Wyoming 43,Utah 29Utah stood fourth in the country in turnover margin. Ninth in the country in pass-efficiency defense. Twelfth in the country in scoring defense. Twenty-first in the county in scoring offense.
Wyoming was second-best in the Mountain West Conference in penalties. It averaged 225 yards a game in the air and it had lost at home to UNLV. Kicker Aaron Elling had made 37 straight PATs.
Reputations meant nothing Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
What had been a highly respectable Utah football team, with a highly respectable chance at the postseason, came out on the short end of a Keystone Cops Comedy of Errors. A game that started with U. senior defensive end John Frank's first career interception ended with the Utes so addled they couldn't add 2+2.
Wyoming got its act together with its opening drive of the second half and left Utah gasping in the 43-29 crushing.
Cowboy quarterback Jay Stoner confused Utah's defense with superb fakes as the Cowboys often crossed their man-in-motion and tailback at Stoner's side with a short drop, and he mixed his fakes to one or the other masterfully. He also threw for 349 yards, 21-for-38, and surpassed by a long shot the 5,000-yard career mark.
It was Stoner's and Wyoming's second straight win over Utah, this one far more decisive than the 27-24 nailbiter last year in Laramie, and Stoner is just a junior, folks.
But absolute goofiness prevailed throughout.
There were eight fumbles (each team lost three, and none of them were returned for any yardage), four interceptions (Utah threw three, Wyoming threw one), three missed field goals (two by Utah, one by Wyoming, blocked by Richard Seals for a 58-yard Jay Hill Utah touchdown return), Elling's missed PAT and a quick third-down punt by quarterback Stoner.
There were 10 sacks, seven by the Utes on Stoner, three by the Cowboys. There was the Wyoming safety against Arceneaux. There was the Failed Duck - twice.
Cowboys Cliff Brye and Brock Ralph each ran for two touchdowns, while Ute backup QB T.D. Croshaw threw for two and Stoner for none. 'Poke Al Rich had two interceptions.
Wyoming outdid the Utes 14-7 in the third quarter and then used its first safety on Arceneaux at 11:35 of the fourth quarter to hit warp speed. Five plays after the Ute kickoff on that safety, Wyoming was back in the end zone for a nine-point swing in less than two minutes. Three plays after that came Arceneaux's injury and fumble in the end zone. After Russell's touchdown, Wyoming's Al Rich intercepted, and that soon turned into a 23-yard touchdown.
Utah got the last say, a 4-yard Croshaw to Boo Bendinger touchdown on an 80-yard drive, but there were only 34 seconds left in the game. The Duck pass to Smith failed.
It also put Ute quarterback Darnell Arceneaux in the hospital with a massive concussion, sacking him in the end zone. A helmet hit him in the faceguard on the tackle, making him fumble.
The Arceneaux fumble was recovered in the Ute end zone by Cowboy Cortney Barnes for a 36-17 lead with 8:54 left in the fourth period.
Ute players knelt and prayed as Arceneaux lay in the end zone, at first experiencing numbness, but the preliminary report was he was conscious with use of all extremities. His neck was to be x-rayed.
The ambulance had to sound its siren to wend its way up Fifth South through a rush of outgoing Utah patrons, who purchased 40,149 tickets for the game televised on ESPN2.
On the next play, T.D. Croshaw, making his second appearance in the game, threw 80 yards up the right sideline to Cliff Russell for a touchdown at 8:38. Utah went to the Duck for a passing PAT, but D'Shaun Crockett caught and dropped the ball as he spun untouched in the end zone, leaving the score 36-23 for Wyoming.
Both teams had to have this win. Wyoming already had two league losses. Now it's 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the MWC. Utah lost its first conference game last week at Colorado State and is now 3-2 in the league and 6-3 overall. That ties the Utes with the Rams, who won at New Mexico (Utah's next opponent) Saturday, but CSU holds the first tiebreaker over the Utes.
NOTES: The Cowboys wear a decal of a riderless horse on the backs of their helmets to honor former receivers coach Derrick Shepard, who passed away at age 35 of a heart attack in July . . . This was the fourth of six national/regional television appearances for the Utes -- a school record.