SALT LAKE CITY — And the playbook was opened up and the Utah offense did partake.

The Utes rolled to a 42-10 victory over the visiting Arizona Wildcats Friday to claim a much-needed South division game. More importantly for the Utes, though, it was the second-consecutive game where the offense was in the spotlight and came up big in back-to-back 40-point performances.

The following are three takeaways in Kyle Whittingham’s 200th victory as a head coach while at Utah.

Offensive play-calling is magic

Offensive coordinator Troy Taylor had a fun night against a soft Arizona defense. Taylor’s game plan started with the tried-and-true run game that Utah has been able to own for years. He then dialed up some diverse plays to absolutely dominate the Arizona defense.

And although the run game worked well early and throughout the game, it was the passing plays where Utah really owned the game. Quarterback Tyler Huntley connected with Demari Simpkins on a 68-yard bomb for a touchdown. And later, Huntley was on the receiving end of a pass when former Timpview High School quarterback Britain Covey aired one out to his quarterback for a 58-yard touchdown strike.

The total effort netted Utah nearly 500 yards of offense and another game where the final score was more than 40 points — a rare sighting for the Utes who have only scored more than 40 points in a game 10 times since joining the Pac-12. But with the offense seemingly clicking, there’s a real opportunity for Utah to be a strong contender for a South division title.

It’s still only a two-game sample size, but there’s several positives to take away from Utah’s latest two victories. The most important test comes next week when Utah welcomes USC to town in an always exciting South division matchup.

Call it swagger; call it excitement; call it confidence.

Whatever you want to call it, Utah has it and it’s good to see Utah again living up to their fall camp style of play. On all sides of the ball, Utah looked calm and ready, with confidence behind them as they looked to defeat the Wildcats. It’s a stark contrast to Utah’s two losses where the mistakes continued to pile up, the confidence lacked and the player demeanor resembled a team with a losing record and nothing positive to hope for.

The defense has always quietly held a swagger as they’ve continued to stall opposing offenses, but it’s newfound territory for the offense. Match those two up and there’s not a lot of teams that can go toe-to-toe with Utah.

One of the most evident plays of the offense’s newfound swagger is the Covey toss to Huntley. As a trick play, it inherently will get the fans and team excited, but it’s a reassuring look of confidence on the players’ face and excitement that comes that is most telling. Even bad teams can manage to pull off a trick play, but Friday’s special was one of many confidence-building opportunities for the Utes moving forward.

Not all is great with the Utah football program. The highly-touted secondary has done a good job this season of limiting opposing offenses from getting a lot of yards through the air. But they haven’t been perfect, and there’s still plenty of growth possible.

In a primarily man-coverage program, the secondary is left on an island to defend the bevy of talented receivers tossed their way (ignore the pun). And Jaylon Johnson and Julian Blackmon have done a great job of limiting the threat with their mostly tight coverage and pass-blocking ways.

But there are still times when the secondary looks a little slow and soft on coverage, and opposing teams are able to pick up easy gains. This was evident on Arizona's only touchdown score of the night where the secondary allowed for a fairly easy 42-yard touchdown strike to Cedric Peterson.

Against the Wildcats, Utah allowed 246 yards passing against a second- and third-string quarterback. Much of Arizona's yards came in the second half when the game was already out of play, but the defense has to remain assignment sound for a full 60 minutes as other Pac-12 offenses can score quickly.

Now with that being said, Utah limited Arizona to the least amount of points in a game since the 2016 season and only allowed for 72 rushing yards, but the point remains. Utah is more than capable of limiting an opposing team, but it’s got to be a full 60 minutes to give Utah a chance at the South division title.

And lest anyone think I’m too critical on the defense, they’re still a dominant force in the conference and nation — Top 10 actually — and will continue to limit opposing offenses and their quick-scoring tendencies.

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