Among Utah's biggest problems this season has been the onerous task of converting third down plays. Going into Saturday's game, the Utes were just 31-103 on third-down conversions (30 percent). Last week in a loss to Oregon State, they converted just three of 16. That's awful. That's largely because the Utes haven't been getting anywhere on first or second down, either.
On Saturday they converted eight of 13 third-down conversions.
So for a day in October — too late for glory, but soon enough for optimism — the Utes stepped out of mediocrity for a few hours.
Next week they host Washington State. If the Utes are paying attention, they should easily beat the 2-6 Cougars. Otherwise, they'll suffer the same fate they did last year against lowly Colorado. Washington and Arizona could present problems. Colorado shouldn't.
But what do the Utes know?
They're just now starting to remember what happened 12 months ago.
Email: rock@desnews.com
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Brad Rock, a.k.a. "Rockmonster," has been a sports columnist at the Deseret News since 1994. Prior to that he worked as a beat writer, covering the Utah Jazz (1990-94). He has covered the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, NBA more ..
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Cougs4Life:
That's fair. None of us really think they're a good team, don't worry. But there is no doubt that this is a step in the right direction. Hopefully they keep improving!
Go Utes!
@Cougs4life
I for one could care less how you judge Utah. How did you judge them when they played BYU? I can't wait to hear the excuses.
Utah'95
"BYU's biggest challenge will be not going to sleep at the wheel as they play SJSU, NMSU, and Idaho."
While you were looking up the Sagarin ratings, did you happen to notice this?
#22 BYU
More..