Biggest frustrations (in order):

1. Run blocking: Honestly baffled that there was minimal push by the O-line on almost every run play. This is year 3 of this line, the issues are still there. Was the Utah front tough? Sure. But still, gotta see more than that to be successful.

2. Mr. Smith: I love his toughness and he seems to be falling forwards all the time. But, he's missing holes and pitter-pattering when he gets to the line of scrimmage if he doesn't see something right in front of him. Again, this goes back to the O-line blocking, but I think a faster, more explosive back finds things that Smith doesn't. Enter Mr. Harris.

3. Rudock: Really only accountable for 1.5 of those picks, imo. The overthrows are honestly what I'm more frustrated about. I understand mistakes happen and those plays will happen to anyone, but gahhhh a higher floor was expected. Hopefully this was an outlier, I think it was.

4. That 4th and 1 call: I understand that a block was missed, but running up the middle simply was not working. I was screaming for a PA to Bunting or Butt but nope.

Happy things:

1. WR / Butt: Butt is one of the best TEs in the league right now. He gooooood. The rest of the receivers were good minus Perry's missed routes a few times. Chesson looked fast, is a deep threat. Darboh is strong and can catch a contested pass. Perry has good hands, great blocking on screens.

2. Pass Protection: Only a few plays where the pocket collapsed or Rudock had to improvise. Baffling that they can pass protect so well and then struggle so much on a run play. 

3. Improvement: Nothing I saw besides the O-line game and lack of vision from Smith is unfixable. This team will get better. I loved how Harbaugh handled the post-game. Going on the road to a decent P5 Utah squad, turning the ball over 3 times, and still out-gaining them and losing by a TD isn't too bad for game 1.

Meh. I'm used to losing at this point. Let's pick up the pieces and move on

I get the frustrations but at the same time did anyone notice I don't think we had a single 3rd and more than 10 the entire game. I don't think we had a single game last year with less than 10 3rd and 10+ yards attempts. That alone made this game 1000 times less painful to watch. Plus that stadium is beautiful and the people were super nice.

Also moving forward I'd like to see a little more Ian Bunting. He has promise

...roommates? Because the biggest mistakes of the game involved those two guys trying to hook up, with one or the other - or both - messing up.

The score was about what I expected: an experienced, well-coached team gradually pulling ahead of a well-coached team that's in the middle of a reboot.  

I'm very encouraged by the effort and scheme.  We will win more than we lose and that will have to do this year.

Ace gets at a good point in his last paragraph.  After all of the pain of the last couple of years, we got Harbaugh and the promise of hope.  We have been waiting for the start of the season with such anticipation and excitement like it's Christmas morning.  But the reality is that Christmas isn't here yet.  We're going to have to be patient and wait longer.  It's depressing to see another loss tonight after the long off season anticipation.  But it was very unlikely that everything would be "fixed" by now.  We shouldn't have been expecting Christmas morning to arrive so soon.

Despite the turnovers, despite playing in a "hostile" environment against a very good, experienced team, despite the pick 6 that could have broken their backs, this team was still in it and was one recovered onside kick from possibly pulling it out. There will be some major improvement first game to second, and I think we will be just fine.

6-6 they will get better with these coaches but the offensive line, running backs, and QB play will once again waste an excellent defense.

It did not look like a mess of desperation where a couple of our skill players kept us in it only to lose anyways...Our QB did not run around for dear life...our deep passing did not consist of throwing blindly into coverage (while running around for dear life)...

We caused a fumble.  And on Utah's first touchdown, it went without mention, but we had a hat on that ball that momentarily loosened it.  These were actions by our defense that had potential impact on possession, not just random mistakes by the opponent.  So say we grab those two?  And then there were those long balls that were there, just not executed...there were opportunities created by our play and within our gameplan...

OK, yeah, I'm stretching for a silver-lining in a loss, but we lost in a coherant, non-tirefire kind of way, and we can point to missed opportunities that can be built upon and corrected.  This team had the appearance of a team that can get better.

And I like that Harbaugh left Rudock in there and didn't switch to Morris in the final 3:00, or so, when he could have to finish out a tough loss.  He didn't throw in the towel, he didn't give up on Rudock or the team.  His team didn't throw in the towel, his team didn't give up - on offense or defense (Peppers was certainly at it until the end).

There is work to be done, and some clear areas to focus on that, if corrected, could have potentially changed the outcome against a good football team.  At an away site.  I hate losing, but there is reason to not feel terrible...

Interceptions are one thing, but the overthrows to wide open receivers cost touchdowns twice. Three other times, Smith running, I think with his head down, had plenty of room to make moves, ran straight into a red shirt who didn't even move, another didn't bounce outside when he could've and ran into the pile, and the play just before the pick-6, missed the cut where he could've run all the way back to Ann Arbor. Gotta teach him to run head-up.

O-line pass protection was great, run blocking needs improvement- all of which I trust this coaching staff to improve on. Go Blue!

I saw a team that, with some personnel upgrades at a few key positions, notably QB, RB & OL, would have been JUST FINE.  And Harbaugh is going to get those personnel upgrades.

The defense played very well.  The offensive scheme was just fine.  We had LOTS of chances on offense, but Rudock didn't execute.  Our RBs and OL didn't play overly well either.  But those are 3 areas that Harbaugh will fix--you just have to give him some time.  He needs to get the players coming in to fix things, but at least I think tonight you saw a good game plan that just wasn't completely executed.

 

First things first... Utah is no longer a cupcake out of conference opponent that Power 5 schools schedule to pad their win total for the season. They haven't been that team for quite some time, despite just recently joining the Pac 12. They lingered in the top 25 all last season, beating UofM at The Big House, #8 UCLA, #20 USC, #25 Stanford & #23 CSU. The pretty much had 1 bad loss to Arizona, a team that played for the Pac 12 Championship. The remaining losses were an early season stumble vs WSU by 1 point, #15 ASU in OT & to #5 Oregon, a game that only got out of hand late following their own return incident.

So that team returned a defense that led the nation in sacks, something that many of these OLmen struggled mightily to prevent that past two seasons. If I'm not mistaken, Rudock was not sacked all night long, he was seldom even hurried. He had all day to stand back in the pocket (how do you think those WRs got so open?).

That team also returned a SR RB who is considered a dark horse for The Heisman, or was coming into tonight. I kept reading on here how Utah fans were claiming that we played Devontae Booker BEFORE he was Devontae Booker. Well, they couldn't claim that tonight and he still rushed the ball 22 times for 61 yards (3.1 ypc), that's not a much better rate than the 17 carries for 47 yards that DeVeon Smith tallied (2.8 ypc), and we were all disappointed in that, correct? Booker is a much better RB than Smith in every single way and we handled him every bit as well as they handled our underwhelming back, while still having to consider the mobile QB handing him the ball off all night. Our run D is superb.

Those very same Utes again returned a SR dual threat QB. It has been established without a doubt now that the most valuable thing you can have in college football is an intelligent QB that can also beat you with their legs. We've learned this the hard way (Troy Smith, Armani Edwards, Terrell Pryor, Braxton Miller, Cardale Jones, Vince Young, etc.), and even experienced the joys a bit as well (Denard's Jr year). Pair that with the fact that they win the Heisman nearly every season these days, and that's really all the evidence one needs. Meanwhile, we basically had 2 bad drives on defense tonight, a whopping 14 points (The FG was a win after the way that drive started, but they also used a lot of gadget plays.). That's a pretty good performance the first game of the year, on the road, out west, on a Thursday night... All things that UofM doesn't do often, or generally handle well.

Lastly, but most importantly moving forward. The entire team made adjustments in the 2nd half, and aside from the defensive score, we outplayed them and won on the scoreboard. The receiving core played well all night with the exception of the bad Perry route (he blocked well and made tough catches late.). While it still wasn't earth shattering, we didn't abandon the run and it did improve quit a bit in the 2nd half... And even Jake, again, aside from the one poor decision, played much better in the 2nd half. He made some very tough, tight throws (That Butt TD grab was impressive, but the throw was equally so.). He was very gritty and gutty, despite the mistakes I never seen his confidence shattered or body language reflect it. He led 2 scoring drives, and yes, was capable of many more... But it was a very windy night, he can learn and adjust from that experience. I think Peppers took Covey lightly in the first half causing him to get beat a few times focusing too much on the backfield. He cleaned that up completely in the 2nd half. Jourdan Lewis was outstanding. I know Harbaugh thinks he should've gone for it in hind sight following that missed kick, but that wasn't a bad miss, he just barely pushed it right. Looked exponentially better than the "best kicker in the nation's" misses. Allen has a huge leg and we're not contending for championships or BCS Bowls this year... Let the kid kick and get better. It'll serve us well moving forward. The adjustments coming out of half though... We just didn't see that consistently enough, or much at all out of the last regime.

This team is on the right track and aside from Minnesota, MSU and OSU I don't see anybody beating us that remains... And I like or chances against the Gophers vanilla offense with their stud TE and stud RB playing on Sunday's now. 9-3 likely, 8-4 at worst.

You put my thoughts into words. We will be better, Jim will make us good. We looked like a FOOTBALL team which is more than I can say for some years. We were best by a better team. We will be better in November than we were today. My best friend went to Utah so I hate to admit it but they were the better team. That being said we were well coached, and we will be heard from before the year is done. Go Blue

We wont have a run game all year, our O line stinks. Rudock better start hitting those long passes or the bubble screens and underneath stuff to Butt won't be there.

I'm probably going to get negged for this, but if they are going to keep going with Smith as the starter in the back field then they need to take him down to the medical center to get his vision corrected.

On most runs it looks as if he only has a 10 degree field of view.

It seemed clear from before Harbaugh was hired that this team was going to struggle at the quarterback position.

The good news is that we have a coach who seems to have a magic touch recruiting and developing quarterbacks.

The better news is that the rest of the team looked good--and this was the first game.

The only cloud for the silver linings is that this season is going to come down to how well the current QBs can develop.

Rudock doesnt throw very well. When he sees an open guy or has to put something extra on it, you can tell before the ball comes out. Almost like he aims it or something. Ends up pushing it, which is causing those high misses.

I should have expected that because they had more time with there coach. Harbaugh has had very little time with them to correct things when you get right down to it. The receivers haven't had much time to work with Rudock and vice versa.

I was looking at the game last year and saying if we eliminated most of the mistakes we would win and I still think that would have been true. We were a couple less mistakes from winning the game even with our disappointing running game.

We will progress a lot during the year because of Harbaugh. He is still learning who can do it on game day. He learned a lot last night.

The receivers were better than I suspected despite the possible mistake by Perry in at least one instance. I hope either Rudock hits a few of those deep passes or Shane improves with more Harbaugh time and deserves to take over. That was my biggest disappointment. I didn't expect that many interceptions.

I was also disappointed in the running game. Pass protection seemed ok but I hoped the line would open more holes. I'll be interested in the UFRs to see if there were holes there, but the RB's missed them. I think there was some of that. It's a disappointment with all the stars in the the backs that they don't do more on their own although there was improvement. Drake may dramatically improve this aspect if he can play soon. He seems to have the best vision.

Hoped for more but they played aggressive and the defense seemed to play better and better. Need more Harbaugh time and things will be fine but I hope there is a running back found who is ready to play next year.

We watched actual football last night, so that was nice.

Rudock blew this one. Missing wide open guys down field is ridiculous. Once, okay, again and again. Come on man. We could have stole one here.

I don't get the people who predicted 10-2 or better. This was a shit team last year. And before you say "because HARBAUGH" do any of you realize that he went 4-8 in his first year with Stanford?

I'm not sure  I watched the same game as some of you folks. For a graduate student transfer, Rudock was bad. He was making freshman mistakes - such as staring down receivers. Smith got better as the night went on, but he's only a mediocre back (like Isaac and Greene). Relatedly, or OL looked just like the OL of late last season. Not much development there. The defense had only one or two good series. I actually think they looked worse than last season. Missed tackles, poor angles all over the place. Utah's offense just continually ripped off huge patches of green every down. They moved the ball at will most of the night. 

We will be fortunate to get to 6 wins this season.