More on the Utes' big win

I thought BYU (1-2) played very sloppy the other night and that was a big part of the reason Utah was able to win by so much. I had picked BYU to win this game close at home and I was surprised by their lack of intensity and discipline, particularly in the second half. Utah (2-1, 0-1 Pac-12), though, should be given credit for applying the pressure as well as forcing and recovering them. Their skills and athleticism factoring into the win should also not be understated. Utah won the game big for a reason and forced a lot of those mistakes that BYU made.

It looked like once BYU got down by a few scores that their defense just threw in the towel, so to speak. The Utes appeared to just be trying to run the ball and take some time off the clock in the fourth quarter, but were unable to use a lot of time because they scored on a couple of long runs. It really looked to me like the defense laid down a bit. That's not acceptable from BYU's standpoint, but it is very gratifying to me as a Utah fan to see my team help bring its biggest rival to that point.

I thought Jordan Wynn was still a bit shaky at quarterback, especially for the better part of the first half. Wynn had one pass picked off and by all rights should have had another one intercepted had it not been for a BYU defender dropping a ball thrown right to him. However, I have to give Wynn credit for leading a couple of big touchdown drives late in the first half and early in the second half while the game was still in question. That shows a lot of heart.

On the other hand, I thought BYU quarterback Jake Heaps had a terrible game. I lost track of how many turnovers he had, but I know that there were at least a couple of egregious ones. Of particular note was his fumble on the Cougars' opening drive of the game when the snap went over his head. Instead of just falling on the ball, Heaps attempted to pick it up and when he failed to do so, the Utes pounced on it in the endzone for a quick touchdown. Had Heaps just fallen on the ball, BYU would have just had to punt, instead they were down 7-0.

It wasn't his only instance of poor judgement on the night. On top of that, he missed several open receivers that could have kept a number of BYU drives alive. I don't know if it would have made a difference in the long haul, but it certainly didn't help BYU's cause. I thought Heaps was going to have a great year, especially based on how strongly he finished out last season. His poor play is a bit of a shocker to me.

There is no doubt that Utah is a much better team. The Utes played harder and much more consistently than the Cougars and were able to substantially win the turnover battle. Additionally, it looked like Utah was simply more athletic and more talented than BYU; this especially became apparent in the second half.

Utah 17 BYU 16

Pictured: Brandon Burton dives to block Mitch Payne's field goal attempt on the final play of the game and give the Utes a 17-16 win.

#23 Utah (10-2, 7-1 MWC) defeated BYU (6-6, 5-3 MWC) today at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City by a score of 17-16! The game was in question until the final play, when Brandon Burton blocked a Mitch Payne 42-yard field goal attempt to give the Utes the victory! This game had just about everything you could ask for in a college football game. I'm still reveling about the whole thing, it's just awesome to get a win like that against your rival!

I was among the many euphoric Utah fans who stormed the field after the game. When the kick was blocked my friends and I just started shaking each other with happy, amazed and euphoric expressions on our faces. My girlfriend even said "Derek, we're rushing the field!" It didn't take us long to get down there and soak it all up with the team and many, many other fans. What a way to end the regular season.

The special teams were great for the Utes. Not only was there the block to end the game, but also a key recovery of a punt that bounced off a BYU player to help set up Utah with a chance to take the lead. I also thought the Utah defense was just strong enough to get the win. BYU was in position to score a number of touchdowns, but the Utes were able to hold them to four field goal attempts (only three made of course) and a key turnover on downs in the third quarter.

The Cougars led 6-0 at halftime and had moved that lead to 13-0 at the end of the third quarter. Utah kicked a field goal and then recovered a fumble on BYU's next possession. A long touchdown pass on the next play made it 13-10. BYU led 16-10 when the Utes recovered punt return that took a bounce off of a BYU player. Jordan Wynn threw an interception, but the ball was fumbled on the return and recovered by Utah. BYU fans will claim that it wasn't a fumble, but I didn't think it was completely incontrovertible evidence to overrule the call on the field of a fumble. BYU still had their chances to win the game and didn't get the job done. Utah did. And give Utah credit for capitalizing on the fumble recoveries with a long pass that set up a Matt Asiata run to put Utah ahead 17-16.

True freshman quarterback Jake Heaps looked solid for the Cougars pretty much all day and appeared to have led the game-winning drive as BYU moved the ball to the Utah 25 yard line with 4 seconds left to set up a potential game winning field goal. Burton came in with little more than a small touch to get what may just be referred to as "The Block" and give the Utes the victory. What a relief for me. The Utes have been involved in a number of close losses to BYU the last few years and it feels great to come out on top at the end of a close rivalry game.

I thought Utah had blown any chance of winning when they had to use their final timeout to prevent a too many men on the field penalty before BYU's final third down of the game. There still would have been at least 35 seconds left and at least a faint Utah chance to win if BYU had made the field goal. But the lack of timeout allowed the Cougars to run down the clock to four seconds before the fateful kick that was blocked.

Jordan Wynn struggled some, especially in the first half where the Utes did not score, although he didn't look nearly as bad to me as he did in the TCU game (thankfully). I don't blame Coach Kyle Whittingham for trying Terrance Cain at quarterback to try and jump start things. I thought he should have tried that against TCU, frankly. Cain looked terrible, though, and threw two interceptions in the two drives he was in the game. Both gave the Cougars great field position, but fortunately they were only able to get points out of one of their ensuing drives with a Heaps touchdown pass. Wynn didn't play great by any stretch of the imagination, but he was better than Cain and played better in the second half than he did in the first. He made enough throws to put the Utes in position to win.

I think BYU regrets going for it on fourth down when they were in field goal range early in the third quarter and leading 6-0. If you take the points you're ahead 9-0 at that point and then 16-0 after the ensuing touchdown set up by Cain's second interception in as many drives. And by that measure it could have been 19-10 instead of 16-10 late in the game. Of course who knows if the game would have played out differently with a field goal attempt there instead of going for it, but BYU Coach Bronco Mendenhall has to deal with a lot of difficult what-ifs right now. I can't say I feel bad for him at all because I've never really liked the guy and it always makes me happy when he has to suffer a loss.

Again the theme for me is Utah made enough plays to win and that's the bottom line. You can point to the coaching decision mentioned above or the controversial fumble call, but the point is Utah made the plays they had to in order to come out on top. The scoreboard says it all and it read Utah 17 BYU 16 when the game was over. A favorite quote of mine for sports is from former Ohio State football Coach Woody Hayes who said "The best team always wins: everything else is excuses." I cannot write down my feelings better than that.