Even the most casual college football fan knows the saying “defense wins championships”.
The Utah Utes proved this point in their 20-19 win over BYU.
Make no mistake about it: the Ute defense deserves more than a few helmet stickers for the way it played on Saturday night. The defense got the team on the board right out of the gate, as Sunia Tauteoli intercepted a Taysom Hill pass for a pick six. After the Utah offense fumbled on the next two drives in its own territory, the D held the Cougars to field goals both times.
While that feat is impressive enough by itself, it’s worth noting that the Utah defense limited BYU to just 15 yards on 16 plays in those two drives.
Those two defensive stands were a sign of things that would happen next. The Ute offense would turn the ball over on the next two drives, but the Cougars only scored seven points, capped by a 39-yard from Taysom Hill. In the second half, the Utah defense recorded interceptions on the first two drives, and forced two three-and-outs on the following two series. After sitting on the sidelines for 11:21 of game clock time, the Ute D allowed a late score, as BYU ran its two-minute offense to perfection to cut the lead to one.
Then, Utah’s defense won the game in the most fitting manner possible. Rather than play for overtime, Cougar head coach Kalani Sitake gambled and went for two. As it had done all night long, the Ute defense rose to the occasion, bursting through the line to stuff Hill behind the line of scrimmage to preserve the victory.
For the night, Utah held the BYU offense to just 5 of 14 on third down conversions and an average of 4.8 yards to play.
It’s tough to argue with those results.
So, what does this win mean for Utah?
Simply put: the Utes played like championship team. Sure, the offense needs a lot of work to keep up with some of the high-octane attacks in the Pac-12. But, there’s no reason to think that Kyle Whittingham and his staff won’t clean that up over the next few weeks, considering that Utah has ranked in the Top 40 in turnover margin in each of the last two seasons.
Even if – and it’s a big – if the miscues continue, Utah’s defense is good enough to overcome them when need be. Given that defense wins championships, it’s hard to argue that the Utes won’t be in the mix for the Pac-12 South title this year. After all, there aren’t too many teams that win games when they turn the ball over six times.
