Underwhelming victory leaves Utes with plenty of room for improvement going forward

SALT LAKE CITY — Call it efficient, call it nondescript, call it underwhelming.

Call it what you want, but Utah’s victory over a pesky Northern Illinois team Saturday was enough to move the team to 2-0 for the season, just where it’s supposed to be.

The Utes produced a near-carbon copy of last week’s victory in Provo — another 18-point win, thanks to a dominating second following a nerve-wracking, close first half. The Utes outgained the Huskies 169 to 69 yards while outscoring them 14-0 after halftime. Last week, they outgained BYU 237 to 104 in the second half with a 21-6 edge in points.

You didn’t see a lot of high-fives or big grins as the Utes came off the field and the players’ rendition of “Utah Man” in front of the MUSS seemed halfhearted at best.

Perhaps that comes with the territory of being the No. 13-ranked team in the country that was supposed to roll to fairly easy victory. The Utes were 22-point favorites over an NIU team picked to finish third in the West Division of the Mid-American Conference, which is ranked among the bottom of FBS leagues. 

It took the Utes until the early minutes of the fourth quarter to finally feel comfortable when Julian Blackmon’s interception in NIU territory set up the final touchdown. 

Coach Kyle Whittingham called it “a good win” that was “a lot better than last year’s” 11-point win in Illinois when the Utes scored twice in the final five minutes to put the game away. He also acknowledged, “it took us a little longer to get control of the game than we would have liked.”

The Utes were surprised by former Pac-12 quarterback Ross Bowers, a grad transfer from Cal, who threw for 202 yards in the first half, including a 74-yard touchdown pass up the west sideline. They also weren’t expecting an 88-yard drive against their vaunted defense in the first quarter.

But like they did nine days ago against BYU, the Utes regrouped at halftime and took care of business when they needed to.

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You couldn’t blame the early start — the first morning game at Rice-Eccles in 23 years — for Utah’s slow beginning because Whittingham had embraced it, saying the earlier the better, as far as he was concerned.

When the game kicked off at 11 a.m., there were pockets of empty seats dotted throughout Rice-Eccles and the student “MUSS” section was about two-thirds full. There were some latecomers, but the stadium didn’t fill in (despite the announced sellout) as the game moved into the afternoon, something Whittingham noticed.

“We’d like to see that thing filled up — we’ve got a top 15 team and we’ve got some empty seats we’ve got to get filled up,” he said afterward, while also praising the “loud” crowd that did show up.

Like they did a week ago, the Utes took the second half kickoff and marched down the field to get some breathing room and then tacked on another score early in the fourth.

The Huskies never came close to scoring in the second half as the Ute defense, led by defensive end Bradlee Anae, who had three sacks, and linebackers Francis Bernard and Devin Lloyd, who combined for 22 tackles, led the way.

The high points for the Utes included a second-straight error-free game with no turnovers, an improved passing attack behind senior Tyler Huntley, who completed 14 of 19 passes for 214 yards and a TD and a solid kicking game — a 45.2-yard punting average for freshman Ben Lennon and 5-for-5 PAT kicks by freshman Jadon Redding.

The biggest negative on the day was the Utes’ inability to get first downs in short yardage situations.

Twice in the third quarter the Utes had 3rd-and-1 and couldn’t convert and the same thing happened on the Utes’ first drive of the day after Zack Moss picked up nine yards on his first two carries. Although Whittingham didn’t use it as an excuse, the third-down misses could be explained away by the fact that the Utes were missing two O-line starters, center Orlando Umana and right guard Johnny Maea, who were replaced by Paul Toala and Simi Moala.

So despite a couple of lackluster performances, certainly first-half performances, the good news for the Utes is that they have a lot of room for improvement. With FCS school Idaho State up next, the challenge for Utah is to stay interested for one more week until things get real serious with the start of Pac-12 play.