Ute offense missing in action

Kyle Whittingham found Utah's offense downright offensive in Tuesday morning's scrimmage at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"We're supposed to have this great high-powered offense and I didn't see that today," said Whittingham, who explained that the Utes weren't efficient and had too many administrative penalties.

"We've got to have guys refocus and work harder than we've been working apparently," he continued. "The bottom line is you either make plays or you don't. We didn't make any plays today, not nearly enough plays today."

The defense, however, did — racking up seven tackles for loss, four pass breakups, three sacks and two interceptions in the situational scrimmage.

Senior Alex Puccinelli led the way with three sacks. The defensive end, who also played well in the first scrimmage, said he's following Whittingham's advice to move up the depth chart by putting it on tape.

"Every day in practice I'm working hard. Every scrimmage I'm working hard," Puccinelli said. "I'm leaving no stone unturned. So when the coaches turn on that film, they see me making plays."

Several of Puccinelli's teammates also had good outings.

Lei Talamaivao, Trevor Moss, Paul Kruger, Justin Jones, Martail Burnett and Joe Jiannoni made stops behind the line of scrimmage. Koa Misi, Stevenson Sylvester and Josh Broughton broke up passes, while Kyle Brady and Terrell Coles had interceptions.

"The defense flew around pretty good," said Whittingham, who added that the secondary continued to make incremental progress.

His thoughts, however, then shifted back to the other side of the ball.

"The disappointment today was the offense," he said.

Quarterbacks Brian Johnson and Tommy Grady teamed to complete 27-of-47 passes for 292 yards. Both players finished with one touchdown and one interception.

Whittingham said last week's season-ending injury to star offensive lineman Jason Boone may have had something to do with the subpar outings, but downplayed its relevance.

"It is what it is. We've got to deal with it. It's a situation we're faced with," Whittingham said. "We've got to step up to the plate and handle it. There's nobody in the country that's not dealing with injuries of some sort."

Simply put, he said, it was just a very poor day offensively.