Even when playing weak opponents, such as the Utes did Saturday here at Wyoming, Utah's offense struggles to be consistently productive.
Luckily for the No. 14 Utes they've become very good at creating points from other areas of their game.
Those other elements are what carried the Utes (7-0, 3-0) in their 40-7 win over Wyoming (2-5, 0-4) here Saturday in front of an announced attendance of 17,123 at War Memorial Stadium.
Utah's special teams accounted for two touchdowns, corner Sean Smith returned an interception for another and Louie Sakoda kicked two field goals for the Utes.
The offense produced two touchdowns by Matt Asiata, one on a three-yard run and another on a 13-yard pass from Brian Johnson, but its overall production was poor. Utah's offense finished with 242 total yards of offense, 10 less than Wyoming, which ranks 118th out of 119 Football Bowl Subdivision teams averaging 257.8.
Granted Wyoming rolled up 135 yards in the fourth quarter when the game had been decided and Utah had mainly backups on the field, but it still wasn't the kind of convincing showing by the offense fans are waiting to see out of the Utes.
Utah's offense has so much potential as it showed when it scored 11 points in less than three minutes to come from behind to beat Oregon State in its last game. But a complete game? There are seven games behind the Utes and just five ahead for the Utes to prove they have one in them.
The Utes host Colorado State next week, then have their biggest challenges ahead when TCU and BYU come to Rice-Eccles Stadium.
However the Utes are 7-0, which is the most important stat coaches and players insisted after rolling over the Cowboys.
"We're still finding ways to win and handling adversity well," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said.
The Utes did cut down on penalties (3-for-30 yards) and didn't have a turnover for the first time in a game, giving them some positives in what otherwise seemed like a mediocre effort despite the lopsided victory.
Quarterback Brian Johnson was 10-of-19 for 110 yards and a touchdown but was sacked three times. Running backs Darrell Mack and Matt Asiata combined for 17 carries for only 52 yards.
The Utes started the game 0-for-7 on third down conversions and finished 4-for-17, which was only slightly better than Wyoming's 2-for-13.
Utah's average field position in the first half was its own 46-yard line, but mustered just one touchdown that came when they already led 20-0 thanks to points from other areas of its game.
Rather than blame the offense for a lack of production, Whittingham said the biggest factor working against his team was the 30 to 40 mile-an-hour gusts that ripped through the stadium for much of the second half and characterized the victory as a "nice win."
"The wind is more damaging to an offense than rain or snow," he said. "It makes it very difficult to throw the ball in either direction."
Johnson, who has been one of his biggest critics, echoed his coach's thoughts and didn't seem worried about the offense.
"As long as you win football games it doesn't matter what you do wrong," he said.
Using that standard then, the Utes managed to do a lot more right than Wyoming.
The Cowboys lost two fumbles and had three passes intercepted, adding to their worst in the nation total of 27 turnovers lost. Smith had two of the interceptions, RJ Rice recovered a fumble for a touchdown and Aiona Key blocked a punt and recovered it for a touchdown.
One of the fumbles was caused by Ute defender Joe Dale when he ripped the ball out of Wyoming running back Darius Terry's hands.
All good plays, but they would have been better if the Utes had done more with the opportunities given.
Call the game a complete win, even if it didn't feel completely satisfactory.
"We still haven't put together a complete game in all phases," Whittingham acknowledged. "Not a lot of teams do that, but we're finding ways to win and are handling adversity well. But we haven't played our best game as a team."
