SALT LAKE CITY — With less than 3 minutes to go in the game, Utah led No. 18 Washington by a touchdown in what appeared to be a winning effort. But a 10-point rally by the Huskies in the final minutes doomed the Utes in a 33-30 loss, giving the Utes their sixth loss of the season in a heartbreaking and speechless loss.

Utah’s players fought hard for much of the game and proved to be a difficult opponent for the Huskies. But a bad coaching decision at the end negated Utah’s success as they opened the door to a Huskies victory.

The following are three takeaways from Utah’s game.

A timeout?!

It’s the only play that matters in this game. Sure, a football game is made up of several key decisions that lead to either a win or loss, but sometimes it really is just one play. And Saturday, it was all about one play — one decision.

After overcoming a 7-point lead to tie the game with little time left, Washington was preparing to take the game into overtime and settle the score in the extended time. The chance of a turnover or something going wrong was too risky being backed up on its own 30-yard line and with only 22 seconds left to play.

Enter Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham and his infamous timeout.

It’s a decision that leaves everyone speechless to the absurdity of the call. Washington had no timeouts left and no real chance of a score. But Utah’s free gift gave the Huskies life and the eventual win. Shocked by the call, Washington head coach Chris Petersen encouraged his offense to win the game, which they did behind two completed passes by quarterback Jake Browning to put the Huskies in field goal range.

The rest is history.

Following the game, Whittingham said he was trying to be aggressive with the call. His hope? Force Washington to punt it and then let placekicker Matt Gay win the game. But the math doesn’t add up. After the needless timeout, Washington was only on its second down and Utah had only one timeout left.

Even if Washington had failed to pick up the first down and Utah took its final timeout, there was nothing Utah could do to get the ball back. After the final timeout, it would be third down and Washington could have made the clock expire and go to overtime … or the win.

Sadly for Utah, Whittingham’s previous aggressive style of play for much of the game was actually a good thing and allowed Utah to take advantage of the Huskies. Whittingham dialed up two key fourth-down calls that set up scores, jumped out with an onside kick after Utah’s first score, and allowed punter Mitch Wishnowsky to fake a punt deep inside Utah’s territory.

But all that is pointless given the ending of the game.

Although it’s ridiculous to call for Whittingham’s firing after a bad loss, it’s certainly not a bright spot to his coaching tenure and future with the program, particularly if Utah misses out on a bowl game this season. Utah may not have won in overtime, but at least a swinging effort is better than gifting Washington a win with a horrible decision.

Tyler Huntley deserves a medal

It’s feast or famine with sophomore quarterback Tyler Huntley sometimes. But there’s no question the dual-threat quarterback has the talent, grit and tenacity to will Utah to victory. He’s maturing before our eyes and is really starting to show how talented he can become.

Huntley, though, needs an offensive line to give him some help. It’s a repeated theme of the Triple Option article lately to talk about the need for better o-line play, but it’s essential to the success of the offense. Despite all that, Huntley had arguably his best performance as a Ute, as he diced up the Washington defense.

The sophomore finished the game throwing for 293 yards and two touchdowns and one interception on 19-of-27 passing. He added an additional 48 yards and one touchdown on the ground on 25 carries.

Huntley is too competitive to let the mistakes of the earlier part of the season knock him down, or even within a game. He’s the leader Utah needs on the offense to be successful, but he needs the protection to keep him healthy and to allow him to work his craft.

This one is for Mitch Wishnowsky … and Matt Gay

As if anyone needed a reason to like punter Mitch Wishnowsky.

It’s become just a given that Wishnowsky will dominate in the kicking game, and Saturday was no different. But he upped his game against the Huskies with a perfectly executed surprise onside kick that he recovered himself and a gutsy fake punt deep inside Utah territory.

That’s without mentioning that he kept the Pac-12’s most dangerous punt returner, Dante Pettis, from having a good night. Pettis finished with only 18 yards on two punts.

Oh, and his kicking counterpart, Matt Gay, is quite the talent himself. Following a made 44-yard field goal, Gay became Utah’s single-season record holder for making 24 field goals this season. That’s incredibly impressive given Utah’s kicking pedigree. Gay would end up kicking his 25th field goal of the season in the third — a made 25-yard attempt.

His 25 made field goals leads the nation this season and is six away from tying the all-time record nationally. This season, Gay has been 5-of-6 from 50+ yards, 2-of-4 from 40-49 yards, 8-of-9 from 30-39 yards and a perfect 7-of-7 from 20-29 yards.

Not bad at all.

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