Utah football: 60-yard punt was turning point for Utes


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SALT LAKE CITY -- Turning points in a football game usually come from great offensive plays, so University of Utah fans may not have expected a special teams play to be the turning point of an otherwise lopsided game against Northern Colorado.

With a little more than seven minutes left in the second quarter, senior punter Sean Sellwood had one thing to do: get the ball inside the 25-yard line. Wind and a bounce pushed the ball farther, forcing Northern Colorado to start in its own three-yard line. After the special teams did their job, the defense held its own, forcing a quick three and out.

After that, it was all Utah.

A bad 31-yard punt by Northern Colorado's Mason Puckett led to a Utah touchdown after quarterback Jordan Wynn started the drive with a 23-yard pass to Jake Murphy.

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Before the punt, which included the first quarter and half of the second quarter, Utah had only one touchdown to go with its 120 plus total yardage. After the punt, and this only includes the rest of the second quarter, Utah scored two touchdowns with 100 plus total yardage. Northern Colorado looked out of their element, making many mistakes in the final few minutes of the half, including the punter accidentally and inexplicably taking a knee before punting the ball.

The second half was more of the same with Utah's offense controlling the ball and Utah's defense stopping Northern Colorado from moving the ball at all. Utah went on and scored three more touchdowns while holding the Northern Colorado offense to 141 total yards and getting the shutout.

Head coach Kyle Whittingham appreciated the kick as well as the defensive stop that followed.

"We think we have the edge on special teams every week," he said. "We held them in after the kick and we started executing on offense from there."

University of Utah never looked back, rolling over the Northern Colorado Bears to a 41-0 victory. What started as a defensive battle ended as the rout people were expecting, starting with a specials team play from the punter.

Alex Rivera is the Assistant Sports Editor of the UVU Review. You can contact him at arivera.2011@hotmail.com or through his Twitter account @A_River_Uh

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