Sugar Bowl Recap: Utah smacks around Alabama

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Wow! and Barry Switzer needs to eat a huge piece of crow, for saying none of the Utah players on the team would be recruited to play for Alabama.  Eight sacks and two forced fumbles prior to this game Alabama only gave up 13 sacks all year.

I do not want Alabama fans to say it was because Andre Smith was out that is why Utah applied pressure.  Defensive lineam Greg Newman who was out weighed by sixty pounds over Alabama’s All American Center Antoine Caldwell who was drove back  five yards by Newman.  The Utes were able to apply pressure all night against Alabama and gave John Parker Wilson trouble all night and when he was not being sacked he was under pressure.

The biggest surprise after the Utes getting pressure was the fact that neither team was able to rush the ball.  Alabama who had a great running back in Glenn Coffee and he was held to 36 yards rushing for an average of 2.8  yards per carry, and he did also have 4 receptions for 40 yards and a touchdown.

Utah seemed to not want to run the ball at all by using four and five wide sets.  The Utes rushed for 17 total yards and was lead by Matt Asiata who had 29 yards and a touchdown early in the game to make it 14-0.

The Utes on offense started out very quickly and semed to be able to come up with big plays on third down and running shorter routes, and it does help when Alabama continually to misses tackles.  MVP of the game was Utah Quarterback Brian Johnson who ran the offense most of the night in using the  no huddle offense and being able to provide protection for Johnson.

Johsnon threw for 336 yard three touchdowns and this was the first time a team threw for over 300 yards against Alabama.  The Ute receivers stepped up huge with Freddie Brown who had 12 catches with 125 yards and then Brandon Godfrey caught 6 passes for 75 yards.

Alabama did make a run in this game with a punt return for a touchdown and then they scored a touchdown on a short field.  The longest drive was 50 yards but then Alabama  missed one of two field goals.  AP coach of the year, Nick Saban, was out coached in this game, because Utah ran the no huddle which forced Alabama to keep the same scheme in without subbing.

When Utah went to their standard offense that is when Alabama started to apply pressure that is when Utah went right b ack to their no huddle and with four and five wideouts Alabama was unable to apply pressure.  Utah also was able to get key third down conversions by going 6-14 which is decent, but Bama struggled went 4-13.

This game was to be where Alabama was too physical and came from the mighty SEC, and Utes smacked Alabama around and took it to them.  As I pointed out earlier this week in comparing the schedules last week I was waxed, but the Utes wins over a ranked BYU, TCU, Oregon State, and Air Force.  Compared to the wins over an overrated Clemson, a solid Georgia, good LSU, and then a loss to Florida.

The Utes win and we will see how much respect Utah gets from this, and look for Utah to possibly be ranked number three in the country, but most likely four.

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