Identity Crisis: Utah Game Review

On being the worst 9-1 team of all time.

The Oregon Ducks got embarrassed in Salt Lake City by a Utah team that out-physical-ed them, out-prepared them, and just plain out-played them.

And there goes whatever real or imagined dreams of a playoff we had in 2021-22.

So let’s just call the whole thing off, right?

I’ll get to the actual “where-do-you-go-from-here” take in a minute, but let me wallow for a moment.

My quarterback, Anthony Brown, threw his worst game of the season at the exact worst moment. Postgame interviews from him and his coaches downplayed a possible wrist injury, but no matter how healthy he was, it just magnified the spotty accuracy we already knew about.

We lost three receivers in the week leading up to the game, too. Mycah Pittman quit, and then Johnny Johnson III and Jaylon Redd were both declared out for the season—and probably for their Oregon careers—right before kickoff.

Our defense—also long-plagued by injuries—lost their captain Verone McKinley in the middle of the game, and had to once again try and scheme against a two-tight end offense that did everything they could to run away from the best player in the country.

To this point, Oregon’s ability to run the ball, their veteran leadership at receiver, and a defense that rallied together against all odds had helped to cover up so many of the larger team issues that we saw rear their ugly head in SLC—even the one about clearly only having one quarterback on the roster right now.

But when all of that catches up to you, the one thing you’re supposed to be able to salvage is the supposed heart of your program.

Since Mario Cristobal took over, he has been a zealot about physicality. He has preached on and on about playing football the way it was meant to be played (i.e. never backing down from a fist fight).

Many Oregon fans were hesitant to his gospel of girth—still longing for flashy-Chip-Kelly speed.

And then Mario recruited like a bat-out-of-hell. He beat UDub on a game-winning inside handoff when he had the NFL Rookie of the Year under center. He pounded Utah in 2019, beat a classically big Wisconsin team in a Rose Bowl, bowled over USC for back-to-back Pac-12 titles, and then went into the Horseshoe and ran all over THE Ohio State.

Many called him stubborn. Some still call him a bad in-game coach—both for that stubbornness and for other clock management-related reasons. But his quick success made believers out of a lot of doubters.

It was not pretty a lot of the time, but his teams fell back on that power and grit whenever they faced adversity, and that trench warfare culture won a lot of football games for a program that many might still call “ahead of schedule.”

But I didn’t see that same gloriously stubborn Mario Cristobal show up to Saturday’s Utah game.

Travis Dye got two carries on Oregon’s first two drives. AB ran it just twice, too. We tried a fancy double-pitch jet sweep with Hutson, but that went for a loss.

Cardwell had three carries in the second quarter, and AB had one more.

Then AB suffered his first of three sacks on a critical third down, Utah went down and scored to make it 14-0, and all of the sudden we were seriously playing from behind. Forced to throw, and forced out of our own game that we didn’t even attempt to play from the get-go.

That’s what I think I’m most disappointed about with this game.

I was all bought into the Cristobal Cult of Skull Crushing, and the team was too, and then we just flipped and became a passing team because the other guys looked big and scary.

My buddy Derman put it perfectly: “If Utah had proved they could stop our run, and still kicked our ass, I wouldn’t complain about play calling, but we got too cute.”

The offensive line was poor in pass protection, and never get much of a chance to push anyone around on the ground—especially after Old Man Covey finally gave us that punt return to the house that I’d been saying we were overdue for.

KT and Noah had their moments at the start, but Utah played around them perfectly. I just hope Verone is okay.

This team can still beat the Beavs, get to ten wins, and send themselves to the Pac-12 Title Game with another shot at Utah (at 2000’ lower elevation, too). There is no reason that these Ducks shouldn’t still dream of Roses.

But no matter how far they end up going from here, I just hope they do it all on their own terms again.

Go Ducks.