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The ball hung in the air, sailing over the head of Brian Allen, and landing in the hands of Darren Carrington in the absolute farthest possible corner of the southeast end zone. The refs ruled the receiver's foot out of bounds. The review was yet to come. It hung about 50 times longer than the ball had. And then. …

And then.

On that play on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the tail end of the Utah-Oregon game, Carrington's foot wasn't on the line, but everything else was for the Utes — their hopes and dreams of a South Division title, an invitation to the Pac-12 title game, and, maybe, just maybe, entrance into the Rose Bowl.

As the crowd waited for the conclusion of the review, it fell into a nervous quietude. When it was announced that Carrington's heel was, in fact, in bounds, giving the Ducks a 30-28 win over the Utes, Rice-Eccles went completely silent … except for the jubilant cheers of a sliver of Oregon fans in the west stands. It was almost eerie, a few voices heard in such a large, dead building.

As the players on both teams walked off the field, words were hurled — unprintable words, the Ducks' shouted in celebration, the Utes' muttered in devastation.

The high-end plans Utah football had made in the weeks leading to the 11th game of the season were pretty much crushed after it. Vegas isn't bad in December, neither is San Francisco. But they aren't Pasadena. Not on Jan. 2, at least. And so, the resultant reward is justly handed down to the recipient, a Utah team that had seemed so plucky, so resilient, so talented, heretofore, and, suddenly, on this particular afternoon revealed itself as … something else.

Vulnerable.

Which is to say, Saturday's game was a choke job by the Utes. That description is overused, at times, but on this occasion it was accurate.

With the goodies on the table, all that opportunity sitting there, Utah could not wrap its arms around them and gather them in. And that reality, after so much work and buildup, was tough for them to process.

In the aftermath, Joe Williams in the postgame could not speak, other than to utter the word, "Colorado." He was asked multiple questions, and his response at every turn was, "Colorado." In that moment, nobody could really explain what had happened to the Utes, losing to a 3-7 opponent they were favored to beat by 14 points, but at least everybody knew who they would play next week.

Oregon came in with a good offense, but its defense was perhaps the worst in the Pac-12. It had surrendered nearly 50 points per game in Pac-12 games, and the Utes could stir up just 28, and they needed a touched/fumbled punt that went into the end zone and was covered there by Chase Hansen to get to that total.

On defense, Utah gave up three huge scoring drives in the fourth quarter. All told, it yielded 251 rushing yards to the Ducks and 324 through the air. The Utes would have preserved victory had they given up 307 yards, but that last play, a 17-yard touchdown, did them in.

Kyle Whittingham, who was as dejected as anyone had ever seen him in his role as Utah's head coach, said afterward: "It's a disappointing loss. … We all share the blame, but, ultimately, I'll take the blame. It all falls on me."

He added: "It's a shame that we couldn't take care of business today. … It's disappointing. We had our eyes set on the South title and, obviously, didn't get it done today."

The coach wasn't finished, even though his team was.

"It's not what we wanted," he said.

"Our zone coverage was ridiculously bad today," he also said. "Oregon exposed it all day."

Utah has had a decent number of league wins over the past three seasons, a total that rests at 16. Those have indicated steps taken by a relative newcomer to the Pac-12. But the biggies, the ones that count the most, have yet to be conquered. And that advancing success during the seasons, certainly this one, makes losses like Saturday's not only disheartening for the Utes, but also indicting.

Just like against the Ducks, the Utes rolled up yardage between the 20-yard lines — they ended up with 453 yards of total offense, 255 of them in the first half — and, yet, they couldn't finish. All of that was apropos, a symbol, considering they couldn't follow and finish the path to the fulfillment of those hopes and dreams this season.

"Got to finish drives," Whittingham said.

Got to finish seasons.

Senior Hunter Dimick, who set the school career record for sacks, but had no inclination to celebrate, summed up the feeling of all the Utes when he said, "It's hard to think. … It sucks right now, but we have work to do."

Work that means a whole lot less than it would have had the Utes not choked their dreams away.

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