Utah’s red-zone woes, offensive struggles lead to loss to Arizona – Deseret News

Two third-and-11 conversions were key as Arizona handed No. 10 Utah its first loss of the season on Saturday night by a score of 23-10.

With less than 10 minutes left, right after a Tao Johnson interception led to an Isaac Wilson touchdown drive to cut the Arizona lead to just six points, Utah’s defense ran out onto the field for its most consequential series of the game.

The Utes’ defensive players whipped the sold-out Rice-Eccles Stadium crowd into a frenzy during a lengthy discussion between the referees about a holding penalty on Arizona on the kickoff, and by the time Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita finally took the field, Utah fans were at ear-splitting levels, especially on a third-and-11 from Arizona’s own 25-yard-line.

No sweat for Fifita.

As safety-turned-linebacker Johnathan Hall crashed into his legs on the crucial third-down play, Fifita delivered his best pass of the night. The ball traveled nearly 40 yards in the air and was right on target for receiver Devin Hyatt, who snagged it for a key first down.

Two plays later, after Utah’s defense had forced another third-and-11, Fifita made an incredible on-the-run throw to an open Keyan Burnett in the back of the end zone for a 35-yard touchdown.

After the PAT, it was 23-10, and with the way Utah’s offense had played in the second half, Fifita’s touchdown toss basically sealed the game.

There were some glaring deficiencies on defense for the Utes, starting with the two third-and-11 conversions, some poor run defense in the first half (Kedrick Reescano had some strong runs) and way too many missed tackles — 15 or more, per Utah coach Kyle Whittingham’s count.

But even taking into consideration those mistakes, holding an offense of Arizona’s caliber to 23 points while missing two of your top players — linebacker Karene Reid and defensive end Connor O’Toole — is a decent defensive performance.

Typically, that would be enough to put a team in position to win, but the Utes were doomed by an ineffective offensive performance full of missed chances in the red zone and a multitude of empty drives.

After Utah’s win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Whittingham said that if the red zone woes continued, that it would “catch up with us.”

On Saturday, that’s exactly what happened.

Starting for the third consecutive time, true freshman quarterback Wilson led the Utes on three straight trips to the red zone to open the game.

Between the 20s, Utah’s offense was humming right along under the true freshman’s guidance, as he found former Arizona receiver Dorian Singer over and over to the tune of seven receptions for 104 yards before the first half was over.

Micah Bernard also provided a few timely runs, showing nice field vision and speed, to complement Utah’s passing attack.

Time and time again, however, when the Utes’ offense rolled into the red zone, the play calling that led them there dried up and the execution left much to be desired.

Utah scored just three points in three trips to the red zone, going away empty on their first two possessions.

Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig gambled on the first two drives of the game instead of taking the points, electing to go for it on fourth-and-2 both times instead of taking the field goals.

On the first trip inside the 20, Ludwig called for five straight runs, and after Mike Mitchell only got a yard on third-and-3, Utah’s offensive coordinator went right back to him. On the sixth consecutive run by the Utes, Mitchell was stuffed for a turnover on downs.

On the second drive, following a three-yard Bernard run, an incomplete Wilson pass and a four-yard Wilson scramble on third-and-6, it set up fourth-and-2.

Wilson tried a pass to Caleb Lohner — a play that has worked well in the past — but it was broken up by Tacario Davis, and the Utes left empty-handed again.

While Utah came away with three points on its third drive of the game, the 52,898 fans at sold-out Rice-Eccles Stadium grew anxious as the team crossed the 20-yard line.

They had reason to, as despite a couple of strikes from Wilson to Singer to get the Utes into scoring position, the offense fizzled once again, with a QB keeper from Wilson, a run from Bernard that went nowhere and an incomplete pass from Wilson to Money Parks.

Utah had to settle for a field goal.

“Left points out there. We were horrible in the red zone. Awful, awful, and until we get that fixed, we’re going to continue to have problems,” Whittingham said.

Instead of potentially heading to the locker room up 21-10 if everything had gone right in the red zone, or even 17-10 if the Utes had scored touchdowns on two of the three trips, it was instead a 10-3 deficit.

“It starts with me. You got to have a better red zone package. The buck stops right here and so if we don’t have a good enough arsenal in place, enough creativity down there, then that’s something we got to look at,” Whittingham said.

“Execution — I’m not going to blame the players though, but sometimes it goes down to being a little off with your timing or just a little bit off with your execution.”

Aside from a fourth-quarter drive wherein Wilson stepped up into the pocket and delivered a 37-yard strike to Singer, which was followed by a 20-yard pass to Lohner for Utah’s lone touchdown of the night, Utah’s second-half offensive execution was poor.

Forget the first-half red zone problems — the Utes couldn’t even sniff the inside of Arizona’s 20-yard line on six of their seven second-half drives.

Singer, who had been so productive in the first half, was mostly shut down by Arizona in the second half, with just two catches (for 51 yards) on eight targets.

“They cheat the safety to him and (Tacario Davis) shadowed him for quite a bit of the game and just like we did with Zemaiah Vaughn on (Tetairoa McMillan). They had more success doing that than we did,” Whittingham said.

Wilson struggled in the second half, completing 8 of 20 passes for 115 yards. He threw a touchdown and had two interceptions — one deep in Utah territory that led to an Arizona field goal and the other one on the final drive of the game.

“Converting in those red zones. I know better on those interceptions. I know better,” Wilson said. “I shouldn’t put the team in that situation. I felt like we were driving the ball up and down the field the whole time — run game, pass game, but red zone.”

Wilson’s final line was 20 for 40 for 280 yards, a touchdown pass and two interceptions.

Bernard had a solid game, with 91 yards on 16 carries, but he only rushed it six times in the second half.

Postgame, like all the players, Bernard was visibly frustrated.

“I don’t get too upset, I don’t get too mad. I just almost want to just smack something right now, so I’m going to use that this whole next two weeks and when we go to (Arizona State), they gonna feel me. They gonna feel me,” he said.

Once again, Cam Rising, still limited by his ring finger on his throwing hand, came out for early warmups with a glove on his right hand.

Rising tested out his hand by throwing the ball around about 90 minutes before kickoff, but the decision by Utah’s coaches to start Wilson came much earlier this time.

As opposed to last week, when Wilson was informed that he would be the starter 20 minutes before game time, when Utah took the field for final, padded, warmups 45 minutes before Saturday’s contest, Wilson starting was seemingly set in stone.

While Rising threw the ball a little bit during Utah’s final warmups, when the time came for the quarterbacks to work with the offensive line, it was Wilson taking the No. 1 reps and sophomore Brandon Rose, who appeared to be Wilson’s backup on Saturday night, taking the second-team reps.

Though he was dressed in his full uniform with a glove and wearing his usual knee brace, Rising didn’t throw much during padded warmups. From at least an hour before the game, if not more, it was clear — this was going to be Wilson’s game.

Postgame, Whittingham said Rising was “really close” to playing, but that didn’t provide much comfort to Utah fans following the first loss of the season.

While one loss doesn’t derail Utah’s Big 12 championship hopes, it makes the margin of error in the remaining seven games that much more narrow.

Wilson kept Utah afloat during 2.5 of the 3.5 games Rising has missed, but for this team to achieve its ultimate goal, it needs its veteran quarterback back under center.

“If there is a silver lining here, we’ve got a week off and hopefully he’s ready to go by then,” Whittingham said.

We’ll see if Rising is back at quarterback in two weeks, as Utah takes on Arizona State after a much-needed bye week.