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SALT LAKE CITY — What No. 11 Utah lacked on offense, it certainly made up for on defense Saturday afternoon in the first conference game of the season against No. 22 UCLA.
UCLA quickly found out that Utah's defense was much different than the first three opponents it played to open the season. The Bruins made every effort to get its offense going, but the Utes defense was the story of the game in a 14-7 win at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Utah (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12) started the game out with a bang when UCLA (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12) true freshman quarterback Dante Moore got pressured and immediately threw his first pass of the game right into the hands of Karene Reid, who had no trouble taking it back for a touchdown 15 seconds into the game.
"I feel like it was huge," Reid said. "It gave us momentum quick in the game, and so we we're able to get them on their heels and just kept our foot on the gas pedal since then."
And the defense wasn't done there.
Utah's defense dialed up the pressure on Moore all game and forced him into quick decisions that often didn't pan out for the Bruins, who were held to only two converted third downs on nine attempts and to 49 total yards in the first half. The Bruins finished with 243 total yards in the game and was 3-of-16 on third downs and 1-of-4 on fourth downs (two of which were in Utah territory).
More importantly for Utah, the home team managed seven sacks, 11 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles, and held the Bruins to only 9 net rushing yards.
"Great — great's probably not the right adjective; whatever is better than great — defensive effort by our guys," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "Absolutely suffocating defense.
"Just really proud of our defense; they won the game, and that's the bottom line," he added. "There's a way to win every game, you've got to find it, and we found it this afternoon with the defense rising up and making play after play."
FIRST DOWN OF @pac12 PLAY IS A PICK-SIX!! 🙌
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) September 23, 2023
📺https://t.co/ASj5Ph2un1#GoUtespic.twitter.com/O3NCHMJcnI
UCLA had one drive that got into Utah territory in the first half but was held out until four minutes left in the third quarter. In its second positive drive, UCLA threatened to score after a targeting call by Utah's Aliki Vimahi, but Utah's Lander Barton stripped Moore of the ball and Tao Johnson jumped on the ball to keep the Bruins from its first score of the day.
Though the defense limited UCLA for much of the game, Utah's final stand against the Bruins may have been its best.
After failing to pick up a first down on offense and cut into the clock, Utah was forced to punt the ball back to UCLA with 3:14 left in the game. Jonah Elliss stepped up and got an 8-yard sacked that was followed by a 7-yard sack by Elliss and Logan Fano. And the on fourth down, Moore was sacked again for a 7-yard loss by Sione Vaki.
Whittingham said the message to his defense in the final series was: "Just go choke them out. We had them on the ropes, and go knock them out. That was the message."
Moore finished his first start against a Pac-12 opponent throwing for 234 yards, one touchdown and one interception on 15-of-35 passing, but much of that came on the series where UCLA got its touchdown.
On offense, Utah had to get it done with redshirt freshman Nate Johnson under center again. Cam Rising originally dressed during the team's warmups, but changed into street clothes before the team came out for game time. Whittingham said there was no "gamesmanship" had by having Rising dress and then undress.
"Plan was to have him warm up in full pads and then come in and just change clothes, because he was not cleared," Whittingham said. "Just another opportunity for him to throw and work on his craft. We weren't trying to trick anybody."
For much of the day, Johnson was tasked with handing off the ball or keeping it for designed runs.
In the second half, though, Johnson got the clearance to open up the passing game at times and did well enough to move Utah down field on several drives. But most of those drives stalled before Utah could get into the red zone. Johnson connect with tight end Landen King on a 7-yard toss at the end of the first half to give Utah a 14-0 lead at the break.
"I feel like everything was just fine, it's just we kept shooting ourselves in the foot on certain number of drive," Johnson said. "I mean, we've just gotta clean up a lot of things on offense."
Johnson finished the night throwing for 117 yards and one touchdown on 9-of-17 passing, while adding 2 rushing yards. Backup running back Jaylon Glover added 86 yards on the ground after starting running back Ja'Quinden Jackson left the game early with an apparent right ankle injury. Jackson did not play for the remainder of the game.
"Nate, not real prolific numbers, but didn't throw any interceptions and managed the game for us," Whittingham said.
Utah will now turn its attention to a road tilt against a ranked Oregon State team on a short week.
