Party atmosphere at Rice-Eccles Stadium comes to a halt as Cam Rising exits with injury in Utah’s 23-12 win over Baylor

Through the better part of two quarters at Rice-Eccles Stadium, it was a party atmosphere.

Everything was going right for No. 11 Utah against Baylor. Cam Rising had already thrown two touchdowns — one a 28-yard pop pass to Money Parks, who faked the reverse to Dijon Stanley, fooling the Fox cameras and many on Baylor’s team, and the other a 2-yard play-action pass to Micah Bernard.

Additionally, Utah’s defense was living up to its preseason billing, holding Baylor to minus-10 yards in the first quarter and just 48 total yards through the first half.

Defensive end Connor O’Toole made his mark early with a sack on Bears quarterback Dequan Finn that forced a fumble deep in Baylor territory, leading to Rising’s second touchdown of the day.

By the time Baylor kicker Isaiah Hankins lined up for a 49-yard field goal attempt with 5:28 left in the second quarter, the Utes and their fans were feeling good. Really good.

Then Logan Fano blocked Hankins’ 49-yard field goal attempt, sending it careening into the air. Tao Johnson caught it, cut quickly to his right, and by the time he got around the edge, no one was catching him.

As Johnson sprinted down the sidelines with no Baylor players around him, he high-fived Zemaiah Vaughn prior to hitting pay dirt.

Johnson’s 77-yard blocked field goal return was the first time a Utah player had done so since current BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill did it in 1999 against Wyoming.

At Rice-Eccles Stadium, the music was blasting, the fans in the stands were happy despite baking in the sun and the players on the sideline had smiles on their faces.

Not even back-to-back punts from the Utes after the Rising-led offense stalled did much to dampen the mood for much of the 52,827 in attendance on a sunny Saturday afternoon, especially when Baylor’s drive after Jack Bouwmeester’s second punt of the quarter ended with that blocked field goal return for a touchdown.

Utah had a 23-0 lead with about five minutes remaining in the first half, and the Utes had the ball again at midfield, threatening to pour on some more points with after the defense forced a fourth-down stop. On the ensuing drive, Charlie Vincent had a couple nice rushes, including a third-and-4 conversion, to get the Utes to the Baylor 36-yard line.

Then the party atmosphere came to an abrupt end.

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Baylor linebacker Keaton Thomas came right up the middle on a blitz, sprinting past Utah offensive lineman Jaren Kump, and forced Rising to scramble to his left.

As the Ute quarterback ran toward the Baylor sideline, he was pursued by Baylor defensive lineman Trevan Ma’ae, who hit him late out of bounds and into a large table that held the Bears’ Gatorade coolers.

Rising immediately grabbed the middle finger on his right hand — his throwing hand — and yelled.

Utah’s coaching staff, which has been preaching to Rising all offseason about the importance of throwing the ball away when necessary and avoiding hits, could do nothing but watch as its star quarterback went to the medical tent, then to the locker room for further evaluation and testing on his right hand.

Meanwhile, the mood in Rice-Eccles Stadium had shifted. Jubilation gave way to stunned silence.

For the second straight game, backup freshman quarterback Isaac Wilson was inserted with less than two minutes remaining in the first half.

“At that point, I got to stay calm, cool and collected. I got to trust in my teammates,” Wilson said.

A pass interference call helped move the ball to the Baylor 31-yard line, and a 3-yard Wilson pass to Dallen Bentley moved it to the 27-yard line, but after an incompletion on third-and-6, the Utes had to settle for a 45-yard field goal attempt, which was missed by Cole Becker.

Utah went into the locker room up 23-0, but the mood in the stadium was deflated after Rising’s exit.

The offensive play in the second half didn’t do much to lift the spirits of the Utah faithful.

“Certainly when Cam left the game, that was the downer for us,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “But the world can’t stop turning when Cam exits the game. We got to keep playing, which we did, but we got to be productive, which we were not real productive after that.”

Rising spent the entire second half on the sideline in street clothes, with his middle and ring fingers taped together. Postgame, Whittingham said that Rising’s injury was “not real serious” and that he “may be back this week.”

There’s no doubt that coming in right after Rising exited is a tough spot for a true freshman quarterback such as Wilson, but Utah’s offense did not inspire much confidence if Rising misses time.

Utah generated just four total yards of offense in the third quarter with two straight three-and-outs and had 95 yards of total offense in the second half, with only 27 passing yards.

Ute offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig was hesitant to call a passing play on third-and-4 on the first drive of the second half, instead dialing up a Bernard run that went for no gain.

On the Utes’ second drive of the third quarter, it was again a three-and-out after an incompletion from Wilson, a four-yard run from Bernard and a Baylor sack.

Meanwhile, the defense showed its first cracks of the game, missing no less than three tackles on a Finn to Josh Cameron screen pass that went for a 47-yard touchdown.

After Baylor inexplicably went for two, and failed, we had a game in Salt Lake City with the Bears trailing by 11 entering the fourth quarter.

Utah’s offense continued to struggle throughout the second half. On his third drive in the half, Wilson showed some promise with a nice 17-yard completion to Parks but then airmailed a pass to an open Dorian Singer on third-and-5 later in the drive, sending out the punt team for the third straight drive.

Just like so many times last year, the onus was on the defense to deliver a win.

And they did. Van Fillinger and Junior Tafuna forced a big third-down stop, tackling Finn on a quarterback keeper.

Then Bernard — who solidified his spot as Utah’s primary running back with a 118-yard day — had several key runs, including a 30-yard gain on third-and-3, to get the Utes in field-goal range.

Though Becker missed his second kick of the day, this time from 43 yards, the Utes had burned over seven minutes off the clock — leaving Baylor with just 3:40 to erase an 11-point deficit.

Utah’s defense finished the job with a fourth-down stop to improve to 2-0 with a 23-12 win.

“We had a lot that we left on the table. Started out, I thought we were going to win by 40,” Whittingham said.

Wilson finished the game 4 for 9 for 30 yards and had a 72.4 passer rating. It certainly wasn’t the best performance, but he didn’t turn the ball over, and that was enough for the Utes to get the win.

“Isaac, I thought did a nice job, didn’t turn the ball over, completed some balls,” Whittingham said.

On a day with Top 25 upsets, including Northern Illinois defeating No. 5 Notre Dame, Utah was just glad to emerge victorious.

“As the college football world found out today,” Whittingham said, “it’s hard to get wins.”