It would be very easy for the Utah football team to become fractured, for a seismic fault line to develop in the locker room, rupturing the Utes into disparate groups.
Last Friday’s loss to Oregon State in Corvallis brought to the forefront what had been an apparent but forgivable problem whilst the team was undefeated: The defense has been doing the heavy lifting while the offense flails.
A night that saw the defense regress from dominant to decent while the offense devolved from anemic to abysmal proved too much for Utah to overcome, as they were handed their first defeat of the season, in humiliating fashion.
Still, even as head coach Kyle Whittingham critiqued the tepid offensive display in a small interview room within Reser Stadium, he also felt compelled not to assign too much blame to one side of the ball.
Doing so could only have the effect of forming fissures within the team’s foundation.
“There’s a lot of football left, [but] there’s a lot of different ways to sink and break,” said Whittingham. “The key now is we stay together, figure out our deficiencies, figure out a way to move forward, which we will.”
That’s the hope, anyway.
There’s no getting around Utah’s inability to consistently move the ball and get into the end zone being an albatross.
Of course, there are underlying reasons behind the woeful performances — namely, the seasonlong absences of quarterback Cam Rising and tight end Brant Kuithe, not to mention injuries to and absences from the likes of running backs Ja’Quinden Jackson and Micah Bernard, receiver Mycah Pittman, and offensive lineman Johnny Maea.
Then again, it’s not as though the defense hasn’t been short-handed, too. Connor O’Toole has yet to play. Van Fillinger and Junior Tafuna and Simote Pepa have been limited. Logan Fano just went out with a torn ACL. Karene Reid missed the better part of two games.
But for as much as the Utes beat their chests about their ability to embrace the “next man up” mantra, the next men up on the offensive side of the ball simply have not gotten the job done.
“You can’t make 14 first downs and score one touchdown and get less than 200 yards total,” Whittingham conceded after the OSU loss. “You just can’t do that. I mean, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work.”
And it didn’t work.
Postgame, redshirt freshman quarterback Nate Johnson attempted to strike an uneasy balance between accepting blame for the shortcomings: “Offense scored seven points. Last week [vs. UCLA], we scored seven points as well. We’ve got to figure out how to get this offense going.”
… while still projecting optimism for a turnaround: “I think things are good. I mean, you know, we suffered our first loss, but I think we’re still good. Obviously, we’ve just got to clean things up.”
It was as confused as the offensive performance itself.
For what it’s worth, the two Utes defenders who spoke postgame, safety Cole Bishop and defensive end Jonah Elliss, made it a point to highlight their unit’s deficiencies against the Beavers, namely too many missed tackles.
And they were correct, given that miscues in wrapping players up contributed pretty directly to two of Oregon State’s three touchdowns.
Still …
Even Whittingham had to admit that, relative to FBS averages this season, allowing 21 points, 358 yards, and 15 first downs was not that horrific a performance.
Nevertheless, such delineations are irrelevant in his view.
All they accomplish is planting the seeds for a damaging and potentially pervasive us vs. them viewpoint.
“If we score seven, then the defense has to allow six or less; and the defense gives up 21, then the offense has to score 22. That’s the mentality,” he said. “It’s not, ‘We did our job, you didn’t’ — that’s never the case, because there’s different ways to win games.”
There are, indeed.
There would be more, though, if the Utes could find a way to account for more than one offensive touchdown per game.
Asked if there was one area of the offense where taking a step forward or two would have a big impact in boosting production, Whittingham said he wasn’t going to single out any one position group or facet.
Which is just as well, because, frankly, the Utes are struggling pretty much everywhere other than turnovers.
“We’re just not getting it done. We’re not in sync. We’re not productive. We’re not doing anything real well on offense right now,” Whittingham said.
He believes, however, that the team can get it turned around.
The bye week should help, both in terms of allowing extra time for injured players to get healthy, and giving the coaching staff an opportunity to assess their scheme with fresh eyes.
Beyond that, he added, the Utes have got “a lot of competitive guys in that locker room, a lot of tough guys, a lot of guys that are very driven.”
He can only hope that frustration and resentment have not reached such levels yet as to cause some players not to drive in the same direction.
“It’s very key that we don’t point fingers and that we stay together, which we will,” Whittingham said. “It’s one loss. It’s not the end of the world. It’s a setback, and the key now is the response. How do we respond?”
