SALT LAKE CITY — In dramatic fashion, the Utah Utes rallied late in the game Friday night to beat the USC Trojans 31-27 on a Troy Williams completed pass to Tim Patrick in the end zone.

The victory gives Utah an important win in the Pac-12 standings and a 4-0 start to the season. The following is a grading of their performance Friday night.

Offense: A-

It’s a rare, almost unheard of, situation where a Utah offense outperforms its defense. But that happened Friday night as the offense led Utah on a late-game finish to beat the Trojans. The final drive of the game, which went for 93 yards on 15 plays, was a strong indicator of Utah’s poise and ability to compete in the Pac-12 this season.

Utah was 4-of-4 on fourth down conversions in the game, with two coming during the game-winning drive. It would have been easier for Utah to settle for a field goal late in the game to tie it up, but the offensive line was getting enough of a push and running backs Zack Moss and Armand Shyne consistently got what they needed up the middle.

Not enough can be said about the run game. Moss and Shyne made it a difficult night for the Trojans defense, combining for 152 yards rushing. It was clear on Utah’s first drive of the game where they ran the ball 12 consecutive times that USC wasn’t able to stop Utah from getting what it wanted on the ground.

Quarterback Troy Williams led the team on 21-of-34 passing for 270 yards and two touchdowns. He ended the night with a 147.9 quarterback rating, completing 61.8 percent of his passes. Once again, he was able to distribute the ball well to 10 different receivers, with standout Tim Patrick leading the team with 100 yards and one touchdown on six catches.

Not enough is ever said about an offensive line, but they were a big part of the reason Utah even had a chance to come back from a double-digit deficit to beat the Trojans. The offensive line continues to get better each week and is starting to work better together as a unit. Also, Isaac Asiata FTW with a game-saving touchdown.

Defense: B-

Overall, it was not a great night for Utah’s defense. Not only did Utah lose its star defensive tackle Lowell Lotulelei to an injury, but the defense gave USC easy, wide-open looks. USC running back Justin Davis averaged 12.6 yards per carry on 10 carries and receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster averaged 9 yards per catch on eight catches.

Linebackers struggled to take the right angles, the defensive line allowed for too big of holes and the secondary gave up too many passes that were not contested. Additionally, tackling was poor and took several guys to bring down USC players. The Trojans certainly have tremendous athletes on the offensive side of the ball, but Utah made it much harder on themselves by allowing USC to have whatever it wanted.

Although it was not Utah’s most solid defensive effort, the defense showed up when it mattered most, particularly on USC’s final two series. Forcing USC to punt with approximately 5 minutes left was as big as anything they had done in that game. Additionally, Utah forced two fumbles, both of which were recovered by the Utes, to swing the momentum back in their favor.

Special Teams: B

The biggest mistake is failing to converge on USC’s Adoree Jackson in the first quarter, allowing him to go for a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown. Although Jackson is a tremendous athlete, Utah was slow to get to him and struggled to tackle. It got better as the game progressed, but USC was close to taking it back several times.

On the flip side, Utah has yet to make a splash in the return game — if anything it’s below average. So far it hasn’t hurt Utah because the offense has been able to move the ball downfield, but it’s not great. Utah needs more from its return game to give the offense favorable field position.

The brightest spot on special teams remains with Mitch Wishnowsky, who continues to punt the ball well and flip the field. He finished the game averaging 49.7 yards per punt on three punts, including a 58-yard punt early in the game. All three of his punts were downed inside the 20-yard line, with one being downed at the 3-yard line.

Coaching: B+

The decision to run the ball the entire first series was brilliant: USC had no answers and Utah scored a touchdown with relative ease. Additionally, it ate up the play clock and showed Utah was in control. However, as the game developed, it seemed Utah was a little too dependent on the run and struggled to keep momentum.

However, the coaching staff made some adjustments at halftime and balanced out the game, setting Utah up for a comeback. The decision to almost exclusively pass the ball late in the game worked well and was efficient. Even going for it on fourth down in several instances worked and put Utah in a position to win. As mentioned above, Utah could have settled for a field goal at the end of the game, but instead went for the win.

Overall: B+

It’s hard to be overly critical of a team that beat USC after being down by 14 points. Several things worked well for the Utes, particularly the offense, but there are aspects of the team that need to continue to be fine-tuned, particularly the linebacker play. But winning cures much of the problems.

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