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<h1>One Yard Short</h1>
It’s one yard that will likely haunt Utah players and coaching staff for this entire week. Utah, down 28-23 in the waining moments of the 4th quarter, found themselves 1 yard away from victory and lined up against one of the worst defenses in all of college football. If anyone, at that moment, were to review the stat sheet for not only this game, but the entire season so far, or knew anything about Utah football, I doubt they would pick against Utah in that situation.

Sadly, the stat sheet doesn’t matter in those situations. What matters is which team executes and does their job and, in this case, the Cal defensive line did what it took to ensure their team would come out on top.

Looking back, this single moment at the most critical time in the game ended up being microcosm for the game as a whole. Utah, while dominating nearly every aspect of the game (97 plays, 442 yds, 42:01 ToP, 29 first downs) found itself lacking in two critical areas; the ability to finish drives and stop big plays. Consequently, Utah left points on the field and allowed points that ended up being the deciding factor in the game.

Troy Williams, while having a farily decent game (24/43 266 yds 0 TD 0 INT) was a little inaccurate all game including a poorly throw bootleg pass to Evan Moeai, on the second-to-last play of the game, that would likely have resulted in Moeai strolling into the endzone and sealing the deal for the Utes. Williams was also lacking two key receiving targets; Tim Patrick (4 rec 44 yds), left the game early due to an ankle injury that was reportedly bothering him all week, and Cory Butler-Byrd, who did not travel with the team due to personal obligations. Raelon Singleton stepped up to fill the void, and had a decent game (7 rec 99 yds) but, overall, the Utah passing game wasn’t quite as productive as it should have been against a fairly poor California defense.

Davis Webb (22/35 306 yds 4 TD 1 INT), while limited to well under his average pass attempts per game (51.4), was efficient with the football and attacked the Utah secondary on the big play with touchdown passes of 40, 39, 24 and 56 yards. Webb’s favorite target of the season, Chad Hansen, accounted for two scores on 5 catches and 98 yards paired up with Demetris Robertson who had touchdowns on 4 catches and 97 yards.

Overall, while Utah dominated statistically they never quite did what it took to take over the game, as indicated by the final result of the game and circumstances that led up to that being the deciding factor of the overall contest. My hats off to Cal for doing what it takes to win the game and being strong on defense in those few moments when it mattered most.

Hopefully Utah will lick it’s wounds, rebound, and get those few critical yards this week when they welcome the Arizona Wildcats (2-3, 0-2) to Rice-Eccles Stadium on October 8th.

GO UTES!