It is October. Fall has begun. The leaves are changing, the harvest is being readied and the Halloween season is upon us. Though it is still several weeks before All Hallow’s Eve, there are several horrors that the Utah Utes have to face going into the game this Saturday against UCLA. One is the fact that they do not want to go down 0-2 in the Pac-12 after starting strong. Utah needs, for all intents and purposes, to beat UCLA this Saturday to show they can ball in the Pac-12. Another fear they have to face is what Utah QB Travis Wilson did last year… throwing six interceptions in a game that could have easily been taken by the Utes. Surely, that has haunted him for the last year.
It is spooky to think about.
The Cold War
Betsided
Though Utah has put up a fight since joining the conference, they have not been able to overcome the talents of already established Pac-12 teams like UCLA. In turn, the Bruins, they had not won in Utah in their last two meetings, losing 44-6 and 31-6. But this season was different. The Bruins, like the Utes, are a much improved team from last year, but unlike the Utes, UCLA had too many weapons, especially on defense.
The Bruins opened up conference play at Utah on a cold and rainy night in Salt Lake City after three big wins in which they scored over 40 points in each contest. Utah was 3-1 on the year, but already had a heartbreaker of a conference loss to Oregon State. In order to get things back on track, they would have to tie down the high-powered offense of the Bruins.
The way the game started, it seemed that the nightmare was awaiting the Bruins. Utah came out on fire and had jumped to a 14-7 lead to end the first. Slowly, things started to get good for the Bruins, but not before they got worse.
Wounded Bruins
The Bruins had a few notable injuries that slowed their progress in the game. Offensive lineman Torian White had broken his ankle while starting running back Jordan James sprained his. To make things even more awkward, Brett Hundley had left the game at the start of the second half due to unknown circumstances. When cameras zoomed in on Hundley on the sideline, he appeared to be wincing as coaches looked to be commencing concussion protocol. That was all UCLA needed, a concussed quarterback right in the middle of a dog fight with a team that had real bite.
Jerry Neuheisel had come in for one series to take over for Hundley (his first in his college career), but did not do as expected, mostly because an errant snap by center Jake Brendel sent the ball flying over Neuheisel’s head. Luckily, Hundley’s injury was no more than an issue with his contact lens and did not hamper his progress… although it did blur it a little.
Now that Hundley was back in, he had continued to put the hurt on Utah. Before his brief exit, the Bruin quarterback had not only thrown a touchdown pass to
, but had caught a touchdown pass from
. The score was a heart-pounding 21-17 in favor of Utah. But the Utes had problems of their own.
The Game Ends In Horror For Utah
The Utes 6’7″ QB Wilson had ended the game with an astonishing 285 yards and 2 touchdowns. The problem… he also had six interceptions.
Things were sputtering for the Bruin offense at times, but things were going swimmingly for the defense. Eric Kendricks, Ishmael Adams, Randall Goforth all had interceptions along with Anthony Jefferson, who had two picks on the night. These were huge, but none more than the one by a true freshman, Myles Jack.
As it went, Hundley ran for a 36-yard touchdown with Utah hitting a field goal shortly after. With just over two minutes left in the game to make the score 34-27. Knowing they could tie the game, Utah went for the on-sore kick and proving better than a Hollywood script, recovered it to put fear back in the Bruin faithful. It also did not help that Wilson had the Utes marching down the field on what looked like a sure scoring drive.
On a last effort, Utah had a 4th and 10 at the Bruins 23-yard line. Wilson had put it on target to his receiver who would have had the first down, but a few second before that, Jack had taken himself off the line to drop into coverage and as the ball was released, he spied Wilson, honed in on the pass and picked it off, taking it back past midfield and sealing the win.
That play would haunt Utah as it was a chance to take out one of the bigger dogs in the Pac-12. UCLA had won 34-27.