Isaac Wilson throws 3 interceptions, offense stalls as Utah falls 49-24 to Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. — Projected NFL first-round pick Shedeur Sanders threw an interception on the first play of the game, setting up Utah's offense in prime position to take control of the game early.

But Utah was forced to settle with a 32-yard field goal, and it was the last time the team led for the duration of the game in what was another day for the team's offense and special teams (outside of Becker drilling three field goals against his former team).

That's been the story of the season for Utah, though.

Colorado used a 21-point first-half lead, including a 76-yard touchdown on a punt return in the first quarter, to pull away from Utah in a 49-24 win Saturday afternoon.

"That's a very good football team that we played today," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "Coach (Deion) Sanders has done a great job of getting that thing put together. I don't think there's any doubts that's the best team we've played this year, certainly the best group of receivers, best quarterback."

With New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen and approximately 20 NFL scouts in attendance, Sanders threw for 340 yards and three touchdowns on 30-of-41 passing in a game where Utah's defense lived in the backfield and put pressure on the senior QB.

Despite all the troubles on offense — the team had just 83 total yards of offense in the first half — and special teams, Utah's defense was the highlight of the afternoon with four sacks and six tackles for loss, while also forcing Colorado into several holding penalties to avoid more negative plays.

But even then, Colorado made more than enough plays to keep the offense moving, especially late when the game was out of reach. By the end, the defense was left trying to salvage a losing effort.

True freshman Isaac Wilson got the start again for the Utes despite suffering an illness throughout the week that left him as a game-time decision. But Wilson struggled to move the ball, especially in the first half, missing targets and holding onto the ball too long as Utah's offense stalled out.

For Whittingham, though, a lot of the problems on offense came with Utah's inability to get push up front and run the ball. The team finished with only 31 rushing yards in the game.

"We didn't get any knock off on the offensive line, no push inside, and you've got to get push inside to open up some creases," Whittingham said. "They played very tough at the line of scrimmage, and really couldn't get anything going."

"We just came out flat to start the game," added tight end Carsen Ryan. "I made some mistakes, everyone made mistakes, and we've got to clean that up. We've got to come out fast and start strong. We can't keep playing catch up every game. It starts in the run game. We've got to make better blocks for our running backs, and we've got to give Isaac more time to throw the ball."

Eventually, Utah got into a bit of a rhythm on offense, but it was sporadic and short.

"Got in a little bit of a rhythm there for a minute and was connecting on some passes, getting the ball out quicker, going through his read progression quicker," Whittingham said. "The protection was a little bit better for a period of time. And so I would say that was the reason for the production spurt that we had there."

After Colorado took a 28-9 lead in the third quarter, Wilson connected with Dorian Singer on a 40-yard touchdown pass, which was Singer's first touchdown of the season, to cut into the lead.

Wilson later got the offense moving down the field early in the fourth quarter, and capped off an eight-play, 75-yard drive with a 3-yard toss to Caleb Lohner in the end zone. Utah then converted on a 2-point try on a pass to Spencer Fano, who rumbled into the end zone and struck the Heisman pose.

After a late defensive stop, in which Utah recovered a fumble at midfield, Wilson threw his third interception of the day on a pass to the sideline that was picked by D.J McKinney to seal the win for Colorado. Wilson was later strip sacked and Colorado recovered on the Utah 19-yard line with just over three minutes left to play, setting up another Colorado score.

Wilson finished the day throwing for 236 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions on 21-of-40 passing. His first interception was a lobbed pass down field that hit Munir McClain in the hands and popped out into the hands of two-way star Travis Hunter, and then in the third quarter he hit Colorado defender Nikhai Hill-Green at midfield, and he took it to Utah's 37-yard line.

On the next play, running back Isaiah Augustave went untouched for 37-yard rushing touchdown to give Colorado a 28-9 lead.

Colorado managed 405 total yards of offense in the win, with the bulk of that coming in the passing game with 340 yards. Despite the low output, it was still more than Utah's 272 total yards.

"I'm in the twilight zone. ... It's the most difficult year of my coaching career, hands down, not even close," Whittingham said.

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