Huskies Shock the Utes

The Utah Utes were 7-point favorites going into their home field matchup against the Washington Huskies. Many assumed that UW had a shot but if push came to shove Utah had the edge or it would be a close outcome.

It all boils down to what Coach Steve Sarkisian said after the first game of the season,

"“One telling thing that we have been harping for 3 years, showed up today. You win the turnover battle, you win football games.”"

That motto has been drilled into the heads of these players, not only not turning the ball over on offense but creating turnovers on defense.

The game started out with a Utah fumble off the opening kick, a ball which UW’s Jamaal Kearse picked up and took to the house. 7-0 Huskies, and the turnover battle has started and is already helping them towards a big win.

The Utah offense fired back and on their second drive were able to punch it in for a touchdown tying the game at 7-7. But that would be the Utes last

score until the final minute of the game. This would not, however, be their last trip to the red-zone.

Utah marched down to the Washington 4 and Jordan Wynn threw an interception to Sean Parker. The Utes marched down to the Washington 15 and receiver Dres Anderson fumbled it, only to be recovered by Desmond Trufant.

The Huskies were able to then put a field goal in to make it a 10-7 game at half-time. Turnovers seemed to be the only thing holding together the Husky lead. The offense had failed to produce any major spark and Chris Polk was sitting at 47 yards.

Coach Sark’s half-time speech must have been magnificent because UW came out of the locker room and the flash was there, a TD drive capped off by a Keith Price to Kasen Williams touchdown from 8 yards out.

Utah then goes 3 and out. And it was all downhill from there, for the Utes, as they lost their starting quarterback, Wynn, to an injury. Jon Hayes the backup, fresh off the Nebraska-Omaha roster (who had recently decided not to have a football team), came in and threw his first pass, an interception to Gregory Ducre.

Polk begins to chop off first downs like he is playing the North Texas run defense not this “highly touted” front-line of Utah. Price then finds Jermaine Kearse for a touchdown. Utah has no answer. UW then marches the field again (primarily consisting of run after run from Polk) this time a Price touchdown to Devin Aguilar. The Huskies are up 31-7.

The game was over, Utah was able to answer with one more touchdown in the final seconds of the game (garbage time) and finish with a final score of 31-14. The turnover battle? 1-5 in favor of UW.

"“You win the turnover battle, you win ballgames.”"

Quick Stats:

• Keith Price ended the game with 22/30 for 226 and 3 touchdowns. He is now second in the nation with touchdown passes thrown at 17. Robert Griffin III has 18.
• Chris Polk had a 142 yards rushing in the second half and ended the day with 189 total rushing yards.
• The UW defense held Utah to 17 yards rushing on 23 carries.