Hey, Utah football … Hello? Are you there?
Helloooo? Annyyybbboodddyyy home?
No.
There was nobody to pick up the damn call. Nothing. Nada. Nichts.
The other end of the line was as dead and empty as Rice-Eccles Stadium midway through the fourth quarter of the Utes’ game against Arizona State on Saturday, when any suspense regarding the outcome had long since been doused.
And so, like that, a seemingly sunny atmosphere was a mirage. A sunshiny afternoon was transformed, a perfect day for Pac-12 football ruined, compliments, in part, of the Utes themselves, 10-point favorites coming in who were shocked by the most dismal of rains.
When ASU went up by 20 points late in the third quarter, capping a 75-yard drive with a touchdown, and subsequently intercepted Tyler Huntley for the third time, Utah’s rain turned into a downpour and then, a storm.
There was nothing left for the Utes to do through the final minutes but stand there and get soaked — by ASU’s superiority and their own ineptitude, losing by the final count of 30-10.
Everyone on hand — the crowd started at 45,000 — was surprised … except for the Devils. They came wholly prepared for victory. The Utes? None of them brought goulashes, slickers or umbrellas, or much willingness to fight.
The return of Huntley was not the answer, the way many Utes presumed it would be. Utah had lost two straight games — against Stanford and USC — with senior Troy Williams subbing in. Any thoughts that the sophomore would have made the difference in those games, had he played, disappeared here.
Just like Huntley was not the answer on Saturday, Williams was never the problem.
The Utes have troubles in a lot of areas, all of them on display against ASU.
Like this one: They could not effectively or consistently move the ball.
Sustaining drives was made laborious by an attack that was proficient neither through the air nor on the ground. Huntley wound up completing 19 of 35 passes for 155 yards — with four interceptions. No part of Utah’s run game made any kind of difference. Zack Moss rushed for 49 yards, Huntley for 34.
Deciding exactly who made Arizona State’s defense impregnable — the Utes’ offense or the Devils defenders — was a tough call. But ASU deserves praise for clogging its defensive drain.
Before its resistance-bolstered win over Washington last week, few found any reason to admire the Sun Devils’ D. It had put up about as much effective resistance as the Maginot Line in previous weeks, when New Mexico State (31 points), San Diego State (30 points), Texas Tech (52 points), Oregon (35 points), and Stanford (34 points) rolled around and over them.
Anybody on any team on any field could score in bunches against this defense.
Uh, never mind.
A week ago, in an I-can’t-believe-what-I-just-saw moment, the Huskies, a team some consider to be the Pac-12’s best, stumbled and bumbled against that group, managing a mere seven points.
Utah channeled the Huskies.
Except Washington allowed only 13 points. Against the Utes, the ASU offense fired off via the pass and the run. At first, they moved the ball and stalled in the red zone, settling for three field goals. And then, they found ways to finish.
Not until the closing minutes, when they were down, 30-3, when it mattered not at all, did the Utes find the end zone.
“We couldn’t score points or get stops. … We’ve got to figure some things out,” Matt Gay said. “We’ve got to make some changes. We need to improve.”
The fact that the Utes sent their kicker first into the postgame interview room told the story.
When Huntley arrived, he correctly said: “We just didn’t come out to play. … We didn’t complete our assignments. We failed the test.”
Nobody could explain why that was the case, just that it was.
Kyle Whittingham put it this way: “Inept on offense, soft against the run, a lot of things. A lot of things to figure out. In the back of my mind, two tough emotional losses took their toll. My fault for not being able to put that behind us. … We as coaches are paid to solve our problems.”
They’ll earn that pay now. Or they won’t.
Either way, the combo-pack of those two emotional defeats and an emotionally dead one will be formidable to overcome. They’ll have to answer the ringing phone.
Hellooooo?
“We’re down, we need to pick ourselves up from this,” Whittingham said. “… You name it, we’ve got to fix it.”
GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.