Pitt-Utah Recap

First off, great ending to the game.  Secondly, Utah could have won that game 28-0 just as easily.  Third, Utah did not play well enough last night to have won at Iowa State, at Air Force, against TCU, at Notre Dame, or against BYU.  I know it was the first game, but they got lucky it was Pitt.  Fourth, if Pitt is the cream of the crop in the Big East and the first 3.5 quarters are indicative of what we'll see from them this year: the Big East sucks.  Fifth, anybody remember the national championship game last year?  Texas tried so hard to "protect" their QB that they nearly played themselves right out of the game.  When Pitt let Tino Sunseri lose in the 4th quarter, he marched Pitt right down the field.  Imagine if they had done that the whole game...

One word on Pitt before looking at Utah's performance: Pitt showed an inability to adapt to Utah's game.  They played their base defense (4-3) when Utah was constantly running 4 and 5 WR sets.  LBs and safeties had to cover WRs all game and Utah exploited those mismatches.  On O, Pitt was so committed to the power running game, that they never entertained the possibility that the D was so keyed in on Dion Lewis that a little play-action would have opened things up.  The O was extremely predictable.  Pitt stunk: they had no business playing in that game, and if it weren't for such a Shaky performance by Utah (two fumbles by Shaky Smithson), they would have been blown out.  If that's the best the Big East has to offer...

Utah's Defense

The front four: they played a really good game.  They controlled the line of scrimmage and shut the Pitt running attack down.  They didn't get a great pass rush on their own, but they still got two sacks.
The linebackers: they didn't play bad.  They helped out a lot in run support.  They did pretty well in pass coverage.  However, compare this effort to what Utah's LBs did last year and it wasn't even close.  No sacks, no forced fumbles, no big hits.  Perhaps Utah fans have been spoiled the past 2 or 3 years with their great linebackers.  We'll have to see if someone emerges as a playmaker at LB out of this unit, and my money would be on Chaz Walker.  He was around the ball a ton last night and led the team in tackles.  But they were mostly assisted and just one solo tackle.
The DBs: Brandon Burton had one heck of a game.  In the second half of the game, Pitt picked on Lamar Chapman with quite a bit of success.  Brian Blechen made the play of the game, but based on how poor of a throw it was, all he had to do was not drop the ball.  When Pitt opened up the passing game, they didn't stop it that effectively.  I would say this was about what you expected: great effort flying around, but besides Brandon Burton, there were a few holes in the secondary.
Overall: this was a very solid defensive effort.  They played with 8, sometimes even 9, in the box and shut down the run pretty much completely.  They dared Pitt to throw on them and, for the most part, shut that down too.  For 3.5 quarters, you would call it an amazing defensive effort.  But those last 8 minutes of the game were a little shoddy, as Pitt threw the ball all over the place on them.  I'm sure Dion Lewis will go on to have a few amazing performances this season, which will make what Utah did more impressive, but he had no holes all night.  Was that the strength of the D-Line or the 8 or 9 guys in the box?  Probably a little of both.  Either way, I have no doubt that Utah would win the Big East this season.  Again, if that was the effort from the best running back in the best team in the Big East, then my opinion of the Big East just hit the crapper.

Utah's Offense

The O-Line: at times, this was the best unit on the field.  They opened up some holes in the running game and did a solid job in pass protection for the most part.  However, the Utes were not able to consistently run the ball, which falls on the O-Line.  The matchup I watched the closest was LT John Cullen on DE Greg Romeus.  The first half, Cullen owned that battle with one or two exceptions.  However, in the second half, Romeus was able to lean on Cullen and push him around (however, Utah's game plan seemed to be just to avoid Romeus and it worked very well).  Cullen is undersized, so we'll see if his wearing down later in the game will happen later on as well.  It should help that only a few more teams on the schedule employ a 4-man front, and no team on the schedule will have a DE like Romeus.  He'll need to bulk up for next year's Pac 10 season though.
The WRs: Jereme Brooks played well and Devonte Christopher is fast.  Those two made Pitt's pass coverage look silly on multiple occasions.  Why Pitt constantly had a LB or SS on Brooks is baffling.  But he was getting open all game.  Devonte Christopher ran a slant over the middle, was wide open, and ran right up the middle for a 60-yard TD that should have sealed the game.  He's got speed.  That can get you open, although on that particular play, it was just a blown coverage.
The RBs: this was an OK, but not spectacular game.  Utah must have seen something in the pass game that they liked because they sure didn't run the ball like it seemed like they could/should have.  There were only one or two drives all game where they looked committed to the running game (and they marched right down the field on those ones...).  Asiata had some very nice blocks in pass protection and the run game.
QB: statistically, it looked like Jordan Wynn a great game all-around, but I wouldn't say it was a great performance all-around.  He had a couple of nice passes early in the game.  He made a couple of poor decisions later in the game.  He had a pretty poor third quarter, when Utah could have put Pitt out of the game.  He got bailed out by Brooks and Christopher for two big plays and netted 107 of his 283.
Overall: it seemed like they played much better with their backs to the wall.  When Pitt scored or did something good, the Ute offense responded.  But they didn't do anything before that.  The offense stalled the first quarter, but then Pitt scored a TD early in the second.  Then Utah marches down and scores two straight possessions.  They marched down a third time before throwing a pick in the end zone.  In the second half, they had two straight 3-and-outs, then Pitt scored and they get a big play TD.  It was a pretty inconsistent effort offensively.  But when they were on, they were on.  They just need to be more consistent in doing that, which they will be able to do the next 3 games.  This unit will definitely need to improve, and they will.  Statistically they had a great game.  But 40% of their possessions were 4 plays or less before giving the ball back to Pitt.  TCU, or even Air Force and BYU, will take advantage of that.  They will limit your big plays and force you to drive down the field.  I didn't see an offense that will be able to consistently drive down the field.  Against the lesser competition, you can rely on the big play, but they had better learn to drive...but then again, I've been saying that same thing since Urban left.

The one thing we saw out of Utah that we typically haven't was a fourth quarter meltdown.  After getting a first down around the 40 yard line with about 4 minutes left, all they needed to do was run the ball three straight times and punt (or get a first down).  At best, Pitt would have got the ball around their own 20 with a minute and a half left.  Instead, the Utes got a personal foul penalty, threw an incompletion, and Eddie Wide ran out of bounds.  Then they shanked the punt and Pitt got the ball with 3 minutes left at the 50.  The Utes tightened up at the goalline to force a game-tying field goal instead of a go-ahead touchdown, but that nearly cost them the game.

The Utes are obviously very happy to get the win, but the Salt Lake Tribune describes it very well in its headline: the Agony of Victory.  Pitt didn't belong in the game, but Utah let them hang around, and nearly gave them the game in the last 8 minutes.  Next real test: Iowa State.