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SALT LAKE CITY -- Defense wins championships, and for this week at least, the Utes' defense won the headlines. Utah's offense hasn't been great, but the defense has been able keep them in a couple of games and win one or two as well.
Following Utah's win over Pittsburgh, all the talk was about Derrick Shelby's great game.
Shelby joined Eric Weddle as Ute defenders that received Walter Camp National Player of the Week awards. The Walter Camp website talked about the performance, "Utah defensive end Derrick Shelby had a big game as the Utes defeated Pittsburgh, 26-14, on the road. Shelby had a team-best seven tackles (6 solo), including 2.5 for losses, 1.5 quarterback sacks and intercepted a pass which he returned 21 yards for a touchdown. With the win, Utah improved to 3-3 on the season."
Shelby was also named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week. He was joined by Coleman Petersen, who was named the Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week. They were noted by ESPN Pac-12 blogger Ted Miller as the defensive and special teams standouts for the week.
The defensive accolades extend beyond Shelby. Phil Steele released his midseason All-Pac-12 team with two Ute defenders on the first team, lineman Trevor Reilly and linebacker Chaz Walker. Reilly leads the team with two forced fumbles, seven tackles for loss and four sacks including his monster performance against BYU. His four sacks and the tackles for loss are tied for third in the conference. Walker leads the team in tackles with 50, which is tied for the lead in the conference. Star Lotulelei and Brian Blechen received third-team honors.
Steele gave Tony Bergstrom a second-team offense nod. There were three Utah players on the third-team on offense: John White, DeVonte Christopher and Sam Brenner.
With the defense being the whole story there is uncertainty as to where the Utes will end up at the end of the season. Miller wrote a blog post called the "Muddled Middle" about the questions for four teams that could end up bowling or sitting home for the holidays, "Then there are the "maybes" the teams that could go the other way: California, UCLA, Utah and Washington State. Each of these four are 3-3, meaning they need three wins to become bowl eligible." Most still believe that the Utes will make a bowl game, including Miller who released his Pac-12 bowl predictions with the Utes in the New Mexico Bowl playing a Big-12 opponent.
Pac-12 power rankings have the Utes between six and eight. The Pitt win didn't do much for opinion other than showing that they can win a game by defense alone. Miller and OSU beat writer Cliff Kirkpatrick have the Utes at eight. Kirkpatrick commented with, "A game at Pittsburgh allowed the Utes to get themselves righted after a bad start to the conference season." The Husky Haul has them at 7b, which may as well mean eight, but they are a little more optimistic, "In what is a good situation for Utah, they were able to stop the bleeding and get their season back on track. At 3-3, this is a team that is definitely still in a position to go to a bowl." Athlon Sports has them as the highest at six. "The defense was outstanding against the (supposed to be) high-flying Todd Graham offense, holding the Panthers to 120 total yards of offense."
As the season goes on, if Jon Hays and the offense can pick up their game a little every week, this could be a scary team by the end of the season.
