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On a dismal day at Rice-Eccles Stadium, when the cold tears of the football gods fell in sheets from a cloudy sky, Utah not only struggled on offense, and on defense, it offended anyone who ever mastered the crafts. The Ute O couldn't do much of anything, and, when it did gain yards, it couldn't finish its business with points, which is sort of the whole idea.

Shocking, right?

Not exactly.

Final score on Saturday: Arizona 42, Utah Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Utah 10, if you must know.

For only the second time this season, that lack of offense wrecked the defense, too. It looked as though Ute defenders, at some sorry juncture, collectively said: "Ah, screw it," and simply gave in and joined the inept ranks of its inconsistent offensive brethren. If one end of the boat has a hole in the hull, why should the other end keep paddling?

On Saturday, it didn't, and it's amazing that hasn't happened more often.

Let's say it the way it is: Dave Christensen's offense needs a new drug. Ambien just isn't working. It's made what could have been a great year a sort of good one. In this loss, though, it was temporarily a pathetic one. The Utes gained no first downs in the first quarter and a mere 17 yards. Over that same span, Arizona had 10 and 197. And, later, when Utah managed some offense, it couldn't finish drives. At times, it appeared as though Moe, Larry and Curly had the headsets on.

Why … I … oughttta … nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Soitenly.

Picks, fumbles, right-wing play-calling did the Utes in.

"Got outcoached, got outplayed; that was apparent," Kyle Whittingham said.

Westlee Tonga nailed the situation when he said: "As an offense, we didn't play well." And, then, he went for the kill shot with a knack for the obvious: "We had to score more points than them, and we didn't."

Fact is, the Ute offense scored more points for Arizona — 14 — than it scored for Utah — 10.

"[It was] by far the poorest performance of the year tonight — coaches and players," Whittingham said. He added: "We didn't throw the ball very well, we didn't catch very well, we didn't protect very well."

Give the Utes an A for honesty, an F for everything else.

"We gave up too many big plays," Brian Blechen said.

"It is what it is," Devontae Booker pronounced.

And what it was against the Wildcats was … a brutal and disappointing defeat.

The finest that could be said for Utah's effort was that it was amazing the score stayed as close as it did for as long as it did. The final count was as lopsided as a blown Michelin, but there were times early in the game when it seemed as though the rubber had shorn completely off the Utes' wheel.

Still, they somehow hung in until the end of the third quarter, when what Whittingham called the play of the game crushed all Utah hopes. It happened on special teams, of all places, when a holding call washed out an 87-yard Kaelin Clay punt return for a touchdown that would have cut Arizona's lead to 21-17. Instead, the Cats took the margin the other way with a subsequent 75-yard scoring run by Nick Wilson, stretching the lead to 28-10.

And the frosty teardrops fell.

No way an unimaginative, ineffective Ute offense could overcome that.

Particularly since Travis Wilson threw a pick in the end zone, a ball that looked like a squibbed bar of Irish Spring, launched into triple coverage, killing one scoring opportunity. And another tipped ball was intercepted at the Utah 19-yard line, setting up an Arizona TD on the next play. Bubba Poole also fumbled at the 1:17 mark of the first half, loose change that was scooped up by Wildcat defensive lineman Dan Pettinato and taken 31 yards to the house.

And so it went.

The longer the game dragged on, the worse it got.

"There were times we were just shooting ourselves in the foot," Blechen said.

Maybe the criticism here is too harsh, but the Utes themselves were as freaked as anybody with their no-show, especially now that they are 4-4 in the Pac-12, when just a week ago their outlook seemed much more promising. A loss at Colorado — stranger things have happened — would sentence them to another losing league season.

But getting by in the Pac-12 without much offense is nearly impossible. Utah has done all right, has tried to get by, but it got slapped down hard on Saturday night.

"We weren't very good," Whittingham said. "Didn't coach very well, didn't play very well."

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM/1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson