Survive and advance.
Utah improved to 6-0 with a 27-24 win over Colorado on Saturday at Folsom Field, which is ultimately what matters, but the route the Utes took to get there was ugly.
Less-than-pretty victories still count the same in the win column, but coach Morgan Scalley will have a plethora of bad film to go through with his players after they survived a game that came down to the last play.
“You won’t win many games doing what we did, turning the ball over, not scoring in the red zone, pass efficiency not being what it needed to be, defensively giving up chunk yard plays,” Scalley said.
“You’re just not going to win very many games and we’re fortunate enough to come out with a win tonight.”
A lot stood out on Saturday, from the play calling to the offensive execution to some of the defensive play, but the most glaring failure was the end-of-game management by the Utes.
When cornerback James Chenualt secured his first interception as a Ute by picking off former Utah quarterback Isaac Wilson with just over five minutes to play, the Utes were feeling good.
The pick was followed by a 25-yard pass to Creed Whittemore, who made a fantastic grab that led to a Devon Dampier to Braden Pegan touchdown to put Utah up 27-17 with 3:36 left.
But Wilson responded with a touchdown drive that included a 48-yard deep pass to narrow the score to 27-24, though the Utes appeared to be able to milk the clock down after Colorado exhausted its last two timeouts on the ensuing Utah drive.
Facing third and 12 with 1:06 left and no way for the Buffaloes to stop the clock, the Utes could essentially wind the clock down to 26 seconds before the punt if they just ran it.
Inexplicably, Utah went for the pass and the win with a first down, but as Dampier was pressured, he had a mental lapse and threw the ball, which was incomplete, instead of taking the sack and winding the clock down.
“I was told to keep that ball if I didn’t think I could complete the ball and that’s totally on me. I take full accountability of that. I got great coaches. They very much prepare me for that moment, so I just got to make it happen,” Dampier said.
“That’s one of those situations where we’re saying if it’s not clean, you got to basically kill it. You got to go down, but that’s on us. We’ve not coached that well enough obviously, so that is on the coaches,” Scalley said.
That gave Wilson and the Buffaloes a chance to knock off the No. 11 Utes — or send it to overtime — in front of a sold-out Folsom Field crowd, and they nearly did it.
On third and 10 from the Colorado 30-yard line, Wilson took off, getting to around midfield before pitching the ball to Hykeem Williams, who advanced it to the 36-yard line — field goal range.
Luckily for the Utes, their former quarterback’s pitch was clearly a forward pass, backing the play up to the Colorado 41-yard line, and Wilson’s last-ditch throw to the end zone fell incomplete.
Utah’s poor end-of-game management made the ending a lot tighter than it had to be, but it was far from the only issue.
The Utes’ bad third quarters are starting to become a trend. Colorado, scoreless at halftime, came out of the gates hot and outscored the road team 17-7 in the third quarter.
Colorado outgained Utah 181-99 as Wilson started to find openings in the Ute defense and the Buffaloes started the second half with a 68-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to running back JaQuail Smith, who leaked out uncovered by Utah’s linebackers.
That was just a harbinger of Colorado’s offensive success in the third quarter. The Buffaloes’ offense was smothered by the Utes in the first two quarters, but the first three drives of the third quarter all ended in points for Colorado, including two straight touchdowns, the latter of which gave the Buffaloes their first lead of the game, 14-13.
Utah’s offense started slow, as the Utes punted on their first possession of the third quarter. Dampier threw an interception on the next possession that set Colorado up at the Ute 35-yard line.
The offense and defense finally settled down near the end of the third quarter as the Utes held Wilson and Colorado to a field goal on a short field. Dampier, facing third-and-10 after two straight incompletions, finally hit on a deep shot, throwing a perfect ball to Creed Whittemore for a 43-yard gain.
Three plays later, facing a third-and-6, Dampier and Pegan connected for the touchdown they had been trying for all game long to retake a 20-17 lead.
At the half, the Utes led 13-0, but the lead could have been much larger.
Utah outgained Colorado 248-70 through the first two quarters of play, led by a dominant defensive performance. Just one Colorado drive barely crossed into Utah territory in the first half, and that was on a seven-yard drive that was aided by a shanked 14-yard punt by Orion Phillips.
The most promising drive of the first half for Colorado ended in an interception by Wilson as safety Rabbit Evans ripped the ball away from the Buffaloes’ receiver.
As usual, the Utes were stout against the run, allowing just 21 rushing yards by Colorado in the first half. With how Utah’s defense was playing in the first two quarters, the offense had ample opportunity to increase the gap but failed to take advantage.
Utah had the ball in the red zone four times in the first half and found the end zone just once.
Colorado’s defensive line was a huge part of the reason the Utes were out of sorts in the red zone, as the Buffaloes found the most success against Utah’s offensive line out of any opponent yet.
“I think you saw a rhythm, but then ultimately we didn’t finish. It’s finishing in the red zone with touchdowns. Now, a big part of that is their defensive front is pretty active and they brought quite a bit of pressure all night,” Scalley said.
“Like I said, I knew that this was going to be somewhat of a battle there, so we’ll have to look at the film and see offensive line wise how we need to improve.”
Two red zone drives ended in field goals — the first an incomplete pass from Dampier to Pegan on third down and the second a red-zone trip that went nowhere after Dampier was sacked on first-and-10 from the Colorado 14-yard line.
The most bizarre red-zone trip for the Utes started promising after Dampier’s pitch to Hunter Andrews got the Utes down to the Colorado one-yard line.
McGiven dialed up a Parker rush, but after he was stopped for a loss of two, Dampier tried a shovel pass intended for Noah Bennee that was broken up and ricocheted into the hands of Colorado defensive lineman Dylan Manuel.
The Utes would rue those missed red-zone opportunities in the second half, when a spirited start to the third quarter by Colorado made the game tight for the rest of the game.
“Yeah, just execution. The way the offense works as a football team, we’re paid for execution,” Dampier said.
“That’s what’s going to get us touchdowns. That’s what’s going to move the ball, so when we’re lacking execution, we put ourselves in a tough spot to be able to score in those situations.”