The past two seasons, Utah has compiled an impressive 23-3 record while lurking on the fringe of BcS relevance. For whatever reason, and despite their recent cachet, the Utes got very little love in most of the major — and minor — preseason polls.
Thursday night, Utah — and their opponent — proved the sham that is preseason polls.
While it took an overtime period in a game they dominated statistically, Utah came away from opening night with a 27-24 win over Pittsburgh. A Pittsburgh team that came into the game ranked No. 15 in the nation and the prohibitive favorite for the Big East title. A conference, incidentally, that still enjoys an automatic BcS bid while the Utes’ for-now conference attempts to jump through hoops to get to that level.
If you want a microcosm of this game — aside from the season-long quarterbacking microcosm that was and will be Tino Sunseri on Pitt’s lone possession in overtime — it would be Dion Lewis. After rushing for 1,799 yards and 17 touchdowns as a freshman, Lewis was held to 75 yards on 25 carries and a lone first-quarter touchdown.
Again, Pitt was ranked well inside the preseason Top 25, and went down on the road against, for the most part, an unranked opponent. Sham, thy name is preseason prognostications.
Before I go, one more thing. This utter BS of calling a timeout at the last nanosecond before a field-goal attempt needs to be stopped. Especially when it’s done on back-to-back attempts. At best it reeks of desperation, and at worst it screams “I’m a part of the female anatomy!”.
Kyle Whittingham, you’ve proved you’re better than that.
Then again, you proved your unheralded team was better than a Top 15 team, so have at it I guess.
This game was a classic trap game. College teams that make long trips struggle. Having a new QB doesn’t help either. Pitt fans should not worry because this is a Utah team that is well coached (remember they beat Alabama couple years ago) & has enough talent to be very competitive. I still expect Pitt to be right in the middle of a Big East title hunt late in the season. I didn’t see the game on TV but from I saw in the highlights, this team needs to be more consistent & STOP shooting themselves in the foot with costly penalties! Coach Wannstedt has a talented team & he needs to forget about this loss, correct mistakes, and move on.
This game was a classic trap game. College teams that make long trips struggle. Having a new QB doesn’t help either. Pitt fans should not worry because this is a Utah team that is well coached (remember they beat Alabama couple years ago) & has enough talent to be very competitive. I still expect Pitt to be right in the middle of a Big East title hunt late in the season. I didn’t see the game on TV but from I saw in the highlights, this team needs to be more consistent & STOP shooting themselves in the foot with costly penalties! Coach Wannstedt has a talented team & he needs to forget about this loss, correct mistakes, and move on.
He had timeouts left, so he used ‘em.
What’s the problem, John?
Who sucks…pitt effin sucks!!!!!!!!!!
Classic Wannstache game. F you Dave.
Signed,
South Floridians
Pitt losing a game in overtime at a place where no road opponent has won now in 18 tries is not exactly a surprise, is it? In fact, Utah was a three point favorite. Credit the bookies.
This game was moved from later in the schedule and while we all enjoyed it, it does point out the risks to teams with all the mistakes.
The TD called back because Baldwin was not set very late in the game typifies that.
I’ll still take the early start of the real schedule.
I was surprised at how poorly both teams executed in this game. I’d have thought that Wannstedt would have done a better job getting the team ready to take on the Utes.
I really expected better of Utah. They weren’t the precision team I saw annihilate my beloved Tide in the Sugar Bowl a couple of years ago.
I was less than happy when Kyle Whittingham called back to back timeouts, you’re right – he is better than that. I know the NFL has a rule against calling back to backs.. It cost the Redskins a game under the most recent Gibbs tenure.
Good win for the Utes, I look forward to seeing how much rust they can shake off of their passing game as the season progresses.
Utah dominated Pitt. To win with that many mistakes/turnovers on Utah’s side was amazing IMO. If Utah can fix themselves, they are going to make waves this year (again), and wont be under the radar when they take the field in the PAC 12 next year.
Viper is right. Utah absolutely stuffed the run and was clearly the better team. Pitt scored 10 points (maybe more) off Utah’s turnovers, as well as picking off the Utes in the endzone once. And I understand TO’s are part of the game, but again, like Viper said, if Utah plays a clean game, the score could have been 34-14 (ish). Both teams had penalties, but a lot of Pitt’s were false starts while Utah’s were drive killing holds.
Utah manhandled Pitt. End of story.
Antman, you shouldn’t leave such a lengthy comment if you didn’t watch the game.