All day long the mood on campus was festive. You had people arriving after 3pm and the smell of BBQ was in the air. It was awesome! Tara. Sam, and Bree arrived on the Hill around 5:30 and it was over to Rice Eccles for the big game.
Things started pretty slowly. Utah's offense and special teams (aka Shaky Smithson) kept turning the ball over in the first quarter and the defense kept stepping up. Still Pitt managed to score first and they totally controlled the ball for the first 20 minutes of the game.
Then the momentum shifted. Utah scored on a long touchdown drive and tied the score. Their special teams made a mistake on the kickoff and we recovered the craziest fumble I've ever seen. We took the ball and immediately scored another TD. It was as though we couldn't be stopped by Pitt. In fact we couldn't be stopped by the Panthers. But we could be stopped - by ourselves.
Jordan Wynn threw an interception in the end zone, we had a punt blocked, and a bunch of penalties - all adding up to a 24-24 tie and on OT headache. A game we should have won by ten was coming down to a coin flip and anything could happen. On the first play of OT - something happened.A freshman CB broke on the ball and came up with a game changing INT. We had the ball, we had control. Asiata pounded ahead and got the ball down to the 4 yard line and the chip shot field goal was good. Final score Utah 27- Pitt 24.
The stats will show that Utah controlled much of the game. Even though our offense and special teams were pretty sloppy the Utes D is solid. They held Pitt time and again and the RB (a preseason Hesiman candidate) could only gain 75 yards. There are more positives than negatives to take away from the season opener. Most of which is a WIN.
2 comments:
I can't believe you left out the important topic of convesation Tara and I had during the intense game. All about the football for you isn't Jared.
Fun game, but I wasn't that impressed by the Utes. They didn't seem very sharp, but I guess that is first game jitters.
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