Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Historically, Utah hasn't fared so well in conference openers since joining the Pac-12. And the 2013 Oregon State Beavers weren't about to let that trend change.
Despite a desperate rally from the offense to force overtime, Utah fell to 0-3 in Pac-12 Conference openers as they lost to Oregon State 51-48 in a high octane shootout at Rice-Eccles Stadium Saturday night.
To say the Utes overcame a lethargic start would be an understatement. Two minutes into the second quarter, Oregon State had more points (13) than Utah had yards (12). Utah was held without a first down for the entire first quarter. Nine plays, 12 yards, three punts.
But somehow, someway, the Utes pulled back into the game to send it into overtime.
Here's a look at the good, bad and ugly in the Utes' 51-48 OT loss:
QB Travis Wilson: While we wasn't perfect, the Utah quarterback was THE reason the Utes were even in this game. Wilson finished 19-33 for 279 yards and two TDs — and when he wasn't getting it done through the air, he was getting it done on the ground. Showcasing a new found speed that we didn't see last season, Wilson rushed for a team high 142 yards on 13 carries and three scores on the ground, including a critical nine yard TD run that sent the game into overtime.
RB James Poole: It looks as if the Utes have found their running back. James "Bubba" Poole ran the ball exceptionally well after a slow start, finishing with 117 yards and a touchdown on the ground and an additional 70 yards in receptions.
Resiliency: Trailing 27-10, Utah's offense finally found a way to put it together. From that point on in the game, the Utes never had to punt again.
"The team is hurting, they spilt their guts out," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "When we were down 27-10, the look in their eyes was that they still believed. That is a great thing to have in a team. It was tough to fall short in the end."
Slow start: Welcome to big boy football, Utah. There are no gimmes in conference play — every game is going to be a hard fought, physical battle for 60 minutes. Don't expect to win a lot of games when you decide to take the first 15 minutes off.
Through the entire first quarter, the Utah offense did not pick up a single first down. Not one. With just 4:47 of possession in the opening quarter for the offense, Utah's defense did everything they could to hold the Beavers to just 13 points through two minutes into the second quarter. It could have been a lot worse.
"Its not a good way to start a game," Utah quarterback Travis Wilson said postgame. "We need to correct that before our next game. Our offense is something special, but we can't start off slow like we did tonight."
Turnovers: Too bad we aren't talking about apple turnovers, because those are usually quite delicious. Nope, these turnovers are the bad kind — the kind that make you cringe as a fan.
Utah QB Travis Wilson threw three interceptions that ended up being the difference in this game. Yet, it is worth noting that you can't blame Wilson for the loss because he was the only reason the Utes were even in the game at the end. And when the offense puts up 48 points, you'd think that would be enough to win.
Instead, Oregon State improved to 44-9 over the last 115 games when winning the turnover battle. Coach Whittingham mentioned in the post game presser the importance for the defense to create turnovers — something that the Utes have struggled with the last two seasons.
Pass defense: College football is all about matchups. And when Oregon State has an NFL bound wide receiver lining up against a Ute playing just his third game at corner, the recipe could spell for quite the disaster. And it did.
Beavers WR Brandin Cooks finished with 210 yards and three touchdowns on just nine catches. Every time he touched the ball it was for a big gain.
In all, the Beavers had 443 yards through the air as QB Sean Mannion seemingly had all day to pick apart Utah's secondary. You can't put the blame solely on the corners though — the defensive line and linebackers need to do a better job of putting pressure on an opposing quarterback to try and hurry his reads.
"Its not all on the defensive backs, the front and linebacker's job is to get to the quarterback and their quarterback was comfortable all night in the pocket," Utah linebacker Jason Whittingham, who made his first start of 2013, said. "We need to come back next week and make sure we get to him, especially since BYU's quarterback is a good runner. We need to be tougher."
