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All that Washington needed was to kneel — the picture of formality.

The No. 15 Arizona Wildcats would have been left with less than 10 seconds and poor field position if the Huskies had taken a knee for three downs last week in Tucson. Somehow, against the ropes and stumbling — again — Tra'Mayne Bondurant forced the ball from the hands of Washington running back Deontae Cooper and Derrick Turituri recovered.

Arizona's Casey Skowron, who missed a 36-yarder that would have given Arizona a win against USC, then missed again on a game-winning attempt from 47 yards — only Washington's Chris Petersen called timeout.

Skowron tried again, and he nailed it.

Utah was by then playing a game of its own — one it won in double overtime, 20-17, in Palo Alto — but if the No. 20 Utes watched the tape later, they might have seen something of themselves: A team that has gotten second chances, and a team that has taken them.

Of Utah's seven Pac-12 games this season, six have been decided by a touchdown or less — one, in overtime, and two, in double overtime.

"It can be something that becomes the type of team that you are, being able to win those close games, and it becomes a mentality, is the best way to put it," said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham on Monday. "Our guys have definitely developed that mentality through the course of the season. We haven't won every close game, we know that, but these guys believe that they are going to win every game that they are in."

Arizona has been more or less the same — six overall games by a touchdown or less — except that while Utah has actually been outscored 85-57 in the fourth, Arizona is outscoring opponents 100 to 59 in the final period.

Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said coaches recognized before the season starts that Arizona doesn't have the talent to regularly wipe the floor with the Pac-12 heavyweights. It's a team led by a 6-foot-2 redshirt freshman quarterback (Anu Solomon) and a turf-burning sophomore linebacker named Scooby (Wright).

But they've had the talent to hang.

"We talked about it and said, 'Hey, listen, we're probably going to be in a lot of close games, and it's going to go the full 60 minutes, and if anything else, we're going to be a pretty conditioned team,' " Rodriguez said. "... I think guys really believe that that plays a role in every game. And there's a little luck involved, too, but we've been in nine straight games that have pretty much gone down to the fourth quarter."

Utah is a 4.5-point favorite Saturday. Like the Utes, Arizona has slain giants — then-No. 2 Oregon, most notably — and struggled against teams it was expected to beat soundly — UTSA, Cal, Colorado.

If history is any indicator, Saturday's fourth quarter will be worth watching.

Twitter: @matthew_piper —

Ute Proud

As part of its pact with the Northern Utes, the university will honor Native American Heritage Month at Saturday's game. At one point, the tribe's business committee had expressed the hope that the team would wear a helmet with a full headdress, or a specialized jersey, but instead the team will wear a helmet emblazoned with a tribal seal decal, and coaches will wear a patch.

The tribe's honor guard will present the national colors and 100 Ute youth will take part in pow wow dances at halftime.

For more information on the U.'s Native American Heritage Month campaign, dubbed "Ute Proud," visit the following link: http://www.utahutes.com/trads/ute-proud.html. —

No. 15 Arizona at No. 20 Utah

O Saturday, 1:30 p.m.

TV • ESPN