This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

As Joe Williams reminded everyone in the aftermath of a heartbreaking loss, made that way by the width of a postage stamp, on Saturday afternoon, Utah has one more regular-season game to play at …

Where?

"Colorado."

Where?

"Colorado."

Where?

"Colorado."

And as Hunter Dimick informed us all, the Utes "have work to do."

So they have and they do, whatever that "work" brings them.

Given what was lost in that game with Oregon, it's too tempting for the rest of us not to glance in the rearview at Utah's football season and wonder what might have been, had things gone ever-so-slightly differently. On Monday, Kyle Whittingham, while disappointed, didn't want to punt away everything that was accomplished in 2016. And he shouldn't.

"We're literally — what? — two inches, maybe an inch, away from winning [the Oregon] game," he said.

Losing cost them not just that game, snatched away on a correctly overturned call in the end zone, but also a shot at a South Division title, and a shot at an invitation to the Pac-12 championship game. But it wasn't all chucked away in the final seconds of that contest. There had been another chance to put the Utes in an even more favorable position — in their loss at Cal on Oct. 1.

Man, football can be one tough mother.

Reviewing that Cal situation is no less devastating for the Utes than what happened against the Ducks. But it underscores the slim margins by which division titles are won and opportunities are lost. And given the hours and days and weeks and months of hard work that go into building a transformative season, it's remarkable the short distances between supreme transformation and stifling defeat.

In retrospect, that Cal loss becomes more haunting now than it was when it happened.

Not only did the Utes accomplish almost everything they wanted at Berkeley, running the football well, possessing it for more than double the time the Bears did, keeping it away from Cal's explosive offense, they had that bitterly decisive sequence of plays at the end, when the only thing that separated them from victory was half a yard.

If I had told you before the season started that the single thing between Utah and a great shot at the South title, as well as a spot in the league's championship game, was half a yard, and they'd have three hacks at covering that distance, you'd have taken that any day of the week, especially Saturday.

And, yet, we all know what happened.

The Utes could not slam it in.

There's commonality shared against Oregon and Cal, beyond just that those two teams, like the other league foe to down the Utes, Washington, all come from the Pac-12 North. It's this: Neither the Ducks, nor the Bears were supposed to be able to stop the run and pass game, certainly not well enough to beat the Utes.

Check out the conference rankings.

In scoring defense, the Ducks sit at 11th, the Bears 12th.

In rushing defense, the Ducks rank 11th, the Bears 12th.

In total defense, the Ducks are 11th, the Bears 12th.

And, still, Utah, which ranks second in the league in rushing offense, could not pick up two feet when it was all that would keep them from … well, you know what.

That's what's so inexplicable about the loss against Oregon, and so crushing about the loss at Cal. The weaknesses of those teams matched up favorably with Utah's strengths. And then …

Heartbreak.

The margins between ecstasy and agony go both ways. The Utes did manage to capture a win over BYU, not that it mattered in the Pac-12 race, when the Cougars went for two instead of kicking a routine extra point to tie in September. And the timely win over Southern Cal, before the Trojans turned into the Trojans, was made possible after a deep drive that might have put the game on ice for USC was killed by a single penalty.

That's the way it goes.

For and against.

Yeah, one tough mother.

As Whittingham said about his team's effort in the Oregon outcome on Monday: "It was all for naught. We just didn't get it done."

So, that outcome lives now in infamy, in painfully brutal infamy in and around Utah football. The Cal loss is equally painful and infamous, or should be. And if the Utes are, in fact, better than Washington, as they intended to prove in that title game rematch, we'll never know.

We do know this: Utah beat all the teams in the South, heading into Boulder. It was the North that stole the South title from them.

But Williams had the right idea in the postgame, the most productive idea, at least for him and his teammates. They knew they messed themselves over. They knew they betrayed themselves, just the way they had against Cal. That was in the past. Surrounded by its hurtful effects, he wanted to leave it there. There's only one place victory can be found now.

Where?

"Colorado."

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

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