Instant Takeaways From Utah’s Win Over Stanford

SALT LAKE CITY- It was not the prettiest start for Utah football but as we all should know by now, it’s never about how you start, but how you finish. The Utes walked away with another dominating victory, this time over the Stanford Cardinal, 42-7, while several of their conference-mates crumbled.

No. 6 Oregon was taken down a notch by No. 24 Washington, while No. 9 UCLA stubbed their toe against Arizona.

Once again, the Utes displayed a full team effort to get the dub with a lot of creativity and smothering defense. Here is what stood out from Utah’s last home game of the 2022 football season.

 

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Tavion Thomas

After sputtering for most of the season for one reason or another, running back Tavion Thomas was a force against Stanford when the Utes needed him most.

Thomas finished his career at Rice-Eccles Stadium with more rushing yards than Stanford’s entire offense put up. (180 yards rushing for Thomas to Stanford’s 177 total yards of offense.)

Thomas ran angry. Thomas ran inspired. Thomas ran like he’d missed a lot and didn’t want to miss anymore.

It seems appropriate that in his last game at RES, Thomas would have 22 carries- a nod to the player who was lost for Thomas to be at Utah. Those carries obviously accounted for the aforementioned 180 yards and two touchdowns.

Utah’s Defense

By George, they seem to have it.

Utah’s defense continues to get better and better each and every week after being considered very disappointing to start the season.

Utah defense: pic.twitter.com/uqPn65S3sS

— Michelle Bodkin (@BodkinKSLsports) November 13, 2022

We already know they held the Cardinal’s offense to 177 total yards. Broken down further that equates to 155 yards through the air and just 22 yards rushing- a nod to the other brother lost on the defensive-side of the ball.

Rising looked like he was sacked. He's moving better but still not his best and somehow broke free and smoked Stanford's entire defense for 26 yards and 1st down on third and long. #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/739ihi3n8T

— Michelle Bodkin (@BodkinKSLsports) November 13, 2022

The defense was relentless in their pursuit of the quarterback sacking Tanner McKee a collective 7 times with Semote Pepa, Cole Bishop, Lander Barton, Jonah Ellis, Mohamoud Diabate and Keanu Tanuvasa making contributions to the cause. On top of that the Utes also had nine tackles for a loss.

Take A Bow Bad Moon Rising

It’s sounding pretty certain quarterback Cam Rising has played for the last time at RES and he didn’t disappoint.

Rising was good for 20 of 30 passing for 219 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. We also got to see him use his wheels at critical conjectures of drives despite probably still not being 100%. On the ground Rising had three carries for 34 yards while keeping Stanford’s defense just honest enough.

We Are Family

A lot was said early in the week about wanting to make sure the seniors and underclassmen not returning were sent out the right way and it showed on the field. This one is more a feeling than a stat, but it was obvious the Utes were playing for each other. It’s not like that is really anything new with this team, but it’s always nice to see players recognize the importance of a moment and seizing it.

We Have A Game Time For Oregon

Obviously, the next game on Utah’s docket is a big one having to travel to Eugene to take on the Oregon Ducks. It’s a huge match-up that got much more interesting with the Duck’s loss to Washington earlier in the night.

Because everything surrounding sports media is about convenience (sarcasm font), naturally the time for Utah and Oregon’s meeting next week was announced right in the middle of the Utes’ game against the Cardinal.

The Utes and Ducks will be kicking off at 8:30 pm MT/7:30 pm PT on ESPN to no one’s surprise. USC and UCLA will get the 5:30 pm MT/4:30 pm PT kick with Fox.

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