3 takeaways from No. 10 Utah’s first loss of the season

Utah’s first loss of the season came Saturday night in a disappointing effort against visiting Arizona.

Execution simply wasn’t good enough for the Utes, who fell to the Wildcats 23-10 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Here’s a look at three takeaways from a game that dropped Utah to 4-1 on the year, with a bye up next.

Red zone and fourth down execution weren’t there

This one was lost with execution issues.

The Utes started the game by being able to move the ball with relative ease between the 20s.

Once Utah got to the red zone, though, that execution wasn’t there.

“We were horrible, awful in the red zone,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “Until we get that fixed, we’re going to continue to have problems.”

The Utes’ first possession ended with a turnover on downs, as Mike Mitchell was stopped for a 1-yard loss on fourth and 1 at the Arizona 10.

Utah then moved into the red zone again and got inside the 5 on its next possession, but on fourth and goal at the 2, Isaac Wilson had a pass to Caleb Lohner in the end zone broken up by Tacario Davis.

Not getting any points out of those early drives played a big factor in a game wherein Utah ended up going 0 of 4 on fourth-down conversions and scored 10 points in four red-zone appearances.

“We’re just not executing well enough,” said Utah running back Micah Bernard. “Red zone should be the focus for us. It’s unacceptable for us.”

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Missed tackles plagued the defense far too often

Whittingham called the defensive effort “so-so” on a night Utah outgained Arizona 364 yards to 358.

There were some costly missed tackles that led to the general malaise felt on that side of the ball, particularly in the first half.

Arizona only had eight rushing attempts in the first half, but the Wildcats made the most of them. Led by 67 first-half rushing yards from Kedrick Reescano, Arizona averaged 11.6 yards per carry in the opening two quarters and had 93 rushing yards at the half.

Reescano’s 36-yard burst up the middle in the second quarter set up the Wildcats’ first touchdown, a 2-yard Jeremiah Patterson reception that gave Arizona a 10-3 lead.

Even though Arizona saw its per-carry average drop to 5.4 by game’s end, the Wildcats benefited from several chunk plays that extended drives and helped them make the most of its opportunities as they ran for 161 yards on 30 carries.

That included runs of six carries of 10 or more yards, for 36, 23, 19, 18, 23 and 12 yards.

“We’ve got to do a better job of wrapping up,” Whittingham said.

Like other areas, Arizona out-executed Utah in the pass game

The Wildcats only threw for 197 yards compared to 280 for the Utes, but the Wildcats turned those opportunities into points far more often than Utah did.

Outside of an 80-yard touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter that briefly made things interesting, Utah only managed 65 yards on its six other second-half possessions.

“We threw for almost 100 yards more than they did, but there’s were more timely,” Whittingham said.

With Utah largely abandoning the run later in the game, the Utes were able to put some up passing yardage for Wilson, the true freshman who was making his third straight start in place of the injured Cam Rising.

The only touchdown that came as a result of those yards, though, was a 20-yarder to Caleb Lohner with 11:54 remaining that made it a 16-10 game.

The Utes also squandered an excellent receiving night for Dorian Singer, who had nine catches for 155 yards, though 104 of those yards came in the first half.

Instead, Arizona’s Noah Fifita found ways to make his 197 passing yards count.

That was no more evident than the drive that clinched the game. After Utah had cut its deficit to 16-10, the Wildcats faced a third and 11 at their own 25.

Fifita bought time on the third-down play, hung in the pocket and delivered a 41-yard pass to Devin Hyatt to move the ball to the Utah 34.