A double-overtime game ended in a 37-30 loss for No. 10 Utah, who walked out of Arizona no longer in control of its Pac-12 South destiny.
After a couple of exchanged field goals in the first overtime, the Wildcats had the ball first in the second overtime, and backup quarterback Jerrard Randall completed his first pass of the game for a touchdown. Travis Wilson kept Utah’s hopes alive when he was able to get a first down in Utah’s attempt to respond, but he was sacked on the next series and the Utes could not get the ball into the end zone.
Wilson was 21-of-30 on the night and finished with 219 yards, while Harrison Handley ended with 69 receiving yards and Britain Covey with 68. Devontae Booker finished with 145 rushing yards on the night.
“It was a disappointing loss, and you have to give credit to Arizona,” head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “They played well and made a couple more plays than we did. I think that made the difference. It was a tight ball game the whole way, statistically.”
The defense struggled all night and did not have any real standouts aside from interceptions from Justin Thomas and Brian Allen. As a team, Utah was hit with 10 penalties for 112 yards.
Opening up the game, Arizona had the ball and steadily made its way down the field. A pass interference call on Justin Thomas, negated by a penalty for roughing the passer, put the Wildcats in field-goal range, and the Wildcats took the 3-0 lead.
Utah could not answer on offense, and on third-and-short, Wilson was sacked and the sloppy play continued for the Utah defense. There was a pass interference call and a personal foul on the next defensive series. Then, after Arizona scored a touchdown on its ensuing drive, there was an unsportsmanlike penalty on Dominique Hatfield the following series.
However, the Utes gained ground on their next drive behind the run game. Booker and Covey both found some gaps, and Booker eventually ran for a one-yard touchdown to make the score 10-7 to cut the deficit.
But Arizona answered right back. Anu Solomon aired it out for 45 yards on the next drive and soon enough found Cayleb Jones for the Wildcats’ second touchdown.
And then the Utah coaching staff and fan base gasped in unison — star running back Booker was limping off to the sideline. Booker was sidelined for just a short period of time, but the run game was still effective for the Utes with Joe Williams. Another penalty on Utah made it hard to find the end zone, but Andy Phillips nailed a 34-yard field goal to bring the Utes within a touchdown.
On the next Arizona drive, Solomon found a man deep, this time for 46 yards. A high snap sent the Wildcat offense back 19 yards, and they had to settle for a field goal. Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez was fuming on the sidelines.
Utah had one final drive before the end of the half, and after Wilson found Covey for what appeared to be a short gain, Covey found room to run for 46 yards. After a couple of pass interference calls on Arizona, Wilson found Kenneth Scott for a touchdown to bring the Utes within a field goal before the half.
After Covey returned the second-half kick to the 38-yard line, Wilson found Harrison Handley for the 59-yard touchdown.
But Solomon responded and had his way with the Utah defense. But after escaping several sacks, he ended up throwing a pick in the endzone to Brian Allen. Utah’s offense made its way down the field because of Wilson’s run game but ultimately had to settle for a field goal.
The Arizona offense came back focused. Solomon had plenty of time to get off a good pass, and he found Jones again, this time for 50 yards. A couple of plays later, Solomon ran it into the endzone to tie things up at 27.
“I felt like our biggest struggle was just containing [Anu] Solomon,” Allen said “We had a couple good plays, but we just couldn’t stop him. He’s a good quarterback. When you can move around in the pocket and make plays down the field, that’s really hard to stop defensively. All in all, I felt like our defense played a good game.”
Utah was driving early in the fourth quarter, but Handley was flagged for offensive pass interference. Solomon was taken out of the game after sustaining a hard hit from Jason Fanaika and was assumed to be concussed.The backup quarterback for Arizona tried to find a man deep, but Thomas picked off the pass.
Utah was making its way down the field to try and score before the end of the game. Covey picked up 10 yards off a pass from Wilson. Booker picked up eight yards on a run but fumbled the ball, and Arizona fell on top of it. Arizona wasn’t able to make anything off of this and punted the ball back and Covey was stopped at the six-yard line.
After a couple of back-and-forth plays, the game went into overtime tied at 27.
Utah faces UCLA at home next weekend and Allen in confident his team and the fans will show up to compete.
“Any team coming into Utah knows it is going to be a tough environment,” Allen said. “We look at the crowd as our 12th man out there so I think finishing these last two games at home could be huge accomplishments for us.”
@kbrenneisen