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PASADENA, Calif. – For the fourth week in a row, Utah Utes scored more than 40 points and outscored their opponents for the win.
On Friday, in an important South Division game against UCLA, Utah defeated the Bruins 41-10 to qualify for the race behind a 211-yard run by running back Zack Moss. The junior back pushed back UCLA's defense while he finished with three touchdowns on the ground in one night while the offense totaled 470 yards.
With the win on Friday night, Utah has sole custody of the Pac-12 South standings and has swept the California state teams. The last time the Utes swept the state of California, it was in 2014, when Utah beat the states of Fresno, UCLA, USC and Stanford in a 9-4 season.
Here are some recipes for Utah's victory over the Bruins.
For some reason, the Rose Bowl is a great place to play with the Utah's halfbacks. It may be grass or nostalgia for football that has left so many memories over the years, but it's a place where Utah has officially announced its return to college football.
In 2016, Joe Williams, after his retirement and return, unleashed a big part of the ground game on the UCLA defense, finishing with 332 yards and four touchdowns on 29 en route to a 52-45 victory. It was good enough for a Utah school record and probably a match that propelled it into the NFL.
On Friday, Moss launched another big race in the first leg against the Bruins for a career total of 211 yards and three touchdowns. Although it was not more than 300 yards that Williams managed to manage, Moss turned out to be a physical back with the ability to attack the defenders to extend the run.
And it's not like Moss is slowing down as the game progresses. His ability to become more physical only improves as he plays for a long time. The first successes do not make sense for the junior who finds the way to prolong the race and to obtain bigger gains. As a result, Moss averaged 8.1 yards per run, and most of them trailed the defenders.
Utah fans should take advantage of the talent they have with Moss on the field, as he is likely to have done enough to effectively defend the NFL project and will likely leave the program more early. More crazy things have happened, but he's proving to be a great candidate for the NFL as the season progresses.
This was not the best start for the Utes who only managed 3 points in their first two trips to the red zone in the first quarter. One of these trips was particularly beneficial, as the UCLA return player blocked a puncture and Utah recovered on the Bruins' 6-yard line. But Utah's offense took down and quarterback Tyler Huntley kicked an interception in the end zone to end the run.
In the first weeks of the season, slow starts were a disturbing trend and meant that the Utes were in a long night – and even a loss. But the script has rocked since the first part of the season and Utah has the right state of mind not to allow the initial struggles to predict future inconsistencies.
In the weeks that followed, Utah put an end to the troubles of the first hour and found a measured attack approach to slowly and methodically separate the defenses and correct the course. Against the Bruins, Utah would respond to UCLA's only touchdown and take a quick lead to score 28 unanswered points. Utah would benefit from this lead after a field placement by the Bruins to score the magic number of 41 points.
Although not being perfect, Utah remains at least calm and is working tirelessly to win the long-awaited South Division victories.
If you look at the last sheet of statistics, there is absolutely nothing that comes out of tight ends. In fact, this is one of the quieter nights for the tight ends group this season. But their game deserves to be mentioned in a game where they allowed the offense to succeed.
Cole Fotheringham, Connor Haller, Jake Jackson and Brant Kuithe have all been a relatively unknown aspect of the Utah offensive this season. Besides Haller, everyone has contributed to a touchdown of the season and several big games to move the chains for the attack. But it's their ability to block and adjust the edge that has been a big boost for the Utes.
Moss, Armand Shyne, TJ Green, Britain Covey, Tyler Huntley, etc. have all benefited from the tight ends, providing additional protection at the front and allowing the offensive to surpass themselves. In addition, they have been a major threat in the game because the defenders have a matching problem.
Although they are not as statistically impressive as Moss when they run the ball for big wins, their addition to the offensive was just as important to Utah's success this season. and more importantly, the last four games.
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