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PROVO — It wasn’t a pretty rivalry game, but the University of Utah came away victorious to claim its seventh straight victory over BYU, winning 19-13.
Utah comes away from the game with plenty to work on moving into its final non-conference game of the season next week. The following are three takeaways from Utah’s win in Provo.
Penalties continue to be an issue
The most consistent facet of Utah’s game has been its ability to get a multitude of penalties. In back-to-back matchups, Utah has managed to accumulate 22 penalties for a total of 236 yards. On Saturday, Utah totaled 11 penalties for 97 yards, with most of those coming on the offensive side of the ball.
Utah had five holding penalties — four on the offense. The offense also had three other penalties, including a pass interference call — which could be disputed — ineligible receiver penalty and a personal foul for a chop block.
Quarterback Tyler Huntley said the offense is still trying to get in a rhythm, and they’re trying to move too fast, which has led to some of the penalties. The team needs to be more disciplined in their approach, he added.
The most frustrating part of the penalties for Utah is they’re momentum killers, and in Saturday’s case, touchdown killers. Against the Cougars, two penalties negated Utah touchdowns and kept Utah to only three points instead of six. Many of the penalties kept Utah from getting into a rhythm throughout the game.
The most egregious penalty of the night was the targeting call against linebacker Sunia Tauteoli. The refs made the right call in calling the penalty as Tauteoli dropped his head into BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum’s head, initiating the helmet-to-helmet contact and knocking off Mangum's helmet in the process. The penalty would have been avoidable had he not dropped his head. The targeting call took Tauteoli out of the game and took away one of its leaders on defense, which is inexcusable.
Tyler Huntley has tons of potential
It was a Tyler Huntley night for Utah from the beginning as he ran the ball on the first three plays of the game. He continued for a total of 89 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. This comes as both a positive and a negative. A positive in that Huntley generated 389 yards of total offense himself, but a negative in that he’s taking on too much himself as the leader of the offense.
While needed for Utah’s spread offense, the team needs to find the balance between the designed QB-run plays where Huntley can make plays with his feet, and the times where he needs to limit the contact he sustains. Head coach Kyle Whittingham said Huntley needs to be a smarter at deciding when to keep the ball and when to make the pass. However, he’s been fairly efficient in both in the small sample size we’ve seen.
One of the most encouraging facets of Huntley’s game is that he threw for 300 yards on 27-of-36 passing (75 percent) and no interceptions against a stout BYU defense. While not the best defense Huntley will see this season, it’s encouraging that he’s finding his open receivers and making plays. As referenced above, had Utah not struggled with so many penalties, it’s likely Huntley would have had a couple passing touchdowns as well. Still, he ends the night with a quarterback rating of 145.
Matt Gay is Utah’s rivalry hero
The funny thing about rivalry games is that all points matters. And for Utah, points came as a result of the placekicking of senior Matt Gay, a former Utah Valley University soccer player who walked-on to Utah. Gay finished perfect on the night, making four field goals, with his longest coming from 38 yards in the third quarter.
Utah came into the season with several questions about who was going to be its placekicker, but Gay stepped up and has been unfazed by the pressure, even that of the rivalry game.
Late in the fourth quarter, on a fourth-and-one situation deep in BYU territory, Whittingham elected to use his offense to extend the drive, but was snuffed out by BYU’s defense. The decision to not go to Gay nearly cost Utah the game as BYU scored a touchdown late in the fourth and had the ball, being down six with less than 2 minutes to play. The decision didn’t ultimately matter, but could have been a big missed opportunity for Utah to get points.
Whittingham said after the game that he made the wrong decision and should have gone with Gay, but managed to get the win regardless.
