Utah Football: 3 takeaways from Week 13 road win at Arizona

Utah football became the Pac-12’s last hope for a College Football Playoff berth in 2019. They responded with a huge Week 13 win over Arizona.

Utah found out soon after the start of their game against Arizona that Oregon had fallen an hour and a half up the road in Tempe, killing the chances of setting up the Pac-12 championship game as a de facto College Football Playoff quarterfinal this season. While Oregon will still be in Santa Clara as the Pac-12 North winner, they can only play spoiler.

The Utes, however, are very much alive in the Playoff chase after a 35-7 takedown of the Wildcats in Week 13 Pac-12 After Dark action. Utah made sure not to suffer the same fate as the Ducks, toppling Arizona with ease in a runaway victory where they did not ease up after the intermission. Especially impressive was the Utes defense, which allowed only 196 total yards to their hosts when Arizona had the football.

Though they were held on a goal-line stand at the end of the first half, the Utes still went into the locker room at halftime up 14-0. All they did was extend that lead from there for the runaway blowout of the Wildcats that will earn Utah a long look from the College Football Playoff selection committee this week when they deliberate on the results of a wild weekend.

With the weight of the Pac-12 now resting completely on their shoulders, Utah looks strong enough to shoulder that load. Here are three things to take away about the Utes from what proved to be a rather ordinary blowout on a day of wholly unexpected results.