The Utes ran the ball right down the throats of the Wildcats in Salt Lake City to record a 45-20 win that wasn’t even that close. Rushing six players multiple times for a season high 306 yards and 5 TD’s recorded by four different players, Utah doubled the Wildcat output on the ground who rushed 25 times for 156 yards. As their Junior QB said after the game; “We were able to run the ball downhill all night.” In the air, Cam Rising was Cam Rising—steady, average, no huge risks, no major mistakes while completing 13-of-25 for 151 yards, 1 TD and no interceptions. Jayden de-Laura was about the same for Arizona, minus the TD, connecting on 10-of-20 for 159 yards and no interceptions while his backup, who came in with a couple of minutes left in the 3rd Qtr after a hard sack to de-Laura, completed 5-of-10 for 72 yards and the Wildcats’ only score in the air.
Utah scored TD’s on four-of-six possessions in the first half and if not for fumbling the ball twice after the break would have probably scored more than the two TD’s and a field goal they put up in the 2nd half. Unable to score any points in the 3rd Qtr and trailing 45-10 after back-to-back Utah TD’s in the 4th Arizona picked up a Safety, a TD, and a 2-point conversion in the last 4:30 of the game to make it look closer than it actually was. Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham gave props to the guys up front after the game for creating space to run. “The running backs ran hard, and they did some good things on their own, but nobody rushes for over 300 yards without the offensive line controlling the line of scrimmage.” Whittingham said.
Utah dominated the stats leading in 1st downs, 27-to-14; Total Yards of Offense, 457-to-387 while averaging 6.5 yards per carry on the ground; completed third downs at a rate better than 65% of the time; and had possession of the ball for more than fifteen extra minutes while only committing one penalty the entire game. Utah recorded 50 tackles, 3 sacks, and 4 tackles for loss. Arizona is just above Colorado in the PAC-12 in the number of points allowed per game at 38.2 but this was the fifth time this season that they have given up 45 or more to a PAC-12 team.
Utah did what they had to do to stay in that PAC-12 Top 4 and should have zero problems dominating Stanford at home in Rice-Eccles Stadium next Saturday–probably able to even rest some of their starters to get ready for their huge road game the next week against Oregon in Eugene. For the Wildcats, they’ll stay on the road but head to warmer weather where they’ll be taking on UCLA in the Rose Bowl.