Thanks to its dominating defense, Utah improved its Pac-10 record to 2-0 and claimed the Oregon state championship Saturday night at Rice Stadium.
Just as was the case two weeks ago against Oregon State, the defense was the difference for the Utes, who go for the Pac-10 championship in two weeks against Arizona State.The Utes' 24-17 victory very well may have been their biggest non-conference victory going clear back to the famous Liberty Bowl victory over West Virginia in 1964, believe it or not.
Over the years, Utah has had its share of non-conference wins. The Utes beat Minnesota on the road last year and Stanford the year before. They also beat Wisconsin on the road in '87, Washington State in 85 and Northwestern in '81.
But most of those wins were over mediocre teams with losing records.
This Oregon team came in undefeated, off back-to-back 8-4 seasons when the Ducks went to bowl games. With 14 starters back, they figure they have a legitimate chance to challenge for the Pac-10 championship.
The Ute defense came up big all night long and simply shocked the Ducks.
"They absolutely kicked our butt," said Oregon Coach Rich Brooks. "They did a lot of things to give our offense problems all night long. We were harrassed run out of the pocket and when we did have time to throw we couldn't find anybody open."
In the first half when the Utes raced out to a 24-3 lead, the defense held Oregon to just 82 yards total offense.
Then after the Ute offense completely disappeared in the second half, the defense came up with the big plays again and again.
With the score 24-17, Oregon took over at the Utah 30 following a short punt and a personal foul penalty.
The Ute fans who have had their share of disappointment over the years including last week when a last-second field goal was blocked, could feel the victory slipping away. The Ducks had the momentum and the Utes were backpedaling quickly.
With 2:48 left on 4th and 1 from the Ute 21, Oregon's Donovan Moore went right, off tackle. But linebacker Erroll Martin came up quickly and upended Moore just short of the first down.
"It was a team effort on that," said Martin. "I stepped up and grabbed his legs. I knew I had him short and then everyone was jumping around me."
However, the Utes needed two more key plays to clinch the win. After the defense couldn't move the ball again, Steve Young was brought in to punt again. That made many folks nervous considering that Young's last punt had gone 25 yards and the one before had been blocked. But Young relished the opportunity.
"I was hoping we wouldn't get a first down so I could have another chance," said Young. "I wanted to kick. I knew I had it in me. I said 'I'm going to kick this over his head."' Young did just that sailing the ball over the Oregon returner's head clear back to the 8-yard line for a 68-yard punt.
The Ducks moved out to the 31-yard line, but the Ute defense came up big one last time. With O'Neil scrambling for yardage, he was hit by Lavon Edwards and Cedric Crawford and fumbled with Anthony Davis recovering.
Oregon quarterback Danny O'Neil was running for his life all night long and was sacked eight times on the night for minus 48 yards. He said afterwards he wasn't surprised by the Utes' strong defense.
"They've got a really good secondary and their front seven did a good job of putting pressure on me," he said. "I knew before the game that they had one of the best secondary's we'd face."
O'Neil also discounted the notion that the Ducks may have been looking past Utah to a big game with USC next week.
"I don't think we looked past them. We wanted really bad to be 3-0," he said.
Martin put it best when talking about the Ute defense. "Last year we had the defensive package put in. This year we put the glue on and everything's together now."