LARAMIE, Wyo. — Last season, Utah's offense had its way against Wyoming, scoring five touchdowns and setting up three field goals in a 30-point Rice-Eccles Stadium victory.
On a rather pleasant 2006 Saturday afternoon in Laramie, the Cowboy defense, already ranked No. 4 overall in the NCAA and tops against the pass, exacted a strong measure of revenge on the Utes. Wyoming held Utah's offense scoreless until there were only about four minutes left in a 31-15 Wyoming victory at War Memorial Stadium.
"We just physically got beat," said Utah quarterback Brett Ratliff, who hadn't been sacked all season but was sacked six times on the high plains.
Ratliff completed 16-of-31 passes but was intercepted twice, fumbled twice during sacks and had just 111 yards and one TD in the air while netting minus-29 yards rushing.
"They came out to play," Ratliff said. "That's all you can say. They put pressure on me all day. I don't even know how many times I got sacked, but they brought it, and we didn't."
Ratliff said the Utes knew full well what Wyoming would do, that it would pressure him as much as possible, but the 'Pokes were able to do it anyway.
"They knew what they were doing against our offense, and they definitely pressured us the right way, and they changed to what we were doing," he said.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham had the same opinion.
"Nothing differently," he said of what Wyoming did to get to the quarterback. "Same blitz package they've had. The odd-front schemes are a little more difficult to sort out and pick out pressure-wise, and we just didn't do a good job."
The first sack of the season against the Utes came on Utah's first drive of the game, with the Utes already down 3-0. It was a third-and-eight at the Utah 18-yard line, and Ratliff was caught and fumbled the ball away. Wyoming scored in three plays for a 10-0 advantage.
The sack itself was "no biggie to me," said Ratliff. "We had a streak going, but all streaks come to an end. They brought it. They definitely played the better game today."
Said freshman offensive left guard Zane Beadles: "It happened. We moved on from there, and we're just ready to get out there again. We knew it was going to happen sometime. We like to ride that out as far as we could, but we weren't likely to go the whole season.
"Wyoming's defense is a very good defense. They ran their blitzes well and their stunts well."
And ran all over the Utes like Boise State did a few weeks ago.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com