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Tucson, Ariz.

As the last moments ended in double overtime here late Saturday night, Kyle Whittingham stared across the field at something he had seen only once before this season.

Defeat.

The numbers shining into the dark desert sky hauntingly bore witness: Arizona 37, Utah 30. An unanswered Arizona TD in that extra time was the difference.

What that meant is that there would be no more silent dreams for the Utes — or loud speculation by any of the rest of us — for any kind of shot, be it long or short, at the national playoff. They will pay for this loss with a dive in the rankings and damaged prospects for lofty postseason opportunity, although some of that will be sorted out later, depending on Utah's qualification for the Pac-12 Championship game. But the real toll exacted from the Utes will be their own formerly happy view of themselves.

For the fourth straight time, Utah, despite being favored in this game, couldn't beat Rich Rodriguez's version of the Wildcats, and, in the early aftermath, none of the Utes seemed to know with exactness why. There were some injuries to starters, but … this was a bad defensive showing.

We all saw it. The Utes experienced it. But proper explanations were in short supply.

Utah's rugged defense too often could not contain or control Arizona's attack, including at game's end. The primary matchup here went the way of the Wildcats. It was clear what UA was attempting to do: Get its playmakers out in space, often in one-on-one situations, and let them run free. It was successful in the attempt.

Utah tried to possess the ball as long as possible to keep it away from that nitro-fueled UA offense. It was a good idea that ultimately didn't work.

The scoring got started on the first drive with a beauty of an Arizona move down the field, aided by Utah penalties, ruptured by a dropped Wildcat pass and punctuated by a field goal. The second UA drive was the same as the first, without the rupture and with a TD and it was 10-zip six minutes in.

NBD. The Utes fired off a 13-play, 75-yard answer, with heavy (7) doses of Devontae Booker runs, drawing within three and tearing the guts out of the home team, right?

Uh … four plays later, Arizona went up, 17-7 — and it became apparent that Utah's defense, at least not until starting quarterback Anu Solomon got hurt, and even after that, couldn't stop the Wildcats, couldn't stop a family of possum meandering across a wide street. Making matters worse, the Utes committed six penalties in the first quarter. They started the second with a Travis Wilson pick. Three minutes and 13 seconds into that stanza — mark it down — an Arizona drive was halted — on a dropped pass. Bleak got bleaker when Booker hobbled off the field with 10 minutes left in the half. After a Utah field goal, another deep UA drive was hurt by a bad snap.

But, then, Booker returned — and so did the Utes. An impressive late-in-the-second-quarter Utah TD march closed the margin to three.

In the second half, the Utes fought back, harder still, their character on full display, blowing straight past the early adversity, demonstrating that even on a night when they were beneath themselves, they could still do some damage. They went ahead, 27-20 in the third quarter.

The Utah offense, an outfit whose identity to this point had become the same as that of the prospective suitor trying to impress the mother of his love interest before the marriage proposal — get just enough done not to screw the whole thing up.

Saturday night, the thing was not jeopardized.

It was slightly enhanced.

Booker did what he could, although he wasn't fully himself. Wilson had a decent night against a defense built to get beat through the air.

It just wasn't enough.

How the Utes react to this second defeat will be interesting. They still can — maybe — represent the South Division in the league title game, but they no longer will chart their own course. Their fate's path will be affected, could be altered, by others, including USC and UCLA. They need cooperation now to bounce back to get what once seemed like 50 miles of open road.

Uncertainty now will be their shadow.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.