The dream was on cardiac arrest, then was miraculously resurrected.
The No. 15 Utes, now 6-0, were exonerated from a horrendous second-half performance and continued their undefeated season when Louie Sakoda split the uprights with no time remaining to deliver an improbable 31-28 victory over an eager Oregon State Beaver that featured an escape built for the ages.
“This is a big win,” free safety Robert Johnson said. “It’s another step to 12-0, so we’re looking forward to a big season now.”
Head coach Kyle Whittingham paced around wide-eyed, embracing everyone in sight with a picturesque smile tattooed across his face.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our guys,” Whittingham said. “We really just showed a lot of resiliency and we did a great job of handling adversity. Our backs to the wall, and we just made plays.”
With the Utes down 28-20 with two minutes and 11 seconds to go, Utah’s Bowl Championship Series hopes looked all for naught for fans bleeding red at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“I saw people leaving and I said, “They’re about to miss a show,” Brian Johnson said.
Johnson proceeded to turn that prediction into reality.
Utah’s offense, which was caged up the entire second half by stiff Oregon State coverage, completely flipped the script in the final two minutes.
After looking purely feeble the entire game, Johnson suddenly was unstoppable.
Johnson hit wideouts Bradon Godfrey, Freddie Brown and Brent Casteel in quick succession, capping off an amazing five-play 60-yard drive that took all of 42 seconds. The drive was capped with an 25-yard throw that Johnson thread to Godfrey.
“I knew all along that we’d get a shot to win it,” Godfrey said. “We practice the two-minute drill every week in practice.”
After getting a second chance at a two-point conversion after an Oregon State pass-interference call, Johnson rolled out comfortably and bootlegged all the way to the southwest pile-on to square the game at 28-28.
“Those final two drives showed the toughness of our football team,” Brian Johnson said.
In preparation for the game, the Utes’ main focus was the miniscule, electric running back Jacquizz Rodgers. Rodgers finished with 101 yards rushing and 76 yards receiving.
It turned out that the Utes had the most trouble containing Beaver quarterback Lyle Moevao. Moevao tossed his way to 313 yards in the air to coincide with two touchdowns.
“(Oregon State is) definitely an awesome team,” defensive end Paul Kruger said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game, we knew it was going to be a fight, we committed to ourselves that we’d come play through the whole game.”
Defensively, the Utes had been trading knock-down jabs with the Oregon State offense all night long, but with a minute and 29 seconds left, the defense answered its shrieking, jubilant fans.
“The defense did what we had to do,” Robert Johnson said. “We gave up a few points, but we stopped them when we needed to.”
On Oregon State’s final drive, Moevao was forced into two tough throws that were incomplete. Once the Beavers were forced to punt, after James Rogers was held to a 4-yard rush, a final Utah drive was made possible.
And Johnson made it happen.
Johnson dazzled with 1:06 left on the clock. He had three passes go for 31 yards, setting up a truly electric finish.
“I thought (Oregon State) was gonna try and play for overtime after we scored,” Brian Johnson said. “I guess they didn’t know that we had this guy (Sakoda) to seal it for us.”
The Utes were in the driver’s seat after an impressive first-half performance on both sides of the ball. Thanks to two Sakoda field goals of 33 and 28 yards, Utah busted open a 20-9 lead thanks to an improbable scrambling hurl by Johnson to Brown and a perfectly executed option pitch to Casteel for a 12-yard scamper.
“It was a good win but we still have a lot of work to do,” Whittingham said.
The offense, which has been saddled with costly turnovers, saw Johnson throw an interception returned for a touchdown on the first play of the second quarter.
The Utes’ offensive line was pestered by an aggressive Oregon State defensive line and Johnson was sacked four times, totaling 23 yards of lost yardage8212;he was also sacked for a loss of 6 yards to start each half of the game.
Despite the immense struggles on both sides of the ball, the Utes emerged victorious in the most improbable circumstances.
Thanks to a breakout game by the senior Casteel8212;105 yards receiving on five receptions8212;the Utes got to where they needed to almost every time they put points on the board, because of No. 5.
All in all, with an undefeated season on the line, Utah made magic within the two minute mark, thanks to the suddenly resurrected arm of Brian Johnson, the mettle of a tired defense and the leg of the fans’ own “King Louie.”
“This was the biggest kick of my career,” Sakoda said. “Without a doubt.”