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SEATTLE — For the first time in five full seasons, Utah football is out of contention for the Pac-12 championship game after suffering its third loss of the season on the road to Washington.
Utah controlled a 4-point lead at halftime, dictating the terms of the game with its creative offense and tough defense, but then gave it all away in the second half as the team watched Washington come away with a 7-point victory and to keep an undefeated record ... while Utah "couldn't get in a rhythm" to do much of anything.
"There was nothing dramatically different, I can tell you that, but they did make make a lot of plays in the second half and held us to a much lower offensive total than what we got in the first half, that's for sure — shut us out in the second half," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said.
Utah's best shot — a spot at Washington's 14-yard line late in the game — was eventually derailed by a tipped pass interception that was returned to Utah's 1-yard line in a wild series of events that gave the Utes back the ball with 99 yards to go. A safety on the next play added salt to the already exposed wound.
With the loss, Utah dropped to No. 16 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll that was released Sunday afternoon. It's a three-spot drop, but one that comes with Utah having now lost all three games to top-10 teams.
Washington, which moved to 10-0 for the first time since 1991, remains the top-ranked team from the Pac-12 at No. 5, and is followed by No. 6 Oregon, which allowed USC to keep the game close before coming away from a late-night victory. Oregon State, which secured a blowout win over Stanford, moved up to No. 10.
Arizona staved off a Colorado push to maintain their hot run and jumped up to No. 19 in the poll. USC continues to receive votes in the poll despite another loss.
Georgia maintained the top spot after a blowout win over a ranked Ole Miss team. Behind the Bulldogs in the rankings is No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Florida State and No. 5 Washington. Georgia received 54 first-place votes this week, picking up more than the 49 votes last week.
