The Utes’ road and overtime magic came to an abrupt end Saturday night in Tempe as they fell to No. 14 Arizona State 19-16 in overtime.
In a game that featured a lot of missed opportunities for both offenses, the Sun Devils simply made more plays than the Utes did on their way to a close victory.
“Give credit to Arizona State. They made one more play than we did, and that’s what it came down to,” said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “We have a tough group of guys in our locker room, physically and mentally. They slug it out all the way down to the final play, and it’s just unfortunate we came up short.”
The Utah offense struggled right out of the gate, only mustering 21 yards of total offense in the first quarter. The defense also had a tough start to the game, allowing 149 yards of total offense in the first quarter, which allowed the Sun Devils to take an early 6-0 lead.
The Ute offense got into a bit of a rhythm in the second quarter, gaining 76 yards of offense and scoring six points via two Andy Phillips field goals from 50 and 36 yards out. The defense, however, continued to struggle containing ASU playmakers Taylor Kelly and Jaelen Strong, who hooked up for a 6-yard touchdown pass midway through the quarter. The score stood at 13-6 ASU going into the halftime break.
The Utes came out reinvigorated on both sides of the ball in the second half. It started with the offense taking the ball 75 yards down the field on the opening possession of the third quarter and finishing the drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Travis Wilson to Devontae Booker to knot the score at 13 apiece.
“We finally got in a rhythm,” Wilson said after the game. “We started going a little faster, picked up the tempo a little bit, so I think that helped out.”
The defense came out in the second half with a renewed purpose, forcing ASU quarterback Taylor Kelly to make quicker decisions and making life a bit more difficult for running backs D.J. Foster and Demario Richard. But as the half continued, the Sun Devil tailbacks were able to regain their momentum running the ball, and ASU ultimately finished the game with 239 yards rushing.
Field goals from Andy Phillips and ASU kicker Zane Gonzalez evened the score at 16-16 late in the fourth quarter. The Utes started offensive drives with 5:39 and 0:27 left in the fourth quarter but were unable to recreate the late heroics that won them games against UCLA, Oregon State and USC in recent weeks.
With six seconds left in the game, Kelly found Foster for a 7-yard completion to the ASU 47-yard line, which cued the big arm of backup quarterback Mike Bercovici to take the field for the Hail Mary attempt. However, Bercovici was intercepted by Utah’s Marcus Williams, and the game went to overtime.
The Utes began the overtime session with the ball and, like ASU expected, tried to power run the football towards the goal line. When Utah came up short, Phillips came onto the field to kick the go-ahead field goal attempt. In order to prevent a delay of game penalty, Whittingham called a timeout just before the ball was snapped. The ASU crowd roared as Phillips’ attempt went wide right, unknowing that a timeout had been called.
After the timeout Phillips once again took his position to attempt the 35-yard try. To the increased delight of Sun Devil Stadium and the dismay of Phillips, he pushed his second attempt wide left, giving ASU the opportunity to win the game with a field goal of its own.
Three plays later, Gonzalez stepped onto the field for the Sun Devils and knocked in the 36-yard, game-winning field goal that snapped the Utes’ three-game winning streak and mounted ASU at the top of the Pac-12 South standings.
“I felt like our team fought pretty hard tonight. Usually, those situations are something in which I thrive …” Phillips said after the game. “No one’s harder on themselves than I am on myself for not putting the ball through the uprights. It was just a missed judgment, I should have [gone] with my instincts, but it was a missed judgment on my part.”
Things don’t get any easier for the Utes as they welcome the No. 5 Oregon Ducks to Rice-Eccles Stadium next Saturday for another 8 p.m. MT start.
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