Estimated read time: 10-11 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Let's pretend for a moment that you didn't watch the University of Utah get bulldozed by Oregon Saturday afternoon.
You didn't watch the Utes, beset by injuries all season, get outclassed; you didn't watch Bo Nix re-enter the Heisman Trophy conversation at the expense of Utah's vaunted defense; you didn't see a healthy number of fans stream out into the West parking lot at halftime.
Since you know nothing of what happened at Rice-Eccles Stadium, you need to get caught up. To get caught up, all you need to know is one simple postgame item.
Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham compared it to the infamous 47-7 loss to TCU back in 2010. That's how bad, how one-sided, how shell-shocking Saturday afternoon was.
With ESPN College GameDay in town, with everything still to play for as November looms, in front of the third-largest crowd in the history of the building, Utah looked unprepared to meet the moment. Some of that might have been the season-long injury bug finally taking its toll, but certainly not all of it. More so, this Oregon outfit looked as advertised: the most-balanced, most-capable Pac-12 team of crashing the College Football Playoff.
Whatever you believe these Utes have been, the fact remains they spent two months effectively figuring things out to arrive at Saturday. Instead of continuing on that path, this latest Utah Pac-12 title defense has now been placed on life support after a second conference loss.
Yes, Utah got outclassed
It took just 2:42 of game clock for at least two things to become very apparent. Oregon is not USC, and Utah was going to be in real trouble.
Here is Oregon's first drive, which began with a delay of game penalty after the crowd brought the noise: Bo Nix to Tez Johnson over the middle for 9, Nix to Johnson for 12, Nix to Troy Franklin for 7, Nix to Franklin for 30 after he beat Zemaiah Vaughn, offsides on Utah, Bucky Irving for a 16-yard rush, Nix scores on a 1-yard bootleg to the left.
There was no resistance, Nix was precise, and I genuinely can't remember in three-plus seasons and 41 games of covering Utah where an opposing offense diced up the defense like that. Whittingham later called the game a "mismatch" and "worse than the score indicated."
Oregon's third drive was similar, and the fourth drive needed to go just 30 yards after a Bryson Barnes interception on a route where he expected Sione Vaki to be somewhere else. At the 12:29 mark of the second quarter, the Ducks led 21-3, Nix was 11-for-12 passing with two touchdowns, and there was no sign that the Utah offense, prolific the last two weeks with Vaki emerging as a two-way star, was going to able to keep up, even if the defense did manage to settle in.
Oregon came to town ranked No. 1 in the Pac-12 and No. 2 in total offense at 551.6 yards per game. The fact the Ducks totaled just 390 yards on Saturday belies the fact that Utah had no answer. Their final three drives netted just 43 total yards, which gives Dan Lanning something to be mad about come Monday, but by the time those last three drives occurred, the game was already in hand, and Oregon stopped going into the bag with bigger fish to fry down the road.
A few loose thoughts here:
Utah badly missed Lander Barton as Nix was happy to exploit the middle of that Utah defense, and it wasn't anything fancy, just timely throws off good routes, some of which didn't see a Utah defender within 3 yards of the receiver.
Oregon's offensive line kept Nix upright all day, and the only front-four pressure I can even recall from this game was Van Fillinger getting in Nix's face just once.
Nix picked on JT Broughton early, which was not a coincidence.
Irving gives Oregon a completely different dimension out of the backfield, one I'm not sure any Pac-12 team has, save for maybe USC with MarShawn Lloyd.
Oregon handled Sione Vaki, Utah had no answer
So much of what Utah looked so capable of on offense the last two weeks was because Vaki was able to do so many different things.
Oregon was ready for all of it. No wheel routes, no direct snaps for big gains with Ja'Quinden Jackson as the lead blocker, no handoffs where Vaki kicks it outside for a chunk play, none of it. Vaki finished with five carries for 11 yards and zero catches.
I didn't think Barnes played terribly, I actually thought he mostly looked confident like he did in wins over Cal and USC, but without Vaki doing much of anything, the offense reverted back to before Cal, when it looked stuck in mud too much of the time. Barnes was 15-of-29 for 136 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions. That might have been enough to stomach if the rushing game showed up, but it didn't.
Utah's offensive line, with Spencer Fano back at left tackle, got worked over, which in part led to just 99 rushing yards on 36 carries, an average of 2.8 yards per attempt. That's not going to get it done against the majority of the Pac-12, let alone Oregon.
Utah's first drive is worth highlighting, because offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig was rightfully aggressive once Oregon went up 7-0. The Utes converted on third-and-4 from their own 31 after Barnes hit Munir McClain for 14, then had a pass interference on fourth-and-2 from the Ducks' 47 that set them up at the 34. On fourth-and-1 at the 25, Ludwig called a keeper for Barnes out of the shotgun that went for no gain and a turnover on downs.
Whittingham later defended that play call, while noting they had 8-10 plays for that exact situation, with half of them out of the shotgun. He went on to say his team has had success this season out of the shotgun, but they didn't block up that play particularly well.
While we're here, the second drive also helped set a tone in favor of Oregon after Junior Tafuna punched the ball out from Irving to set Utah up at the Ducks' 27.
Jackson went for 3 yards, Vaki for 2, and then Barnes to Jaylon Glover at the sticks for 7 on third-and-5. On first-and-10 from the 15, there was an incomplete pass on a throwaway, Vaki dropped for a loss of 3, and then Barnes on a scramble for 4 after Glover picked up the blitz to free up Barnes for positive yardage. All of that was followed by a Cole Becker 32-yard field goal. Utah came away with points, but Oregon won the drive, and I'm sure Whittingham would agree.
Back to Vaki. There were two weeks worth of film for Oregon to look at, and now there is film after this game on how to slow him down. How Utah opts to use Vaki and how much he plays on offense now bears real attention because based on the last three weeks, if Vaki does not produce on offense, Utah hasn't shown much of a Plan B.
What this season can still be
This Utah-Oregon game between one-loss teams, whether you want to admit it or not in terms of the Utes, was a College Football Playoff elimination game. As far as winning a third straight Pac-12 championship, those hopes dimmed significantly Saturday, but we cannot count that out entirely just yet, because, remember, Utah won the Pac-12 last season after going 7-2, aided by a bunch of chaos to get back to the conference title game.
At 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-12, Utah will be the betting favorite this week against Arizona State, and likely in the regular-season finale against Colorado. I can't say with certainty Utah beats Arizona, and I've been consistent that a trip to Tucson is no longer the automatic win it once was. Going to Washington on Nov. 11? The Huskies have not looked inspired the last two weeks, but 8-0 is 8-0.
What do we want to go with? 8-4? 9-3? Let's be optimistic and say 9-3 overall and 6-3 in the Pac-12. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in a vacuum, if that's what this season ends up being, you have to tip your hat and call that good work all around given the amount of injuries this team has had to deal with, not to mention an in-season QB circus that just got settled once and for all a week ago.
This program is at a point where it should be contending for conference championships every year. That should absolutely be the reasonable, rational goal on an annual basis, but in this particular case, how reasonable and rational that may be is certainly up for some discussion. Be that as it may, Utah entered Saturday with that goal still on the table, and to be fair, it is not technically off the table.
If you're choosing to remain an idealist after watching Saturday, just know there is a road for Utah to return to the Pac-12 championship game, but it includes winning out. Again, there is a trip to Washington mixed in there.
Other things on my mind
- Utah's lack of a pass-catching tight end has been just crippling, especially given the QB situation and the need to really keep Barnes comfortable with what he's being asked to do. This, after the tight end was such a profound piece of the offense in 2021 and 2022.
- If you line up Oregon and Washington right now for the second time, the Ducks are the betting favorite. It's a bit jarring where those two programs have gone after they staged an epic in Seattle earlier this month.
- We're going to get into this deeper in the next Utes mailbag Tuesday, but those of you clamoring for Brandon Rose at quarterback, you're going to have to get over that.
- Kyle Whittingham taking two timeouts with him into halftime was inexplicable. That drive wasted some seconds after first downs, which could have been avoided, and could have been used to take at least one extra shot at the end zone.
- Seven catches on 10 targets for 80 yards from Devaughn Vele will go by the wayside. He played well, even hauled in a couple that Barnes sailed on him.
- I thought Utah was going to get more out of Indiana transfer Emery Simmons at wide receiver.
- What Utah has been able to do at home should not be overlooked. The Utes had won 18 straight at Rice-Eccles before Saturday, and if you don't want to count the COVID loss to USC in 2020, they hadn't lost at home since Sept. 2018 against Washington. Teams do not walk into Rice-Eccles and win, let alone embarrass Utah.
- Give me a good reason why Nix should not be the leading Heisman Trophy contender right now, and no, telling me the East Coast voters don't care about the Pac-12 isn't good enough.
- The Utes ran more plays and won time of possession. Two turnovers that led to 14 points negates both of those things.
- The absence of Micah Bernard has been a totally under-discussed storyline that has gotten lost in the middle of a handful of other personnel-related things. Same goes for Brant Kuithe if we're being very honest.
- Utah showed itself well this weekend with GameDay in town, complete with The Pat McAfee Show Friday, taking place at Presidents' Circle. Cam Rising was on set for both shows, as was Whittingham and, well, if another head coach in the future shows up to be on McAfee's show riding a motorcycle, I'll be surprised.
