This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Well. It was great fun while it lasted.

It didn't.

If there had been a way found by the Utes for them to beat UCLA and regain first place outright in the Pac-12 South, without their best player, a player responsible for nearly half of their offense this season, that would be … what's the word, impressive?

Praiseworthy. Remarkable. Impressive.

It would be all of those things. Were it to be.

It wasn't.

Instead, a season that sustained itself for a long while as an undefeated charge up to a top-three national ranking, and a commanding lead in the South, then stumbled and tumbled with an October defeat, then was pumped back up, ultimately ended in consecutive November losses, the second coming Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

At the finish, the lights on the scoreboard told the sorry tale: UCLA 17, Utah 9.

"You're not going to win many games in the Pac-12 scoring nine points," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said afterward, his players hurting in the postgame locker room. They knew with USC losing, as Whittingham said it, "the table was set."

It was unset, the tablecloth pulled, at game's end on a devastating mistake, a Travis Wilson fumble with 1:01 left on the clock, the Utes having moved 51 yards toward a chance to tie the count with a TD and two-point conversion.

They couldn't.

And all opportunity, after so much earlier promise, to qualify for the league title game, and maybe something even more glorious after that, bounced away.

"It's difficult when you have something in your grasp and you let it slip away," Andy Phillips said. "… To have an outcome like this, it definitely hurts."

That postgame pain was etched all over the faces of every Ute, not the least of which was Wilson. The senior quarterback hit 13 of 26 passes for 110 yards — coupled with that final turnover.

"I wasn't making throws," he said, "and there was nothing there."

Wilson's fumble was only the last of it, not the whole.

Adversity throughout was all around the Utes, beginning with Devontae Booker's absence due to knee surgery, and it built from there.

Utah fell behind 10-0 in the first 11 minutes, and circumstances could have been worse, considering a Wilson interception was negated by a penalty, and, they got worse when Britain Covey was knocked out of the game. That left the Utes without their best running back, without their best receiver … and without their best defensive back, Reggie Porter, who started and then succumbed, not to mention the other guys already out.

UCLA didn't want to hear anything about anybody's injuries, considering the Bruins, as much as any team in the conference, had been forced this season to fight through the loss of so many talented players.

That's the way it goes.

Joe Williams, the man charged with replacing Booker, gained 121 yards on 26 carries. He also caught four balls for another 31. Not enough.

Utah's defense, which looked vulnerable early on, leaving Bruin receivers open, receivers that on a number of occasions were missed by quarterback Josh Rosen, did its work as the game wore on, switching from man mostly to zone. Rosen had 140 passing yards in the first quarter; when the deal was done, he had 220.

Again and again, at the end of the third quarter and into the fourth, that Ute defense handed the ball to its offense and the offense couldn't do much. During one stretch, Utah had three straight three-and-outs. That was before UCLA missed a field goal at the 7:58 mark of that final quarter, a kick that would have given it an 11-point advantage. Instead, the Utes took over at their own 31-yard line and … another three-and-out.

That offense had its one last shot with more than three minutes left, down eight, with 84 yards and a defense the Utes had not been able put a touchdown on all afternoon in front of them. They churned out those 51 yards before settling at the UCLA 34 … when the ball came out.

And what once was a special season, turned previously down a notch to real good, was turned down again to pretty darn decent. If the Utes beat Colorado next week, they'll finish at 9-3, 6-3 in league. If that's disappointing, causing pain and anguish among the Utes, that's a healthy sign — even if Utah loses a lot of senior talent, which it will.

The great fun might be gone, but the progress isn't.

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.