The Utah Utes defense might be in trouble against Nick Foles

by K_Zim on Nov 3, 2011 8:21 PM PDT in Arizona Wildcats Football

The Utah Utes are always a solid defense, and head coach Kyle Whittingham knows his stuff. That's why they've had success and made BCS Bowl games, even after the Urban Meyer era.

But welcome to the Pac-12.

The Utes (4-4, 1-4 Pac-12) are fighting with Arizona (2-6, 1-5) to avoid spending time with the Colorado Buffaloes in the cellar of the league.

When Utah's defense meets Arizona high-octane offense Saturday, the numbers aren't looking so hot for the Utes. And it's all because of UA quarterback Nick Foles. Erh, really it might just be because Utah's defense isn't very good against elite quarterbacks.

Utah's victories this season came by way of playing teams with average-to-bad signal callers. The Montana State win? Not going to touch it. BYU? Yeah, then-starting QB Jake Heaps was benched a few games after the Utes beat up the Cougars. A victory against Pitt? Yeah, the two Panther quarterbacks went 9-for-30.

Coming off a victory against the Oregon State Beavers, it's perhaps the best win of the year for the Utes as far as the quality of their opposing quarterback. And Sean Mannion is a redshirt freshman.

All four of the Utes' losses came against teams with pretty damn good quarterbacks. Matt Barkley's Trojans beat the Utes 23-14. Keith Price of Washington drubbed Utah for 226 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-14 Husky win. Arizona State's Brock Osweiler went for 325 yards and three touchdowns. The California Golden Bears got their first Pac-12 victory of the year behind so-so quarterback Zach Maynard -- correct me if I'm wrong, but he's not even very good.

Foles might have a field day.

Apparently, Utah likes to have its cornerbacks push up against the line of scrimmage. Against Arizona's spread offense and talented receiving core, that doesn't sound like a good idea. Juron Criner and Gino Crump can probably out-physical the Utes at the snap, and should that happen, the pressure will be on Utah's safeties to pick up the slack and prevent Foles from finding his guys deep.

And it makes my not-so-savvy football mind wonder if cramping Arizona at the line could get things very congested with the Wildcats' screen plays and quick throws, too.

OK, to be fair, Utah's passing defense, numbers-wise, is the third best in the Pac-12. But looking at the level of the opposing quarterbacks that Utah has faced, that number could very well be skewed.

If anything, Foles will get his. Of course, punching it into the end zone is a whole other story for the Wildcats.

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Im coming down from Utah

Go Wildcats!

Detroit built.

by jspringer51 on Nov 4, 2011 9:45 AM PDT reply actions

Inexperience

Utah was very inexperienced in the secondary at the beginning of the season. Some young players have stepped up and the unit as a whole is improving with each game. This game will come down to missed tackles. When stacking the box against Utah, defenses have been able to hit John White in the backfield. Teams that wrap up beat Utah badly. Teams that don’t wrap up on the first contact, find that White is in an empty secondary pretty quickly. Utah has been able to pressure opposing quarterbacks and will do so against Arizona. This results in a lot of short, quick routes. The Utah DB’s like to lay big hits on receivers, but occasionally don’t wrap up and also have a tendency to hit high (lots of key drives extended by personal fouls-killed us against UW). Missed tackles are Arizona’s chance for big plays. Lots of people cite turnovers for Utah’s success/failure, but these largely occur after the game has been decided by one team establishing dominance. I think this is the hardest remaining matchup for Utah by far. No idea how it turns out.

by jrj84105 on Nov 4, 2011 10:40 AM PDT reply actions

That's not the only thing that killed you against Utah

Losing Wynn, and forgetting to stop the run didn’t help either.

Formerly the fan known as Denvdawg.
"You can observe a lot by just watching." - Yogi Berra

by Randall Floyd on Nov 4, 2011 2:11 PM PDT up reply actions

Skewed?

I’m not quite sure if I truly agree with the statement that the Utah defense is skewed. You say that its the third best in the league, yet they have faced or will face by the end of the season all of the best quarterbacks in the league with the exception of Luck.

During that same time, they have the second best scoring defense, behind only Stanford and ahead of Oregon. Meanwhile, Arizona has the second to last scoring defense, and Arizona has faced the same conference quarterbacks that Utah has, except again, with the glaring exception of Luck. (I admit, that is a big difference, but over the course of one season, that can’t attribute to an increase in 14 more points scored per game)

Furthermore, the Utah defense is FIRST in the PAC-12. That is a fact. we are ahead of Stanford, if only slightly, while Arizona is dead last.

Rush Defense: Utah – #2; Arizona – #10
Pass Defense: Utah – #3; Arizona – #11
Pass Defense Effic. : Utah – #2; Arizona – #10
Interceptions: Utah – #2; Arizona – #5
Sacks: Utah – #2 (Tied with Oregon) Arizona – #12
Sacks Against(worth mentioning): Utah – 10 ; Arizona – 3 way tie for #6
Opp 3rd Down Conv %: Utah – #5; Arizona – #6 - This is the closest stat I could find.

These again are all defensive stats, save for the sacks allowed stats. I do not mean to discredit either team, but to call the Utah defensive stats skewed is a little harsh IMO. Utah has one of the better defenses in the League, and that is reflected here. It is the offense that has lost them games.

I firmly expect this game to be a battle of ’Zona’s Offense vs. Utah’s Defense. Its gonna come down to that, but Utah will probably be the best defense that Zona will face in the league this year.

Here is the link for the stats:
http://www.pac-12.org/portals/7/images/Football/2011-Stats/HTML/confldrs.htm

by Matty D on Nov 4, 2011 12:24 PM PDT reply actions

Meant skewed by playing a lot of teams with poor QB play

But sure, it can be skewed the other direction in playing very good QBs in Barkley, Osweiler, etc. Just pointing out that Utah hasn’t won against an elite QB this year. Not that they can’t beat the Wildcats … but that’s definitely their biggest problem coming into the game from what I can tell.

Kevin Zimmerman
@offensivelyfoul

by K_Zim on Nov 4, 2011 5:55 PM PDT up reply actions