After Utah's thrashing of Pittsburgh in the Fiesta bowl, a few mumblings about the Panthers and the Utah Defense....
- Pittsburgh was not as tough or hard nosed as they were advertised to be. I expected they would control the lines of scrimmage and have success running the ball on Utah. They did not come close to controlling either line of scrimmage, and like many of Utah's opponents, they learned that a spread offense does not mean finesse. Pittsburgh's coach Walt Harris agreed and noted, "I think the physical part of the game, we did not match up."
- Tyler Palko is a tough quarterback, but not in Alex Smith's league as an overall player. Palko was tough and elusive, despite being sacked nine times. Several times he escaped what looked like a sure sack, including once when the defensive player removed Palko's wristband. However when he did escape, he wasn't consistent and usually didn't make the defense pay for blitzing him. Alex Smith on the other hand, several times escaped the rush to complete passes or ran for the first down himself. To Palko's credit, in the face of adversity he was good enough not to have a turnover, he just wasn't able to produce something positive.
- Heralded Pitt WR Greg Lee is young and owes most of his success to the team and QB with which he plays. While Lee did have a 31 yard TD reception and he possesses the speed and size to be very good, he did drop a long bomb from Palko that would have yielded a touchdown or at least possession inside the 10 yard line. Also, one pass in the first half he was credited as making, was actually an incomplete pass as seen on the replays. The play gave Pittsburgh a needed first down and kept their drive alive, but could have very easily been recorded as another crucial drop by Lee. Most likely with some experience, Lee will make the catches he is supposed to make, and then when combined with his ability to make the difficult ones, he'll be terrific. He is however, not there yet.
- Utah's defense is better than people thought. Utah's defense was described as solid before the game, but vulnerable to give up both yards and points. Pittsburgh did get 251 yards passing from Palko, but needed 40 passes to get those yards and endured a Fiesta bowl record nine sacks. As far as ability to run on the Utes, all you really need to know is that Pitt's top two rushers were outrushed by Utah QB Alex Smith (77 yards). I think the answer is that Utah's defense was better than people expected, but throughout the season Utah's offense scored so often and so fast, that the opposing teams were give many opportunities to create something.
- Kyle Wittingham is one terrific bowler. Wittingham is proving to be very good when given extra time to break down an opponent for a bowl game. While winning it's last 4 bowl games, Utah has only given up a total of 29 points, or an average of 7.3 points per game. Also, Wittingham's Defense has held the last three of those opponents to season lows for points scored. The only disclaimer to that is in the 2001 matchup against USC, the Utes allowed the Trojans to score 6 points which matched their low output for the season. It's also good to note in that game USC featured a guy at QB named Carson Palmer, who would win the Heisman the following season. And the fourth team, the only one of the four that didn't set a season low for points scored was Fresno State. The Bulldogs, managed 16 points, which was only two points better than their season low of 14 and one of their touchdowns was a return of a blocked kick.
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