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.

Utes in action in basketball and football today

The Utah Utes will play in both basketball and football today. First, the basketball team (2-0) hosts Weber State (1-1) at 4 p.m. MT. That game will unfortunately not be on television, but will be on the radio in the Salt Lake City area on AM 700 and can also be heard online at kall700sports.com. Same radio information for the football game where the #25 Utes (8-2, 5-1 MWC) are at San Diego State (7-3, 4-2 MWC) at 8 p.m. MT. That game will be on TV and will be broadcast on the Mtn.

I've been encouraged by the play of the basketball team to this point in wins over Grand Canyon and Montana, but I think today's game will provide the stiffest challenge they have faced all season. Weber State was picked ahead of Montana in the Big Sky Conference and beat the Runnin' Utes last season in Ogden. However, the new mix of Utah players has looked pretty good so far and I think the Runnin' Utes will remain undefeated with a win over Weber State today.

The football team I am less encouraged by. At the very least it is safe to say that momentum is not on their side. They fell at home two weeks ago to TCU 47-7 and last week at Notre Dame 28-3. Both games were in the national spotlight and both games resulted in embarrassing losses. San Diego State has had a very solid season and only lost by five at TCU (which is still undefeated) last week. In fact, their three losses this year have come by one possession in each of them. They are unbeaten this year at home. I think San Diego State will be looking at this game as an opportunity to get a signature win for their program and I think they will win the game by a touchdown.

In order for Utah to stop this losing skid, the offense really needs to get in gear. Jordan Wynn has looked absolutely terrible at quarterback the last two weeks. He looks to me as though he has lost all self confidence, misfiring on even the most routine of throws. Word is he will get the start tonight despite his performance the last two weeks and I think if that is the case he needs to have a very short leash. If Wynn doesn't start out well tonight, the Utes have to go to back-up Terrance Cain in order to salvage a good finish to their season that started with such promise.

I will be at the basketball game against Weber State and watching the football game against San Diego State. I'll be on Twitter with updates from both of those games, you can follow me at twitter.com/dpaysports. After the games I will be back on here with my thoughts and analysis. Go Utes!

TCU delivers beat down

#4 TCU beat #6 Utah 47-7 this afternoon in Salt Lake City. It was a beat down in just about every way possible. The Horned Frogs were simply better on both sides of the ball and demonstrated superior focus and discipline as well. Quarterback Andy Dalton was lights out and put on a clinic in efficiently moving the TCU offense up and down the field all day. He looks like he will be ready for the NFL next year if you ask me. TCU's defense shut down the Utah offense all day as well and looked really stingy. The Horned Frogs jumped out to a 20-0 lead after the first quarter and led 23-0 at halftime. The Frogs were hardly done and led 40-0 before the Utes scored in the 4th quarter.

I think TCU was clearly the better team. However, I think Utah did not help themselves. Jordan Wynn had a terrible game at quarterback, missing several open receivers, losing a fumble and throwing two interceptions, all on bad decisions/throws. I don't know why Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham left Wynn in instead of going to Terrance Cain, but I don't think there is a good reason. Wynn didn't have it today and that was evident before halftime. Utah probably would not have won the game anyway, but you never know what could have happened with a little spark from a different quarterback. Cain could hardly have been worse than Wynn was today if he tried and I think he was worth giving a look at. TCU probably still would have won by a couple of scores anyway, but I think Utah definitely shouldn't have lost by 40 at home and could have played a lot better. And of course a lot of why Utah played poorly was due to TCU, let's not forget that, but there were also a number of what looked to me like unforced errors that could have been prevented.

TCU looks like the real deal and will likely be in National Title discussions. I'll be interested to see if they or Boise State can get there. TCU is now 10-0 and 6-0 in Mountain West Conference play. Utah drops to 8-1 and 5-1 in the MWC. It's hard to believe this team was 8-0 before the game the way they played, but again let's not forget that TCU is really good. However, it was a very humiliating and embarrassing loss for the Utes.

13th-ranked Utes host San Jose State tonight

The 13th-ranked Utah Utes (3-0, 2-0 MWC) host the San Jose State Spartans (1-2, 0-0 WAC) tonight at 6 p.m. MT at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Unfortunately the game will not be televised. However, it is available on AM ESPN 700 in Salt Lake City and online on the radio via kall700sports.com. I am fortunate enough to have a ticket to the game so I will be there and providing updates via my Twitter account at twitter.com/dpaysports.

The Spartans are coming off a 16-11 win over I-AA Southern Utah last Saturday in San Jose. They don't look like a very good team and shouldn't be much of a threat to the Utes tonight. I'm looking for another comfortable win and I'll be disappointed if the game is even close. Jordan Wynn may get back in the line-up tonight after missing the last two games with an injured thumb, but I don't think the Utes should put him out there until he is ready. Terrance Cain will go if Wynn is still banged up.

If you can't get to the game and need something to watch tonight, check out the Giants (87-67) at the Rockies (82-71) at 6:10 p.m. MT here locally on FSN Rocky Mountain and nationally on MLB Network, MLB Extra Innings and mlb.tv. The Giants got a big win in the series opener last night, winning 2-1 behind 8 dominant innings from Tim Lincecum. The Giants lead the Padres (86-67) by a half-game in the NL West. The Padres host the Reds (86-68) at 2:10 p.m. on FOX this afternoon.

Utes drop New Mexico 56-14

At left: QB Terrance Cain had a big night in Albuquerque.

The 14th ranked Utah Utes beat the New Mexico Lobos by a score of 56-14 in Albuquerque on Saturday night. Backup quarterback Terrance Cain once again got the start with Jordan Wynn still out with an injured thumb. Cain was outstanding, throwing for 248 yards and 3 touchdowns while connecting on 20 of 23 passes. Cain also rushed for a score just before halftime at the end of a drive where he executed the Utes' two minute offense to perfection.

The offense and defense both looked really good and the game was just a laugher. The only concerning thing was that there were three fumbles by the Utah offense, so hopefully they get that cleaned up. There really wasn't a whole lot to be concerned about but we have to remember that New Mexico is simply a really bad team. The Utes face another really bad team on Saturday when San Jose State visits Rice-Eccles Stadium. Utah is looking really good and I'm feeling good about this team. I expect that they will continue to have a really good year.

Utes visit Lobos in first road game

In college football tonight, the 14th ranked Utah Utes (2-0, 1-0 Mountain West Conference) visit the New Mexico Lobos (0-2, 0-0 MWC) at 6 p.m. at University Stadium in Albuquerque. The game will be televised on the mtn. which is channels 616 and 616-1 (HD) on DirecTV and channel 37 on Comcast in the Salt Lake City area.

Terrance Cain is once again expected to get the start for the Utes in place of Jordan Wynn who is nursing an injured thumb. Cain looked solid against UNLV last week and I expect more of the same tonight. The Utes' defense has looked really strong in the first two games of the year and I expect them to have little trouble with New Mexico, which is coming off a 1-win season last year and has looked horrible in their first two games. The Lobos lost 72-0 at Oregon in their first game and dropped their home opener last week to Texas Tech 52-17.

I expect the Utes to win big tonight. New Mexico has really struggled under new coach Mike Locksley who is in his second year. I expect those struggles will continue tonight. Utah should by three touchdowns at a bare minimum and probably will win by more than that.

Utes handle Rebels to open MWC play

The 20th ranked Utah Utes (2-0, 1-0 MWC) defeated the UNLV Rebels (0-2, 0-1 MWC) 38-10 on Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City. Terrance Cain started at quarterback in place of sophomore Jordan Wynn, who was nursing an injured thumb. Cain looked pretty good and seemed better than last year. He didn't make any major mistakes or turn the ball over plus he looked pretty accurate on most of his passes. I remember in the game at Oregon last year Cain went basically two quarters without completing a pass and had a substantial streak of incompletions. Such was not the case on Saturday as Cain looked better. He even threw the deep ball accurately, notably on a 55 yard touchdown pass to Shaky Smithson in the third quarter.

Speaking of Smithson, he had a huge game. Not only did he have that long TD reception but he also had a 70ish yard dazzling punt return for a score that was just awesome. He put on some great moves and looked really solid. It really was a redemption type game since he had fumbled twice the previous week against Pittsburgh.

I thought one of the key plays in the game was right before halftime with the Utes leading 10-3 and punting inside of one minute to go. UNLV fumbled on the punt return and Utah recovered around the 20 yard line. On the first play following the recovery by Eddie Wide, Cain threw a perfect touchdown pass and the Utes led 17-3 at the break. I think Utah already had some momentum heading into the locker room but that really ratcheted it up a notch.

Although the game was tied at 3 at the end of the first quarter it never really seemed like Utah was in significant danger of losing the game. Once the Utes were ahead by 14 at halftime it felt like the Rebels didn't have much of a chance. The only concerning matter was that Utah had a punt blocked for the second straight week, this one returned for UNLV's only touchdown of the day. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said it was his top priority to straighten that out and I hope it gets taken care of. If punts keep getting blocked eventually it will catch up to the Utes.

All in all I thought the Utes looked quite impressive on Saturday afternoon; it was a great way to open up their final season in the Mountain West Conference -- hopefully a conference championship year. It was a lot of fun to be there and I felt that Utah took care of business the way they should have. The Utes have moved up to 14th in both major polls this week. Hopefully Wynn isn't on the shelf for too long, but I'm confident in Cain to fill in in the interim. The Utes face their first road test this Saturday night at 6 p.m. MT against the New Mexico Lobos. I'll have a preview of that one before then; my apologies for the tardiness of this blog.