The University of Utah came into Saturday’s matchup trying to get the bad taste out of their mouth after their 51-27 loss to Oregon on November 8th at Rice Eccles Stadium. The Utes did just that beating Stanford 20-17 in double overtime and now own the state of California beating UCLA, USC and Stanford this season. This game was a defensive battle the entire night as the Utes and Cardinal were tied at 7 with 6:02 left in the 2nd quarter and it stayed that way until the game went into overtime. Once overtime came that was when the Offense came alive. Utah scored first just one play in overtime on a Travis Wilson 25 yard touchdown pass to Kaelin Clay. Stanford came right back and scored a 14 yard touchdown pass from Kevin Hogan to Andrew Hooper to send this game to double overtime. Stanford would get the ball first in the second OT and the Utes forced them to kick a 51 yard field goal. The Utes had the ball and only needed to score a touchdown to win the game and they did just that as Travis Wilson hit Kenneth Scott on a 3 yard touchdown pass and the Utes leave Palo Alto with a huge 20-17 win on the road in a tough Pac-12 Conference.
After losing Kendal Thompson for the season with a knee injury, Travis Wilson stepped in and led the Utes to a win. Wilson went 21 of 28 passing for 177 yards and 2 touchdowns and didn’t throw a pick. After losing Tim Patrick last week and Dres Anderson 3 weeks ago, the Utah receiving core was asked to step up and did. Kenneth Scott led the receivers with 4 catches for 71 yards and 1 touchdown. Devontae Booker continues to thrive in the receiving game with 9 catches for 41 yards. Westlee Tonga had 3 catches for 35 yards and Kaelin Clay rounded out with 2 catches for 31 yards and 1 touchdown.
The Utah defense showed up and performed well once again as they hold Kevin Hogan to only 104 yards on 17 of 27 passing for 2 touchdowns. Stanford was also held to 190 yards rushing. This really was a defensive showdown.
Stanford falls to 5-5 on the season and 3-4 in the Pac-12 as they continue to struggle this season. It doesn’t get any easier as they will finish their last two games on the road against Cal and UCLA and only need one more win to become Bowl Eligible.
The Utes improve to 7-3 on the season and 4-3 in the Pac-12 and will return home for senior day as they will take on Arizona who just beat Washington by 1 point on Saturday. The Utes and Wildcats will kickoff on Saturday, November 22nd at 1:30 pm with Pregame coverage beginning at 9 am on ESPN 700. Don’t forget to check out all of the postgame interviews in the “Interviews” section of the website.
