If Kyle Whittingham were to park his overworked carcass in a comfy Barcalounger and fall into a deep, slow-wave sleep on a lazy night in November, what happened between his Utah Utes and the Arizona Wildcats in a cold rain on Saturday evening at Rice-Eccles might have been his dream game.
Nothing is ever perfect.
Are you kidding? Whittingham’s team rushes for 306 yards, his defense limits the opponent to half as many yards on the ground, half as many first downs as his offense got, that defense grabs ahold of four fumbles, and his team takes a 28-7 first-half lead, and from there just guides the whole durn thing into the win column, and … yeah, that’s the coach’s football nirvana.
Absolute perfection was not needed, and Whittingham knew it.
This would suffice.
The Utes simply did what a superior team on its home field should do against an interior one in late autumn’s league play: Beat its opponent and beat it with bad intentions.
The final numbers on the board: Utah 45, Arizona 20.
Whittingham complimented his defense, complimented the contributions of various players who stepped up in new roles, and he saved the greatest praise for the guys grading road and the guys toting the football. (Tote is such a fine word, a word you only hear associated with George Halas’ game.)
“The real story of the game was our offense’s ability to run the football with 300-plus yards rushing,” said Whittingham. “Anytime you [do] that, you’re going to control the game.”
Controlling the game is what the coach always wants.
It hurts not one iota when the other guys are willing to help you hold onto that control. That’s what the Wildcats did.
Truth is, on this night, the way it went, if Arizona had played itself, it would have lost. And Utah had no problem accepting that.
The ‘Cats handled the ball as though they were wearing giant foam fingers, botching routine handoffs and muffing punts. Utah gobbled up those mistakes and happily rolled to victory.
Before and after the Utes took the aforementioned 21-point lead in the second quarter, this football game turned into a mugging. Objective observers, and even Utah fans, had to start feeling sorry for the visitors, as they stumbled, bumbled and fumbled around in the rainfall.
It wasn’t that Arizona didn’t have some skill and athleticism, it was more that the Utes wouldn’t allow it to get out of its own way. The Wildcats got a field goal here, a first down there, a dress-it-up touchdown near the end, nothing enough to put real pressure on the Utes.
As it was, Utah’s offense churned away while the Ute defense burned down Arizona’s attack, limiting it to a mere 14 first downs.
The game accomplished early and late what the Utes wanted and needed it to do — take hope away from an underdog, a ‘dog that looked for all the world like it knew it was overmatched and was willing to admit to the fact.
Among the good news for Utah was that dinged quarterback Cam Rising played — more than a bit rusty at times, he hit seven of his first 14 throws and just 13 of 25 overall for 151 yards — but what was important here was that he participated.
“He wasn’t as sharp as he usually is, but that will come,” Whittingham said.
“I feel great,” Rising said, being tough, telling lies.
A couple of other things regarding the pass game, one negative, the other positive: Star tight end Dalton Kincaid couldn’t play due to injury — no big surprise there — and seven of Utah’s other receivers caught passes.
But that was all in the margins. Just as Whittingham said, it was Utah’s run game that destroyed Arizona’s hopes for staying with the Utes.
That was double-barreled.
The big’uns up front created gaps in the Wildcats’ defense and a host of runners flew through those openings. Sometimes those kind of accomplishments are not appreciated by outsiders the way they should be. If you’ve ever stood on the sideline during a game, the speed with which those backs hit the holes amid so much humanity, extraordinarily large men whose entire goal in life is to punch them in the gut and make them suffer, is notable.
On this occasion, it was Ja’Quinden Jackson who scampered for 97 yards and a touchdown, averaging 7.5 yards per carry; Jaylon Glover who gained 69 yards, averaging 8.6 yards; Micah Bernard who got 48 yards; Tavion Thomas who went for 38; Nate Johnson, a fresh new threat, who averaged 7.7 yards and scored two TDs; and a handful of others.
None of that would have happened without the sturdy folks up front creating space, doing work. Rising called the offensive line’s play, “Phenomenal.”
The attack wasn’t completely clean. In the third quarter, Jackson fumbled near the goal line, Arizona recovering and Jackson getting hit hard. The Utes fumbled a total of three times, losing two of those loose balls.
But when Utah football wins by 25 points, and its slightly compromised quarterback only has to pick up a buck-fifty through the air, its rugged resistance limits the opponent to 156 rushing yards, and its own backs are smoking through the other dudes, running to daylight, or nightlight, this is football, lounger or not, zzzzzzzzzzz’s or not, the way Whittingham figures it should be.
The sloppy, wet, winter conditions just made it that much sweeter.
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.