Gordon Monson: Utah finds a lopsided way to beat Arizona State, but what about BYU?

If there was a time, a moment of truth, this season when the Utah Utes were pushed up hard against a wall, a wall demanding victory, Saturday night was that time, that moment. There definitely will be more of those in the weeks ahead, perhaps every week. But Arizona State came into Rice-Eccles Stadium with a record of 4-1, yet to lose in conference play, with an intention to win the Big 12 again, even without its starting quarterback, who was unavailable due to injury.

Need and opportunity combined, then, to powerfully spell and draw out for and from the Utes the exact thing they stirred within themselves — a dominating performance. It was as though Utah was dead set on lifting up a catawampus world and placing it back on its proper axis, imposing its will and taking revenge on an opponent that won the league a season ago, a league the Utes were supposed to have conquered but could not. They failed miserably.

That was then, this is now.

Conquering would be just as good for them this time around. Who knows? Maybe Utah can yet win the thing, or at a minimum stay in the hunt. Since their defeat at home to Texas Tech, the Utes have played at a lofty level. “They’ve been a determined bunch since that loss,” Kyle Whittingham said.

Determined they were on Saturday night.

An impressive 42-10 result kept the 5-1 Utes, now 2-1 in league, right there, squarely in the mix to make a run. They have work yet to do, but avoiding another loss was Job 1 from this starting point.

“It was a complete game by our guys,” said Whittingham, “… a solid game, from start to finish.”

It became clear early on here that the matter convincingly would fall Utah’s way. It wasn’t easy-peasy, but the Utes made it appear that way. Arizona State is a quality team and all, but without QB Sam Leavitt on the field, the sizable advantage for the Utes at football’s most important position was simply too much for the Sun Devils to overcome. Whether that was irony or fitting payback for Devon Dampier, who is from Phoenix, who grew up a few fly routes from the ASU campus, but who was not found worthy of heavy recruitment by the Devils back when they could have had him, let the fates decide.

Asked afterward if that was something he kept firmly in mind, Dampier said, “There’s always a chip on my shoulder. I got something to prove every time I’m out there.”

This much was as obvious as the ferocity of Utah’s home crowd, even in the monsoon rains that drenched everyone at Rice-Eccles, Dampier is much better than Leavitt’s backup, Jeff Sims. More on that in a few paragraphs.

Utah went up 7-zip, led by You-Know-Who, the man who ran for the Utes’ first score, and its second score and after that, it was all kind of a blur. ASU came back to clip the margin to 7-3 between those initial two Utah TDs. The Sun Devils’ 15-play drive finished with a field goal near the end of the first quarter. That’s about as competitive as this contest got.

Utah stretched its lead, just for kicks, so it seemed, just because it felt like it, gobbling up yards on attack, piling up 35 additional points, all as Arizona State got stoned by the Utes’ defense, garnering just seven additional points, struggling to conjure any hint of a consistent, forceful presence.

Which is to say, as ASU languished in a kind of football agony, Utah looked like it was having a whole lot of fun, soggy conditions or no, running it, chucking it around here and there, correcting everything that might have been wrong a year ago.

It was the sort of performance Whittingham allows to bang around in his head in his happiest moments — a low-risk, smack-you-in-the-mug approach on offense and a set defensive wall up front that pretty much stops — or slows — the run and applies pressure to everything else so as to help the back end of the defense limit any damage through the air.

All of that was accomplished here. And afterward, Whittingham couldn’t find much to complain about. Making all of it that much better for him, Utah dominated the line of scrimmage in both directions. ASU was supposed to be tough against the run, but … no.

“[Our] run game was in high gear, so we stayed with it,” Whittingham said. “The run game is what won this game for us.”

Back to Dampier, the quarterback romped for 120 yards and three touchdowns. “The offensive line,” he said, “it’s pretty easy running behind those guys.” Uh-huh, but the QB did his work, too. He threw for another 104 yards on only a couple of handfuls of attempts. All told, the Utes rolled up 276 rushing yards, 412 in total. Beyond that, it was Dampier’s way of setting a tone for the offense, leading it, controlling the attack, worrying the visitors, that did them in. As mentioned, at no time during this game did Utah look uncomfortable, as though it was seriously threatened.

Strange as it is to say, it was the first Big 12 home game the Utes commandeered in such a way. Even stranger, it was the first-ever home win for Utah in the league. Getting that much accomplished added fire to the Utes’ cause.

“We’re done with that,” Whittingham said.

Now that the Utes have put away such ignominious business, and now that they’ve won their last two conference games by the count of 90-24, they can turn their eyes and aim to bigger goals, bigger prizes, beginning with a trip to Provo next Saturday. With BYU unbeaten and Utah sporting just one loss, the rivalry game is shaping up to be a competitively nasty affair, which is a beautiful thing for folks who love college football.

“Should be a great matchup,” said Whittingham.

“We’re on a roll right now,” Dampier said. “Let’s keep it rolling. Simple as that.”

Simple will have nothing to do with it.