Utah Football: Utes Beat Huskies for the first time by score of 34-23

It wasn't pretty, in fact it was downright ugly at times, but Utah got their 8th win of the season, and their 5th in conference play, Saturday night in Seattle over Washington by a score of 34-23. This marks the first time that the Utes have beaten the Huskies in program history, and the first time they've been Chris Peterson, who has been a thorn in Utah's side in the past with Boise State. Utah maintains their one game lead in the Pac-12 South with the win, and continues to control their own destiny.

The 1st quarter left a lot to be desired, as Utah kept shooting themselves in the foot with terrible penalties, and had a missed field goal by Andy Phillips. The Utes trailed the Huskies after the 1st by a score of 3-0. Then after back-to-back weeks of no turnovers, the Utah defense turned things up and started to get takeaways in droves. They forced two fumbles and one interception in the 1st half, which helped the Utes get rolling in that 2nd quarter with 24 points. The headlining play was near the end of the half, when Gionni Paul picked up a fumbled reception and took it to the house for a 54 yard touchdown. Paul was all over the field, as he actually picked off Jake Browning earlier in the quarter to set up a touchdown.

Utah then went cold to open the 2nd half, where they saw Washington start to gash the defense and set up scoring opportunities, including a 10 yard Myles Gaskin touchdown run that cut Utah's lead to just four. Often times throughout the night, when Utah was struggling they would commit bad penalties, including the opening kick off of the 2nd half, when they received a 15 yarder that put Washington near midfield to open the half.

Fortunately for the Utes, they've played great in 4th quarters this year, and that continued tonight, as they got the run game finally rolling, with both Devontae Booker and Travis Wilson picking up chunks of yards on the ground.

Utah ran for 191 yds in the game, 100yds in the 4th Q. #Utes @Utah_Football

— Bill Riley (@espn700bill) November 8, 2015

When it seemed that Utah's offense would forever let the team down, they put together a beautiful nine play, 60 yard drive, all on the ground, to give themselves an eight point lead. The drive was capped by a Travis Wilson two yard touchdown run.

Utah's defense put the clamps down in the final quarter as well, as Utah finally put the game away.

How good was the Utah Defense in the 4th Q? UW 0-2 on 3rd Down UW 9yds rushing UW 49yds passing UW 3pts #Utes

— Bill Riley (@espn700bill) November 8, 2015

The Utes really put the game on ice when Kylie Fitts got a sack-fumble on Jake Browning, that Utah recovered and eventually kicked a field goal to give themselves an 11 point lead. Utah won the turnover battle four to three, and scored 24 points off of those turnovers.

Utah quarterback, Travis Wilson, did not have a good night through the air, as he only had 155 yards on 12-of-25 passing, with one interception. However, his 10 carries for 42 yards helped a ton, especially in the 4th quarter. Fortunately for Wilson, and the rest of the Utah offense, they won't face a defense near as difficult as Washington the last three games of the season.

Devontae Booker had a good night, as he rushed for 150 yards on 34 carries and one touchdown. Booker went over 1000 yards on the season in the win, and moved up the all-time Utah rushing list.

Devontae Booker now ranks 4th on the All Time Utah Rushing list with 2628yds. Passed John White, Juan Johnson and Del Rogers tonight. #Utes

— Bill Riley (@espn700bill) November 8, 2015

The one main downer during this game, was during the last play of the game, Utah Quarterback/Saftey Chase Hansen went down with what looked like a broken leg/ankle. Hansen had a monster game himself, with 11 tackles, one forced fumble and a pass breakup.