizable line to essentially eat up open space and get into the backfield as often as possible. It comes down to holes — will BYU open them or will Utah close them.
Who wins this matchcup?
It really is a toss-up. There are convincing arguments to be made for both sides statistically, and legitimate arguments to be made against both units.
One argument, while it is a bit archaic, is that Utah will be more motivated because it was embarrassed by Oregon State’s offensive line providing Mannion excessive time in the pocket. There is some merit to this argument. Utah’s line historically has been too good for there to be multiple performances where it is outworked and outplayed.
However, BYU’s stats are hard to argue against, even with a poor Texas defense. The Cougars have had extra time to prepare and they will be fresher than Utah.
In the end, rest and home-field advantage will narrowly win out over pride and historical success, and the Cougars will get just enough push off the line to beat Utah in the game’s final yearly appearance.
