Kyle Whittingham’s best Utah team chokes away playoff spot in Pac-12 Championship Game loss to Oregon

This was supposedly Kyle Whittingham’s best team he’s ever had, but the Utah Utes choked away their best opportunity to reach the College Football Playoff.

Utah’s best wasn’t good enough to get to the playoff or even win the Pac-12.

The Pac-12 Championship Game was supposed to be all about the Utah Utes making their final statement to make the College Football Playoff. This was Kyle Whittingham’s best team in Salt Lake City, as he even said so. Turns out, that was not the case.

Oregon jumped on Utah early to put to rest their playoff aspirations and they’re headed to the Rose Bowl while Utah awaits their bowl destination, Oregon dominated Utah in the first half, leading 20-0 heading into the third quarter. While the Utes made things interesting in the third quarter, bringing the score back to within eight, a 70-yard touchdown by CJ Verdell midway through the fourth quarter ended them as Utah fell 37-15.

The dream season for Utah suddenly turned into a nightmare they could not wake up from.

This is the second straight disappointing showing in the Pac-12 Championship Game for Utah.

The most disappointing showing for Utah was their rush defense that entered the game as the best in the nation at stopping the run, allowing an average of 56.25 yards per game. That rush defense had no answer for the Oregon offensive line that is one of the best units in the nation. The Utes’ allowed 239 yards on an average of 5.8 yards per carry. The back-breaker was the 70-yard game-sealing touchdown from Verdell in the fourth quarter.

There was more blame to go around for the Utes who got the worst game of the season from their unassuming superstar quarterback, Tyler Huntley. Coming into the game with only two interceptions, Huntley threw two in the game, including one in the end zone in the first quarter.

The game got off to an inauspicious start with Utah failing to convert on a fourth down that gave Oregon early momentum. Utah made that a trend as they failed to pick up on three other fourth-down attempts. Further, the 15 points scored by Utah were the least they scored in a game all year.

Oregon dominated Utah unlike any team had all year.

If there was a series of events best describing Utah’s night, let’s go back to the last two minutes of the first quarter. Oregon punted up 10-0 on Utah. On the first play from scrimmage from their 20-yard line, Utah would get an incredible run out of Zack Moss for 42 yards, set up by a nice block from Huntley. Then from the Oregon 38-yard line, Huntley threw the awful pick in the end zone.

This was one of those rare opportunities where a good, but not a great program like Utah could have made some serious headway in the national landscape.

With Oregon about to have another top-10 recruiting class, it’s the Ducks’ Pac-12 now and for the foreseeable future. They are arguably the Pac-12 team of the decade with this being their fourth conference championship in the decade, the most in the league.

Oregon had the look of a Playoff team earlier this year but ended any hope of the Pac-12 at making it in 2019 by ravaging Utah for the entire college football world to see. Whittingham knew Utah had to beat Oregon but couldn’t. Now Utah won’t even smell the roses.

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