Here’s what Utah’s defense must fix to hit the next level

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Utah’s offense, after struggling all night last Friday, had finally scored its first touchdown late in the third quarter.
Hurt hand, leg and all, quarterback Cam Rising completed back-to-back passes to Brant Kuithe to move the Utes into Arizona State territory, then found Dorian Singer for a 17-yard gain.
Micah Bernard would handle things from there, rushing for 27 yards on four carries, and found pay dirt on a 6-yard scamper to give the Utes a 16-13 lead on the road.
After the offense finally scored a touchdown, the next defensive series was, by far, the biggest of the game for the Utes. Get a stop, and Utah would firmly control the momentum, and perhaps be able to escape Tempe with a victory.
The series started out promising after an ASU false start, but quarterback Sam Leavitt dialed up a 22-yard pass to Jordyn Tyson, who was wide open in single coverage with cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn.
Over the next two plays, Utah forced a third-and-2 from the 50-yard line, but that’s when trouble struck.
After Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo took the handoff‚ linebacker Johnathan Hall missed a tackle around the line of scrimmage, safety Tao Johnson couldn’t wrap up, then safety Rabbit Evans whiffed on a tackle as the ASU star rumbled his way toward the end zone.
Utah’s last line of defense, Vaughn, couldn’t make the tackle, either, and Skattebo coasted into the end zone for a 50-yard touchdown.
Later in the fourth quarter, with 2:50 left, Skattebo put the Sun Devils up 27-19 with a 47-yard touchdown run. This time, tackling wasn’t the issue — Skattebo wasn’t touched on his way to the end zone.
“You get some of these critical situations where you got to get a stop and it just seems like we’re not terminating the play where we need to,” Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley said.
In a nutshell, those two plays summed up the biggest issues with Utah’s defense right now — poor tackling and allowing too many explosive plays at key moments.
Aside from that pair of runs, Utah’s defense actually contained one of the nation’s best running backs fairly well, but when it mattered most, Skattebo sliced through.
Utah missed 11 tackles against Oklahoma State, 15 against Arizona and 19 against Arizona State. No team is going to escape a game with a perfect tackling record, but the Utes are generally a single-digit missed-tackling team per game.
It’s not for lack of practice — Whittingham increased the amount of work on tackling during the two weeks leading up to the Arizona State game — and it’s not like Utah’s teaching the team incorrect technique.
But when the lights are on, improvement has not arrived.
“Control what we can control and fix what we need to fix. Tackling obviously being one of the bigger issues and it’s just a matter of wrapping up, not throwing shoulders, understanding that you got to get a guy’s legs to get him down,” Scalley said.
There’s no doubt this year’s defense has been a step down from last year’s, and the historical standard for Utah, but it’s not like it’s been an abject failure.
It could be argued that if Utah’s offense, which ranks No. 82 in points scored per game (26.8) had been a little better, the Utes could have been undefeated at this point, despite some of the defensive deficiencies.
The Utes haven’t given up more than 27 points all season, rank No. 18 in points allowed per game (17), No. 17 in the nation in yards allowed per game (290.7), are No. 5 in the country in third-down defense (opponents are only converting 26.7% of the time) and have allowed the second-fewest first downs (78 this season) in the sport.
But there’s another level this defense needs to reach to realize its potential, and Scalley knows it.
“We’re a very good defense, we’re not elite, and it takes us terminating those plays to become elite and we’re working toward that,” Scalley said.
There’s a lengthy to-do list: fix the tackling, cut down some of the explosive plays, be better against the run, sack the quarterback more often, and generate more takeaways.
Utah feels like it can improve in every one of those areas.
It would help the cause to get injured players like linebackers Karene Reid and Sione Fotu (especially with the struggles at linebacker the last couple weeks) and defensive linemen Connor O’Toole and Keanu Tanuvasa back in the lineup, but until that happens, it’s up to everyone else to step up.
Saturday’s game against old Mountain West foe TCU and its high-flying passing offense serves as a reset point for not only the defense, but the season as a whole after two straight losses.
After the 27-19 loss, emotion poured out of defensive tackle Junior Tafuna in the postgame press conference, choking up as he said, “Just not playing well, all around.”
“It takes a lot of courage to face the media after losses and I love that kid and what a warrior,” Scalley said.
“You can tell how much it means to him and how much it means to our guys and so I’m grateful for guys like that — leaders that will step up and face those situations. Love our group, love their attitude. They’re fighters and we’re doing some really good things and there’s obviously things that we need to fix.”
The team had a players-only meeting this week, challenging each other to regroup and buy in for the second half of the season — starting against TCU.
“We had a team meeting yesterday and said, we need to buy in. Everybody buy in. And so I think we going to do that and I think we going to shock the world,” Hall said.
After suffering a leg injury in Utah’s 27-19 loss at Arizona State last week, starting quarterback Cam Rising is out for the season, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham announced Monday night. The Utes turn the page to true freshman Isaac Wilson, who will start at QB for the Utes against TCU.