There isn’t anything worse for a defense’s or a fan’s morale than an offense converting on third down attempts. For the Utes, that rule doesn’t apply.
Although TCU was 8-for-19 on third down conversions for the game, the Utes held the Frogs to just 10 points, all scored in the first quarter. On countless occasions the Frogs found themselves within field goal range on third down, twice they were sacked and taken out of range. Twice, Utah held TCU to field goals, which kicker Ross Evans missed. From some sort of divine third-down intervention the Utes were able to pull out a win.
“We figured them out and knew we had to come up with big stops,” said Ute defensive end Paul Kruger about the big third-down plays.
The two biggest plays in the first half that kept the Utes in the game came on third down conversion attempts.
At the beginning of the second quarter, TCU was faced with a third-and-7 on the Utes’ 21 yard line. A field goal at a minimum seemed almost guaranteed. On each drive, TCU’s quarterback Andy Dalton was sacked for 13 yards, once by Stevenson Sylvester and the other by Kepa Gaison, taking TCU out of field goal range and forcing them to punt.
With the clock winding down in the second quarter, TCU was faced with a third-and-13 on their own 47-yard line. Dalton was rushed and forced to throw the ball while on the run, leading to a pick by Sean Smith. Smith returned the interception 37 yards to the Frogs’ 43-yard line, leading to a Louie Sakoda field goal to make the score 10-6 at halftime.
TCU was 8-of-10 overall on third down conversions in the first half, but could only manage to put 10 points on the board.
“Anytime you get a big sack or a turnover or something like that it just changes the whole momentum,” Kruger said. “The crowd gets into it and it’s always good.”
The next two big stops came in the fourth quarter where Evans came up empty on finding his guts.
With 10 minutes left on the clock, TCU drove down to the Utes 9-yard line and faced a third-and-2 situation. Sylvester and Gaison came up with a huge stop, forcing a 26-yard field goal that hit the upright.
Perhaps the biggest stop of the game on third down came with six minutes on the clock. TCU worked its way down to Utah’s 18-yard line and the Utes forced Evans to kick a mid-range field goal. He pushed the kick right and the rest was history.
“We didn’t really make too much adjustments (on defense),” Kruger said. “We just came out and played our defense and got those little extra plays that make the rest of the game count.”
Lennie MahlerDonning new black jerseys, head coach Kyle Whittingham and a group of Utes rush out of the inflatable gate before Thursday’s game.