Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CORVALLIS, Ore. — The dam finally broke.
In an injury-laden season, where No. 10 Utah has done everything it could to maintain a competitive style of play on the field with several starters out of the lineup, the cracks finally gave way Friday night.
Oregon State got to Utah's defense on the first drive for an early score, and then pulled away in the second half for a 21-7 win at home.
"That was a very well prepared, well coached team over at Oregon State," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "(They) came out right from the get-go, excellent game plan — both on O and D — give them all the credit; they made the plays, we didn't make plays."
Utah's (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) defense adjusted after Oregon State's drive and held strong for the most of the game, but an anemic offense did little to help the Utes on the road.
The offense had its chances at times, but a false start on a would-be touchdown pass to Landen King in the second quarter, and several dropped passes from receivers — to say nothing of a ground game that struggled to get going and only finished with 57 rushing yards — led to Utah's downfall.
It's the second straight week where Utah's offense has been anemic and lackluster, scoring a combined 14 points over the last two games.
"I'm not going to point out one position group or one facet of the offense," Whittingham said. "We're just not getting it done. We're not in sync, we're not productive, we're not doing anything real well on offense right now."
Nate Johnson, who got the start again in Cam Rising's absence, finished the night throwing for 101 yards and one touchdown on 8-of-23 passing, but was replaced by Bryson Barnes with just over 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Barnes brought a spark to the offense and led Utah down to Oregon State's 5-yard line before a sack, and then a fumbled snap backed up Utah to the 23-yard line. The former walk-on quarterback then Barnes threw an interception to end the drive. Any positive momentum that was achieved was suddenly gone.
In the fourth quarter, Barnes left the game after an Oregon State (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) defender was called for a roughing the passer penalty with targeting, the second targeting penalty by the Beavers Friday night. Whittingham said Barnes was taken to the hospital as a result of the play.
"I don't know what his final numbers were, but the main thing is he's at the hospital right now and we're very concerned about him and his health; that's the key right now that his performance pales compared to that," Whittingham said.
Johnson returned to the game after Barnes' injury and eventually found the end zone on a 41-yard strike to Thomas Yassmin over the middle with 5:05 remaining to prevent the shutout — the first time for Utah since 2007. But Oregon State had three sacks and five tackles for loss to keep the Utes' offense at bay to closeout the night.
"We just couldn't get things done," Johnson said. "Some easily missed throws, missed blocks, protection breakdown; it was a struggle tonight. Credit to their defense, they had a great game plan, they played their tails off. They had a really good defense and we've just gotta clean up things next week.
Worse for Utah was another serious injury to a key player.
After a Logan Fano sack to Oregon State's backup quarterback Aidan Chiles, who was in for a series, the defensive end got up for a moment before eventually falling down to the ground in obvious discomfort. After the training staff gave him a look, teammates carried him off the field into the medical tent on the sideline before he eventually went back to the locker room.
Add to that Barnes' injury, an ankle injury to backup running back Charlie Vincent, and Spencer Fano leaving the game for a time just minutes after his older brother was forced off the field.
It was that kind of night for Utah.
"I think it doesn't look good for Logan, doesn't look good for Charlie, doesn't look good for — I know it doesn't look good for Bryson," Whittingham said. "Spencer Fano has got an issue, so we probably loss four or five, six more guys, but never ever, ever use that as an excuse — ever. Just keep moving ahead and playing with the guys that we've got that are healthy."
The injuries keep piling up for Utah.
Oregon State scored 14 points in the second half — a two-play drive capped off by a 27-yard reception by Silas Bolden in the third quarter, followed by a 45-yard rushing touchdown by Bolden to open up the fourth quarter — to make Utah's night go from bad to worse.
Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei finished the night throwing for 204 yards and a touchdown on 14-of-25 passing in the win. It was more offense than Utah could muster as a team; Utah finished with 198 total yards of offense.
"We had one touchdown and not even 200 yards of offense; you will win exactly zero games doing that, and so we've got our own problems to deal with and fix, obviously, starting with that," Whittingham said.
Utah enters the bye week before a home game at Rice-Eccles Stadium against California on Oct. 14.
