With the Pac-12 South division championship on the line, No. 12 Utah was unable to put away Oregon at home.
SALT LAKE CITY—With the Pac-12 South division championship on the line, No. 12 Utah was unable to put away Oregon at home. The Ducks (4-7, 2-6 Pac-12) scored with two seconds to play to beat Utah (8-3, 5-3 Pac-12), 30-28.
Oregon freshman quarterback Justin Herbert found Darren Covington in the back left side of the end zone on a fade route, a play that was overturned for a touchdown after replay review.
As the clock ran out, so did Utah’s hopes of the Rose Bowl, as the Utes gazed at the scoreboard, wishing that somewhere, just one more play had been made.
“It’s hard to think right now, honestly,” said Hunter Dimick, who broke Utah’s career sack record on Saturday against Oregon. But there would be no celebrating for Dimick. “I’m just gonna try to focus on Colorado.”
Utah scored with 2:18 to play, when Troy Williams found senior tight end Evan Moeai for a 30-yard touchdown. But Oregon had scored touchdowns on all of their previous three drives, and wouldn’t be denied a fourth.
Herbert completed six-of-ten passes on the Ducks’ final drive, including three for twelve yards or more.
“Zone coverages were ridiculously bad,” said head coach Kyle Whittingham. “Our pattern reading, our route recognition, our route awareness in our zone drops were awful. They exploited that over and over and over.”
Utah played man-to-man, cover zero coverage on the last play, but Carrington’s reach over Brian Allen and toe being ruled in bounds was enough to give the Ducks an enormous upset win.
Running back Joe Williams, who answered almost all of his postgame questions simply with “we’re on to Colorado,” finished with 149 yards and a touchdown, going over the 1,000 yard mark for the 2016 season.
Utah will close the regular season next Saturday in Boulder, Colorado against the 10th-ranked Buffaloes, and will attempt to play spoiler to CU winning the Pac-12 South. Kickoff will be at 5:30 p.m. MT, with pregame coverage starting at 3:30 on ESPN 700.
Kyle Whittingham Postgame Press Conference:
Joe Williams, Hunter Dimick, Mitch Wishnowsky Postgame Press Conference:
Chase Hansen Utah Sports Radio Network Postgame:
Troy Williams Network Postgame:
Marcus Williams Network Postgame:
Kyle Whittingham Network Postgame:
—Highlights—
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3rd:
4th:
