Utah defense slumps while the offense stumbles in Holiday Bowl

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The University of Utah warms up before facing Northwestern in the Holiday Bowl, NCAA football in San Diego, Calif., on Monday Dec. 31, 2018.

San Diego • In their latest bowl game, the Holiday here, the Utah Utes were on their way to doing what they usually do in the postseason — win and play tough, two-fisted defense.

It got to the point early on when there was a sense of sympathy for the Northwestern Wildcats, repeatedly unable to move the ball on a wall of Utes resistance. Even when Northwestern had some opportunity, such as a Utah fumble near midfield covered by them, the offense could do … absolutely nothing with the ball, except punt it.

The Utes mixed up their defensive approaches, but seemed convinced that Northwestern could not gain much yardage on the ground. It tried, and couldn’t. It tried again, and couldn’t. The Wildcats had a negative-6 yards via the rush in the first half. And then, they just kind of gave up, giving instead the green-light to quarterback Clayton Thorson to throw and thrash out whatever he could.

That didn’t work, either.

Next, down 17 points at the half, Northwestern gained the favor of the football gods, or was it Utah’s mistakes? Yes, the latter. The defense cracked under the force of the Utes’ problems on offense — key fumbles and interceptions, all told, six of them, some of which turned into huge plays for the Wildcats.

And while their attack crumbled, that defense slumped, and the Utes lost, 31-20.

Here was the disparity:

In the first half, the D surrendered a total of 126 yards, and no touchdowns.

In the second, the D gave up 196 yards, and three TDs. Northwestern got 28 points in the third quarter, including a Jason Shelley fumble returned 86 yards for a score.

It was a crazy shift of fortune.

The Utes, knowing full well the Wildcats had to go through the air, often targeted Thorson, effectively bringing pressure, sometimes on first down. An interception by safety Marquise Blair, after Utah held a 14-point lead, set up another Utes score — a Matt Gay field goal — just before the half.

But momentum and mojo both rolled over that proud Utah defense through those third and fourth quarters, as it was unable to plug the holes in a failing defensive dam.

“Overall, the defensive performance, not bad numbers,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said, “a little over 300 yards we gave up. Only had one takeaway, though. When you’re minus-five, which was the net result, you’re going to win almost never.”