Utah's defense held Boise State's running attack to about 40 yards less than usual, but the Ute defenders got steamrolled Saturday afternoon, and they knew it.
"Believe it or not, they usually run the ball more effectively than that," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, whose club fell 36-3 to the Broncos of the Western Athletic Conference.
It wasn't so much that the Broncos piled up yardage as that they did it in such brutally surgical fashion and that they broke a 3-3 tie with an 11-play drive that spilled over into the second quarter.
On that drive, their backs breezed untouched from their backfield into Utah's secondary for consecutive gains of 8, 15, 8 and 15 yards and followed with a 13-yard run after a false-start penalty to set up the game's first touchdown.
And to serve notice of who was in charge of the trenches.
"They out-physicalled us on the offensive line," said Whittingham, calling it "the first game of the season where our defensive front got out-physicalled. They have excellent backs, a physical front and an excellent scheme."
Whittingham, Utah's defensive coordinator for a decade before becoming head coach, was not expecting to be dominated like that.
"It did surprise me. I thought we would stand in there a little bit tougher against the run game," he said.
"They were really physical, but we're a physical D line, too," said Ute defensive end Alex Puccinelli. "I was having some trouble keeping their guy outside. I was trying my hardest. I was on my back a lot — way too many times — so I take a lot of blame on any outside runs that came my way. I wasn't as physical as I usually am."
Defensive coordinator Gary Andersen said the Broncos simply beat the Utes with team football, and he didn't find his line more culpable than anyone else. "I don't agree with that. We didn't play well. I don't know what to say until I see the film," he said.
But safeties Steve Tate with 17 and Casey Evans with 14 had career-high tackle numbers, telling a tale of the secondary having to make more plays than you'd like. Linebacker Joe Jianonni also had a career-high 11 tackles.
From cornerback Eric Weddle's view, "They weren't really running up the gut on (tackles) Paul (Soliai) and Kelly (Talavou). They were more outside runs. The 'backers didn't scrape, and the safeties didn't fill, and it seemed like they were getting through the line pretty easy."
Utah tried a kind of an odd-man front at times, but that didn't make much difference.
And Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky did his part, misconnecting on only six of 21 throws for 210 yards.
He did throw an interception to Weddle, as did backup Taylor Tharp late in the game, but that didn't help Utah much. Weddle noted that while he and Evans were victimized by one long pass each, the secondary didn't allow any touchdown passes, one of the few positives the Utes could claim.
"It's tough. You try your hardest. I wish I could have done something else to help the team," said Weddle, adding he could be reasonably satisfied with two picks and one completion against him, if not for a lopsided loss.
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