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CORVALLIS, Ore.— Despite coughing up the ball twice on their own doorstep during the first half of Saturday night's 21-7 loss to No. 8 Oregon State — both turnovers having led to easy Beaver touchdowns — the Utes still found themselves trailing but just one touchdown, 14-7, going into halftime.
Utah received the ball to begin the third quarter and moved right down the field. The running game finally got into gear, and after a pass interference penalty, the Utes were looking at first-and-goal on the 3-yard line.
Two quarterback keepers went nowhere. So on third-and-goal, first year offensive coordinator Brian Johnson drew up the perfect play call: freshman quarterback Travis Wilson took the snap and pitched it to DeVonte Christopher, who had a wide open lane in front of him leading into the end zone.
The only problem: He forgot the ball.
The pitch hit the senior wide receiver in the hands, but he couldn't handle the ball. The Beavers pounced on it, and all that Utah momentum was gone.
Both teams traded punts for the rest of the third quarter and into the fourth before the next scoring play, but Utah was unable to put together another drive like the one with which it opened the second half. And after Oregon State's touchdown with 7:41 remaining in the game to put the Beavers up 14, the event of a comeback began to seem very unlikely.
The Utes managed to drive the ball into the red zone once again, before the Beavers sacked Wilson on fourth down. At that point, it was most likely too late anyway.
Utah riddled itself with costly mistakes — four turnovers, seven penalties for 69 yards, as well as several dropped passes — but the one that hurt the most was Christopher's fumble, extinguishing a potentially tide-turning drive and hopes of evening the score. It's almost like a broken record at this point, but the Utes will have to clean it up if they hope to score a conference win some time this season.
