Working behind a patchwork offensive line, neither Grant Gunnell nor Khalil Tate was able to establish a rhythm. Although they had only one sack, the Utes consistently applied pressure on both quarterbacks. Gunnell finished 8 of 16 for 96 yards. He led Arizona’s lone touchdown drive, scoring on a 7-yard run, against Utah’s backups late in the fourth quarter. Tate entered in the second quarter with Arizona trailing 14-0. His first drive could have been fruitful, but freshman WR Jalen Johnson dropped a third-and-2 pass. Arizona turned the ball over on downs on each of Tate’s third-quarter possessions, including a fourth-and-9 where he was pressured almost immediately and threw the ball out of bounds.
Running room was hard to come by against Utah’s fearsome front. The Wildcats had a season-low 61 yards against the nation’s No. 1 rushing defense. The running backs were held to 52 yards on 20 attempts. J.J. Taylor led the way with 33 yards on 10 carries, ending a streak of five consecutive games with at least 74 yards on the ground. Arizona again tried to get Taylor involved via the pass, but his three receptions netted just 10 yards. Nathan Tilford got six carries, one shy of his season high, but gained just 6 yards.
The offense made only a handful of big plays, and all came on passes to wide receivers. Cedric Peterson had a 31-yard reception from Gunnell and finished with a team-high four grabs for 63 yards. Jamarye Joiner’s lone reception, from Tate, went for 21 yards. Boobie Curry’s only catch, from Gunnell, was a nifty 20-yard, back-shoulder effort inside the left sideline. There were problems, though. Johnson’s drop was egregious. And Peterson didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength as Tate on a fourth-down screen pass to Taylor, running downfield instead of blocking.
This would have been a tough assignment if the line had been healthy – which it was not. Down four players, Arizona pulled off an improbable feat – starting a completely different unit than the previous week. Two players who opened against Oregon, Donovan Laie and Jon Jacobs, started against Utah, but neither did so in the same spot. The line surrendered only one sack, and Utah had only four tackles for losses. But the Wildcats had a season-low 196 yards of offense and averaged just 3.8 yards per play.
The front pulled off a pair of fourth-down stops but otherwise struggled. Utah’s 297 rushing yards were a season high by a UA opponent. Zack Moss had 203 of them, averaging 7.8 yards per carry. Tony Fields II had one of the fourth-down stops but also was flagged for an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty that essentially wiped out Colin Schooler’s sack (Arizona’s lone sack of the night). Trevon Mason accounted for the other stop, on fourth-and-goal from the 1 on the final play of the first half. Fields and Anthony Pandy each had 11 tackles. Schooler had 10.
Utah quarterbacks completed 83.3% of their passes, the third time in a row opposing QBs eclipsed 70%. Tyler Huntley repeatedly found open receivers in the intermediate areas of the defense. TE Brant Kuithe owned the middle of the field, catching four passes for a game-high 81 yards. Senior DB Jace Whittaker had seven tackles and a pass breakup. Safety Scottie Young Jr. also broke up a pass. Lorenzo Burns had an interception in the end zone. In an act of desperation, he tried to run the ball out. He was tackled at the UA 3-yard line.
The punting was better than it’s been for most of the season. Kyle Ostendorp and Matt Aragon shared the job. Ostendorp averaged 46.3 yards on his three attempts, Aragaon 39.0 on this three. The problem? Arizona’s punt coverage was poor. Demari Simpkins averaged 28.0 yards on two returns. That included a 39-yarder in the fourth quarter that set up Utah at the UA 18. Lucas Havrisik didn’t get much work. He made his lone PAT and booted both of his kickoffs for touchbacks.
As Kevin Sumlin said afterward, there weren’t a lot of positives to take out of this one. It was always going to be difficult to move the ball against Utah, but Noel Mazzone’s offense lacked the creativity to give Utah any unexpected problems. Sumlin’s decision to start Gunnell over Tate on senior night was questionable. Chuck Cecil’s defense came up with a handful of stops but generally offered minimal resistance. Arizona had only four penalties, but each was a 15-yarder. Sumlin praised the Wildcats for playing hard. They too often didn’t play smart.
