For a change, Utah football fans could leave Rice Stadium early without worrying about the winning touchdown being scored while they were driving out of the parking lot.
Playing their record seventh home game of the season, the Utes wrapped this one up early, unlike their two astounding home wins when they scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes. And unlike the other six home contests, this one didn't go down to the final minute.The Utes overcame some early sluggishness to romp past Utah State 40-20 Saturday before a homecoming crowd of 28,837. It marked the eighth straight victory for Utah in the 94-game series between the two rivals and was Utah's 14th win in 16 games since 1980.
The mistake-prone and undermanned Aggies were no match for the Utes, who thoroughly dominated the contest on both sides of the ball while improving to 5-4 on the season. The Aggies fell to 2-6.
"Utah was the better team today and we deserved to win," said Ute coach Ron McBride. "Our defense played great and I think our offense improved."
Ah yes, the offense. It has been a source of great concern for the Utes lately and it had its problems in the early going Saturday. Three first-half scoring opportunities ended in Dan Pulsipher field goals, before Mike Fouts was able get untracked and throw a pair of touchdown passes.
The Utes left the rest up to freshman Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, who rambled for acareer-high 180 yards, including a 39-yard TD run late in the third quarter. Fuamatu-Ma'afala completely overshadowed USU's heralded running back Abu Wilson, who managed just 79 yards on 13 carries.
"This is the first time our offense has been stumped by an opponent," said Wilson, in a tribute to the Ute defense. "Usually we stop ourselves."
The Ute defense gave the Ute offense tremendous field position all day. Seven times, the Utes started drives inside Aggie territory, although they only got 20 points off those drives.
But while Utah moved the ball easily for the most part, it came up against an Aggie wall inside the USU 10-yard line.
Pulsipher, who hadn't hit a field goal in the three previous games, was making up for it in a hurry in the first half. He put the Utes up 9-0 with kicks from 41, 22 and 23 yards, the latter two coming after the Utes had first-and-goal inside the 5-yard line.
"It was pathetic, very disappointing. Our goal line offense was terrible," said McBride. "It was partly our offensive line and partly what they did defensively."
The next two times the Utes got the ball, they were smart enough to score before they got too close to the goal line.
Fouts found Lusk crossing over the middle for a 24-yard touchdown with 5:43 left to make it 16-0. Then after Armand Boglin forced a fumble with a blindside hit of quarterback Patrick Mullins, Fouts lofted a high pass that Dyson grabbed in the left corner of the end zone from 15 yards out.
It looked like the Utes might take a 30-0 halftime lead when they moved to the USU 30 in the final half-minute. But Fouts was hit by Danilo Robinson and fumbled, giving the Aggies possession with 25 seconds left. On third down with the clock ticking down, Mullins hit Ivy Russell over the middle at the Ute 40-yard line.
Three Utes converged and Harold Lusk appeared to have the interception, but somehow Russell came up with the ball and danced untouched to the end zone.
"That was stupid - two guys made mistakes on that," said McBride. "But we should never have given up the ball to begin with."
At least the touchdown gave McBride some halftime fodder to motivate his troops for the third quarter, which has been the Utes' bane all season (56-17 scoring edge for the opponents).
"It probably helped us emotionally," said McBride. "Then I could rip them at halftime. If we were up 23-0, everybody would have been too relaxed."
The Utes responded with their best third quarter of the season, controlling the ball for more than 10 minutes and outscoring the Ags 17-7.
A 14-play drive to start the quarter concluded with Fouts sneaking the final yard to make it 30-6.
Then the Aggies came up with their second fluke touchdown of the day. Henry Lusk, who had 89 yards in eight punt returns, was at the end of another fine run when suddenly USU's David Gill stole the ball right out of his hands and ran 39 yards for a touchdown.
"I just saw him stood up and I grabbed the ball," said Gill.
"I thought I was down - everybody had stopped," said Lusk. "But I never heard a whistle and that was my fault."
Calbert Beck immediately put some momentum back on Utah's side with a 63-yard kickoff return and when the offense stalled again, Pulsipher booted a school record-tying fourth field goal from 46 yards out.
Then with 19 seconds left in the quarter, Fuamatu-Ma'afala capped off the Ute scoring with his 39-yard rumble down the left sideline.
Behind backup QB Matt Wells, USU put together its only sustained touchdown drive of the afternoon in the fourth quarter with Ernesto Ramos scoring on a 4-yard run.
The outcome didn't affect either team's conference title hopes, although the win helped keep the Utes' slim bowl hopes alive if they don't win the WAC. Utah gets back to WAC action Saturday at Wyoming, while USU has a week off before playing host to Nevada.
GAME NOTES: Jeff Kirkman led the Ute defense again with nine tackles, while walk-on linebacker Brian Gibson recorded seven tackles and an interception. Defensive end Nate Kia came up with two quarterback sacks . . . The Utes finished with 470 total yards compared to 273 for the Aggies and controlled the ball for 38 minutes of the 60-minute game . . . The Utah-USU series now stands 64-26-4 in favor of the Utes.