by SCOTT FUNK (@scottfunk0)
Salt Lake City – Rice-Eccles Stadium wasn’t full to start with, and it was near empty half way through the fourth quarter. After back-to-back loses to Stanford and USC, the Utes (4-3, 1-3) lost their third straight game when they fell to Arizona State (4-3,3-1) Saturday afternoon 30-10.
“Obviously not a lot of positives to take away from that game,” said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “There’s not a lot of flow to the offense. We can’t seem to get into a rhythm. There’s not really an identity right now. We’re just trying t0 figure out who we are on offense right now. You’d think we’d know seven games in, but right now we don’t know.”
Before the game started, all eyes were on the sideline to see if Sophomore and first-string QB, Tyler Huntley, would be dressed and ready to play. Huntley was injured (an apparent shoulder injury) in his Pac-12 debut as a starting QB back against Arizona. He returned to the field Saturday to take on the Sun Devils, hoping to get the Utes back on track.
As Huntley entered the game as the starting QB, loud cheers rained down from the fans at Rice-Eccles. Huntley’s first throw was a 9-yard completion to Darren Carrington. His second throw was an interception. And it didn’t get much better from there.
Utah was shutout in the first half 16-0 after giving up three field goals (30,40,47) and one touchdown. They were held to just 93 total yards of offense on 59 passing and seven on the ground. Huntley finished the half 8-14 with two interceptions.
The second half seemed to start out stronger for the Utes as they began to march down the field, but a holding penalty stalled the drive, and the Utes were forced to kick a FG. After a 53-yard FG from Matt Gay, Utah was finally on the board with 10:32 to play in the third. 13 points was as close as the Utes would get.
Later in the third quarter ASU was driving down the field when the Utes defense took two big hits via penalty. On a four-yard rush from ASU’s QB, Manny Wilkins, Utah’s Donavan Thompson came in on the play to get the tackle but was disqualified for targeting. Five plays later on 3rd and 7 from the Utah eight-yard line, after what seemed to be just a routine timeout from ASU, the refs came out of the timeout with a booth review. It was determined that Utah strong safety, Corrion Ballard (filling in for the injured Chase Hansen), would also be called for targeting and disqualified from the game. Instead of 4th and 1, it was now 1st and goal from the half-yard line and on the next play, Wilkins punched it in for the TD making it 23-3 with 4:45 to play in the third.
ASU would score one more time on a 20-yard pick-six from Jay Jay Wilson to make it 30-3. Utah would score one more time with 2:41 to play, finally getting the ball in the end zone via a 2-yard run from Devontae Henry-Cole to make the final score 30-10.
The Utes were held to 265 total yards of offense with 155 coming through the air, and 110 on the ground. ASU finished the game with 345 total yards of total offense, with 140 through the air and 205 on the ground. Huntley finished the day 19-35 for 155 yards and four interceptions.
“We did that,” said Huntley. “Not to take away from Arizona State, but it all came out wrong today. We did not pass our assignments and we failed today. We did not make plays. We did not come out to play and it showed.”
The Utes have now dropped three straight games for the first time since 2013, when they dropped five straight.
The Utes will look to bounce back and get back in the win column next week when they make their trip to Oregon. Kickoff for that game is scheduled for 3:45 MDT. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks and can be heard on ESPN700.
