Utah runs over the Buffs, get bowl eligible, 34-13

I mean, it wasn’t a winner take all championship game, but it was a winner go to a bowl game game. CU has broken Utah’s heart in the past, and this year, it wasn’t going to happen as Utah dominated Colorado for their 6th win of the season 34-13. Utah jumped all over Colorado early on in the game, on both sides of the ball, and coasted to an easy win.

The win was a hard earned one in regards to the guys that were either shaken up or missing the game. Utah was down Kylie Fitts, Tyler Huntley, Siasoi Wilson, Jaylon Johnson, Casey Hughes, and Carrington wasn’t 100%. The guys banded together and played great. The star of the night, though, was Zack Moss. He had 196 yards on 26 attempts, and broke the 1000 yard mark on the season. He also punched in two touchdowns, and was either trucking dudes, or dragging dudes for chunks of yards. Seriously, if you missed this game, go watch it just to watch him. Devonta’e Henry-Cole was great too, with 79 yards on 9 carries. Utah finished the game with 310 yards rushing, and just ran over, around, and through CU all game long, it was beyond impressive. Behind Moss, senior QB, and captain, Troy Williams played a very good game. He didn’t put up huge numbers, but he was efficient, accurate, and hit the throws that he needed to hit. We has 15 of 24 on the night with 181 yards, and had two touchdowns rushing. Utah’s offensive line was also stellar tonight, they were giving Williams some good pockets, and some very good holes for the backs to hit. They were getting to the second level often to help turn 5 yard gains into 15.

On defense, you could tell the game plan was to stop Phillip Lindsay, the stud CU running back. He was target 1, 2, 3 and 4 for Utah to stop. They were wanting Steven Montez to beat them with his arm, and while he did make a couple of plays, he wasn’t good enough to get CU moving constantly, he was 14 of 28 for 195 yards on the game. Utah held CU to 319 total yards on offense, and they got a much needed fumble recovery to end any CU threat mid way through the 4th quarter. Bradlee Anae was a monster with 8 tackles, 3 TFLs, 2.5 sacks and one forced fumble on the game. Cody Barton also had a great game, which was nice to see since he struggled at times this season. He had 10 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 pass break up, and a fumble recovery. This was one of Utah’s better performances this year, and it came at a big time, with a bunch of important guys missing.

Next up for the Utes, they await their bowl destination and opponent, which we should know in about a week. Most importantly, the Utes now get 15 bowl prep practices that will allow this young players for Utah to continue to develop, and that will be big going into next season.

The future is bright for this team.