Washington running back Myles Gaskin runs to the end zone for a touchdown evading Portland State defensive end Sam Bodine in the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016, in Seattle. That being said, I am very confident that Clay Helton and his coaching staff can hit the nail on the head against Utah.
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UTAH: Pro Football Focus shared rave reviews on junior safety Marcus Williams earlier this week. I’d like to see Darnold take charge of the Trojans’ offense early on and show the league what he can do. On Friday night, the Utah quarterback showed the storied program what it missed.
Troy Williams threw for 270 yards and two touchdown and ran for another score in No. 24 Utah’s 31-27 comeback victory over Southern California on Friday night.
-WR Tim Patrick had his second 100-yard receiving game this season with a career-high 121 yards receiving on six catches at San Jose State. “Today was that day”. However, when Utah needed a stop on defense, they finally got one forcing USC to punt with 5:37 remaining in the game. Things look bleak for the Trojans after a 1-2 start.
“I think everyone understands the importance of it”, said Utah offensive lineman J.J. Dielman. “I think Pat Haden was incredibly insecure as an athletic director”. If they can not run the ball consistently once the real opponents show up on the schedule then Jake Browning is going to have a lot of pressure on his shoulders to make big plays. Oregon State has already used its bye week, making it 10 games in 10 weeks from here on out, so I hope they got enough rest. When the season began, it looked like UCLA and USC were a cut above, with Utah warranting a mention in the conversation, but as the Pac-12 prepares for its first heavy slate of games this weekend (Stanford beat USC last week), it looks like the South has no great teams, no bad teams and half a dozen middling to good teams. I sound like a broken record at this point due to the number of different teams through three weeks I’ve said this about, but if they can not consistently run the ball better then it is going to put too much pressure on the Chosen Rosen to make big plays every drive.
“Nobody panicked. Just kept doing our thing”. For a program that does not appear to be reloading with a top recruiting class, if the Trojans lose a number of key contributors to transfer, SC could be in serious trouble for 2017.
Trailing by 10 in the 4th quarter, the lights seemingly turned on for Williams, as he led the Utes down the field for 3 consecutive touchdowns (the 1st coming in the 3rd quarter), but the biggest was the final TD. The Trojans scored on Darnold’s 8-yard keeper after a 35-yard catch by JuJu Smith-Schuster helped USC move inside the Utah 10. What’s a big deal is the total brashness Utah threw at the Trojans on the game-winning scoring drive. The Utes picked up their first conference-opening win past year in a 62-20 pounding over OR on the road. There are times to be conservative and play the field position game when the defense is playing well, but the Trojans had huge issues stopping Christian McCaffrey and company the entire game.
Utah starting cornerback Dominique Hatfield played in his first game of the year.
The Utes wore new black helmets that were individually hand painted by an artist. USC drove into Utah territory again, but again put the football on the ground, and Utah recovered. A 14 yard strike from Williams to Singleton brought Utah to within a yard, and Armand Shyne picked up a big 3 yards on 4th down to keep the drive alive for Utah. “We’ve got to learn how to win those games and we will”.
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“We continue to be frustrated they won’t pick it up”, Scott said, “but we’ll continue to knock on the door”. Moss added 90 yards on 23 carries for the Utes (4-0), who won their Pac-12 opener for the second straight season.
