football held on for a three-point win at Colorado over the weekend. First-year head coach knows that it is hard to win at this level, and the Buffs gave his 10th-ranked Utes all they could handle last week.
“Can’t say enough great things about what that staff did there with Colorado. That defense played lights out, very physical game. We obviously did enough to stub our toe and make it a game,” Scalley said on Monday. “Thought with two minutes, 30-something seconds left in the first half that could have been a 17-nothing game, and then another opportunity, three chances in the red zone, come up with six points as opposed to 24-0 going into halftime really allowed them to stay in it. First possession of the second half, we give up a long touchdown coming off coverage. Start off on offense with a penalty. So again, self-inflicted stuff that really didn’t allow us to get things going. I thought the defense did a really nice job on Devon’s turnover of keeping that to a field goal, and that stemmed the tide. And defense from then on out stop, stop. Offense started to click, and we were able to finish the game.”
On the pass rush, again:
Utah generated just four pressures last week according to PFF, the lowest total of the season. That led to just three QB hurries and one QB hit in the entire game. The lack of pressure, especially from the defensive end position, continues to be an issue for the defense and puts added stress on the rest of the defense.
Scalley says that on average it takes anywhere from 2.7 to 3.4 seconds to get a sack in college football. He says that a majority of the QBs that the Utes have faced so far this season have been getting the ball out in less than 2.7 seconds since Utah is known as a team that blitzes at a high rate. When you add in the amount of RPO that is run across the country, it becomes even harder to get in the backfield before the ball is out…