Provo » Utah quarterback Jordan Wynn was speaking for himself Saturday when he said he felt like the life had been sucked out of him as he watched BYU receiver Andrew George score the winning touchdown against the Utes.
His feelings were no doubt shared by everyone who sided with the Utes in Saturday's rivalry game. Those are the kinds of emotions felt when an underdog team loses an early lead, flirts with being blown out then rises up and forces overtime only to lose the game with a slip of the hands.
The Utes did indeed have the life sucked out of them and their hearts broken in the 26-23 overtime loss to the Cougars at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
That they lost wasn't so surprising as much as how they lost. Utah's defense, which so often has come up with the big plays needed to win games for the Utes, instead gave up the big one Saturday when George caught a pass from Max Hall, weaved between Utah veteran defenders Stevenson Sylvester and Joe Dale and scored on a 25-yard run.
The play was one the Utes were expecting, Sylvester said, they just missed George.
"We had double coverage and he squeaked right through," Sylvester said. "Max Hall put it on the money. I don't want to re-live it much."
The pain though will live with the Utes for a long time, much like how many of the other close endings in this series have stuck with previous teams.
Utah's battle back from a 20-6 deficit to tie the game was completed when walk-on kicker Joe Phillips made a 40-yard field goal with 29 seconds to play.
He made one from 29 yards out in overtime to put the Utes up 23-20. All the Utes needed to do was come up with a couple defensive stops and hold the Cougars to a field goal or maybe block the kick.
Instead the worst possible scenario happened for the Utes, leaving them stunned and staring at the final scoreboard.
"It's real tough," Sylvester said. "It's one of those rivalry games where we played our asses off and you have to hand it to the team and BYU. I told you it was going to be a spectacular type of ending, I just didn't want it to go that way."
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham credited Hall with an accurate pass, then gave his team credit for battling back to be in a position to come away with a win.
"It's tearing their guts out," he said of his locker room. "When you want it so much and you lay it on the line like they did, it's hard. It's tough."
Utah's best hopes for an upset seemed to disappear after the first quarter when Utah moved the ball well but had to settle for two field goals.
After that production the offense bogged down, Wynn looked rattled and was banged up and Hall started finding openings in Utah's defense.
But things changed in the fourth quarter. Wynn settled down, running back Eddie Wide found some running room and the Utes evened the score thanks to field goals by Phillips and a 1-yard touchdown run by Wide.
The defense was playing well too, keeping the Cougars out of the end zone in the fourth quarter.
"I was feeling good about it going into overtime," Whittingham said.
Then the feelings, and the game, slipped away.
