Utah football report card: Utes pull out thrilling 35-27 win against BYU despite up and down performance

SALT LAKE CITY — It wasn’t always pretty Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium for Utah football. In fact, it was rarely pretty.

And yet, the Utes, as they have done for nearly a decade, came away with the victory against rival BYU.

Utah defeated BYU 35-27, in a game described best by Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham.

“Everyone got their money's worth out of that one,” he said. “That was another rivalry game for the books. What would you expect different in this game? So many times, so many different storylines…”

In this case the prevailing storyline was how Utah overcame a dismal performance to come out on top.

Offense

For two and a half quarters, Utah’s offense was deserving of a less than desirable grade. We are talking about a C at the best, more likely than not a D or worse.

Utah’s first three offensive possessions of the game? 3 and out, 3 and out and 3 and out.

At the half the Utes had mustered just 86 total yards of offense, on 24 plays from scrimmage. The rushing attack was nonexistent — Armand Shyne led the way in the first half with 15 yards on six carries — and the passing game wasn’t much better — Jason Shelley had six completions for 49 yards.

Most importantly, or rather damning — Utah entered halftime without a point.

“Didn’t look good at halftime,” Whittingham said. “We were thoroughly outplayed in the first half.”

Quite frankly, that held true for nearly three quarters. It was simply a miserable offensive showing by Utah.

Everything changed near the end of the third quarter and into the fourth, however.

Utah scored 28 unanswered points, running all over BYU in the process.

Quarterback Jason Shelley did most of the running and finished with a team-high 61 yards and a score. He also accounted for 141 yards passing and a touchdown.

“Jason Shelley had another game, his third start, where showed a ton of poise, confidence,” Whittingham said. “He is just such a cool customer. Nothing bothers him. No situation, no stage is too big. He just keeps his calm and does and a great job.”

Redshirt freshman TJ Green had a strong outing as well, his second in a row, and accounted for 45 yards on the ground. Shyne added 47 and two scores for a Utah rushing attack that nonetheless struggled against the BYU front.

“We couldn’t get things consistently going in the run game like we typically do,” said Whittingham. “They have a stout front seven, particularly those three inside guys.”

Utah’s receiving corps did not make much of an impact in the contest, that is except for three pass catchers — Siaosi Mariner, Solomon Enis and Samson Nacua.

Mariner had three catches for a team-high 50 yards and his long of 37 yards set the Utes up to score the go-ahead and game-winning touchdown.

Enis, for his part, had a 25-yarder — he finished with 35 total yards — that put a little life into the Utah attack.

Nacua had just one catch on the evening, but it was a touchdown, the first offensive score of the game for the Utes.

Utah’s offensive line had its moments, most of which came in the fourth quarter.

It was there, led by Lo Falemaka, that the Utes established control of the line of scrimmage, control that led to multiple rushing scores.

All told, it was as up and down an offensive showing as there is, but Utah came through when they needed to.

Grade: B

Defense

Like the offense, Utah’s defense started out horribly Saturday night. BYU scored two first-quarter touchdowns, both through the air.

Freshman quarterback Zach Wilson made Utah’s defense look slow, particularly the defensive front and running back Matt Hadley broke tackle after tackle after tackle.

Aside from linebackers Chase Hansen and Francis Bernard, as well as safety Marquise Blair, Utah’s defense had a miserable first half.

Everything changed in the second half, starting with a pick-six courtesy of cornerback Julian Blackmon.

A subject of derision at times this season, Blackmon jumped a slant route, picked off Wilson and ran for a touchdown, all with a broken finger.

The play was a game-changer for Utah.

“Ju’s pick-six, right when that happened it got us going,” Hansen said. “I don’t know if you can usually point to one specific thing, but all of a sudden we were back in the game and we started making plays.”

After giving up 20 points in the first half, Utah held BYU to just seven in the second. The Utes shut down the Cougar rushing attack and knocked Hadley out of the game in the process.

“Defense rose up in the second half, allowed just the one score,” said Whittingham. “Did a nice job.”

Leading the way was Hansen. The senior linebacker finished with a team-high 13 tackles, including three for a loss. Behind him was Bernard, who had eight tackles, and Bradlee Anae with 7.

Anae was part of a defensive front that was embarrassed early in the game, only to bounce back with a vengeance later.

Anae led the way, he ended the game with one and a half sacks in addition to his tackles, but Leki Fotu (four tackles, a sack and two tackles for a loss), John Penisini (four tackles and a half a tackle for loss) and Hauati Pututau (two tackles) all had excellent outings.

Utah’s secondary had a solid outing as well, led by Blair and Blackmon. The duo combined for 11 tackles, two pass breakups and an interception.

Additionally, Jaylon Johnson had three tackles, as did Corrion Ballard.

After being burned early through the air by BYU, Utah’s secondary settled down and limited the Cougars to 67 passing yards in the second half, after they had accounted for 137 and two touchdowns in the first half.

Grade: B

Special Teams

At first glance, Utah’s special teams had a disappointing performance against the Cougars.

Jameson Field fumbled on a punt return, ahead of what should have been the Utes first offensive possession of the game.

That fumble, admittedly not really his fault what with a surprising bounce of the ball, gifted BYU great field position, field position they took advantage of to score the first touchdown of the night.

Mitch Wishnowsky, meanwhile, had perhaps the worst shank of a punt in his life, Matt Gay had a field goal try blocked, and Britain Covey couldn’t get much of anything going in the punt return game — he finished with 22 yards on two returns.

On the plus side, however, Matt Gay hit all of his extra point tries, something often taken for granted. Wishnowsky bounced back from his shank and had five excellent punts, including three that were downed within the 20-yard line and a long of 54 yards.

The Utes also prevented BYU from any significant return, save for a 26-yard kickoff return late by Tanner Jacobson.

All of it made for a fairly average special teams outing.

“The punt game we didn’t struggle except the one kick,” Whittingham said. “We didn’t give up one punt return yard. Our punt return, we only had a couple of opportunities to get something going and we didn’t. Kickoff game is almost nonexistent now with the new rule. They did have a couple of returns. The disappointing thing was the blocked field goal.”

Grade: C

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Overall

Utah defeated BYU. At the end of the day, struggles aside, the score read 35-27 in favor of Utah. The Utes have played better at times this season and have also played worse, all of which made for a thrilling rivalry contest.

The biggest takeaway? Utah continues to thrive when faced with adversity.

“All year long. Just the entire year they have done a great job handling adversity,” said Whittingham. “I don’t know if I can remember a team that has done a better job handling slow starts, things not going their way. They fight through it and it is a credit to our seniors."

Grade: B- (Eighth straight victory over the Cougars? Priceless)