3 takeaways from Utah’s huge loss to Oregon

In the country’s marquee matchup Saturday, the 13th-ranked Utah Utes were thoroughly outplayed by the 8th-ranked Oregon Ducks at home and ultimately lost 35-6, snapping an 18-game home win streak, which was 27 if 2020 games without fans are included.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Utah’s defense was dominated

Leading up to the game, it stood to reason that Utah’s offense was going to struggle, but there was the thought that the usually stout defense might be able to do enough to keep the Utes in the game.

That proved to not be the case, as Utah provided very little resistance against the high-flying Ducks.

Oregon tallied 152 yards in the first quarter alone and finished the game with 390. Star quarterback Bo Nix finished an incredibly efficient 24 of 31 for 248 yards with two touchdowns.

In the run game, meanwhile, the Ducks tallied 142 yards compared to just 99 for Utah. Despite being hobbled, Bucky Irving led the Oregon rushing attack with 83 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown.

Additionally, the Utes’ defensive stars were quiet on the afternoon outside of a fumble recovery from Junior Tafuna. Utah finished with no sacks and just one tackle for loss and two pass deflections.

Utah’s offense was hapless

As has been the case for much of the season with quarterback Cam Rising sidelined, the Utes were almost completely ineffective on offense, this time with Bryson Barnes under center.

Utah finished with just 241 yards of total offense, with Barnes going just 15 of 29 for 136 yards with two interceptions and, again, no touchdowns.

In addition to the run game being largely ineffective, a couple of the Utes’ primary ball carriers got dinged up, and two-way breakout player Sione Vaki was shut down offensively, as he finished with just 11 yards on five carries (Jaylon Glover led the way with 39 yards on nine carries, and Ja’Quinden Jackson had 37 on 12 carries).

Not only did none of Utah’s playmakers do much of anything, but its usually solid offensive line was completely outplayed. Oregon routinely got into the backfield to either pressure Barnes or stop the run and finished the day with two sacks.

All of that led to Utah not scoring a single touchdown in a game for the first time since 2018.

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A bright spot, and looking forward

The only thing that really went at all right for the Utes on Saturday was the fact that kicker Cole Becker made two field goals, although both of them were chip shots (32 and 30 yards) as Utah couldn’t ever punch it into the end zone.

Looking forward, next week’s opponent couldn’t come at a better time for the Utes, as they’ll play the rebuilding Arizona State Sun Devils at home before another rough matchup the following week against the fifth-ranked Washington Huskies on the road.