SALT LAKE CITY — It was not a perfect game, but Utah managed to win its fourth consecutive game over rival BYU. And while the offense has significantly improved since years past, the defense still has room to grow.

Utah has had better defenses in years past, with players like Star Lotulelei, the Kruger brothers and Mo Lee, to name a few, leading the charge. However, coming into the 2013 season, Utah coaches were concerned about many of its positions, including the linebacking core and the secondary.

The secondary was exposed last week against Oregon State and its prolific, on-target quarterback Sean Mannion, with the Beavers gaining 443 yards in the passing game alone.

However, against the rival Cougars, Utah came in with a game plan to shut down the run game of quarterback Taysom Hill and running back Jamaal Williams. And the defense did a decent job of doing just that.

"Last week (the secondary) got picked on; Mannion kid had way too much production in the receiving numbers," head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "(The secondary) came back with a resolve and a purpose this week in practice. We needed that to happen because we're going to be tested every week now in the Pac-12.

"The secondary play was by far the biggest improvement, and I thought our defensive line got control of the run game and put pressure on the quarterback," Whittingham added.

Utah's defense did allow 183 rushing yards and 260 receiving yards, but buckled down when necessary, particularly in the red zone — BYU was 1 of 5 in the red zone. Utah kept BYU from a few touchdowns after some decent drives — once in the third quarter when BYU was inside Utah's 10-yard line and again at Utah's 2-yard line.

Both times, Utah held the Cougars to field goals and killed the BYU offensive momentum in the second half. The defense epitomized the definition of bend but don't break.

"Great job by our defensive staff putting their guys in place to slow down the offense and make play after play after play," Whittingham said. "Couldn't be more proud of the defense and the defensive staff — Coach Sitake and all those guys."

"There was a different defense out there tonight, and we're going to keep that coming each week," said linebacker Jared Norris. "The biggest thing is the way we prepared this week. This was probably our best week of practice of all season. If we can keep practicing like that then you practice how you play."

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Wilson to Anderson proves the difference in what was yet another close rivalry game

The Utah vs. BYU rivalry has always been a hard fought battle that usually ends up going right down to the wire. It is only fitting that the 2013 edition fit that bill perfectly.

Utah's front seven were also able to put a lot of pressure on BYU's offensive line and Taysom Hill, who couldn't utilize the run game as effectively as against Texas. Hill was sacked five times by Mike Honeycutt, Viliseni Fauonuku, Jacoby Hale, Nate Orchard and Travis Reilly for a loss of 28 yards.

Hale's two sacks were game changers, ultimately stopping BYU's potential for a score. Hale's first sack came in the third quarter when BYU was on Utah's 2-yard line. Hale managed to break free and sacked Hill for a loss of 10 yards.

"(We) got some pressure up front," Whittingham said. "We probably missed about six or eight sacks, but credit to the Hill kid for his escapability. We had some big sacks in the red zone."

Although the defense performed well in a highly-emotional game, the competition will only continue to improve. Of Utah's remaining eight opponents, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, UCLA and Washington State are all ranked in the Top 25 in different offensive statistics. Stanford, too, has a prolific offense, which was made evident on Saturday against ASU.

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