LARAMIE, Wyo. — On a day when Utah all-American candidate Eric Weddle didn't have an all-American kind of game, he still found a way to contribute a defensive touchdown to break up the University of Wyoming's shutout bid against the Utes on Saturday afternoon in War Memorial Stadium.
Weddle picked up a fumble caused by Steve Tate at the Wyoming 35-yard line, ran across the field and scored with 10:25 left in the third quarter. It was his fourth defensive score of the season.
"I just saw it pop out when the guy was going down and figured I've got to make up for giving up a touchdown," said Weddle. "Just trying to make something happen. I had great blocking and found my way into the end zone."
Weddle was victimized by a nice throw from Wyoming redshirt freshman quarterback Karsten Sween, who was making just his second start, and a good catch by junior Michael Ford for a 24-yard TD pass play at 2:35 of the second quarter to make Wyoming's lead 24-0.
"Yeah, he threw some great balls," Weddle said of Sween. "The one that Ford scored on me — great throw, great catch, closest coverage I can get without (interfering). He looked poised back there. He didn't look like a freshman. You've got to give him props for that."
Many teams throw away from Weddle, but the Cowboys went at him.
"They sure did," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "They had no shyness about throwing his way."
Whittingham cut Weddle some slack.
"Eric struggled a little bit," he said. "He's been so good for us all year and did recover the fumble and take it in for a touchdown — but I don't believe it was Eric's best game."
Some Ute defenders played pretty well, said Whittingham, including leading tackler Joe Jianonni (15 stops and a sack), Gabe Long (sack for 9 yards), Martail Burnett (sack and a tackle-for-loss) and Paul Soliai (four tackles).
"Maybe our coverage was a little soft," said Jianonni about a secondary that gave up 17-for-24 passing for 202 yards. "We should have been more aggressive on our coverage.
"(Wyoming) didn't do anything spectacular. They just made our defense messed up. We didn't do anything spectacular, either."
Weddle said Cowboy receivers were free-lancers.
"Their route structure — if you break on it, they'll just make up stuff," he said. "They read off you, so it's kind of tough on us as corners and DBs to play within ourselves. When you see something, you break on it, and they'll just break off you. It's kind of a read thing."
The Utes knew it was coming, but it took until the second half — when the defense pitched a shutout — to get it covered.
"It's nothing we haven't seen," Weddle said. "It's just really no other teams have done it to us."
E-mail: lham@desnews.com