Utah's defense got off to a rocky start in last week's win over TCU. The Utes gave up 202 yards and 10 points in the first quarter while allowing the Horned Frogs to convert on 4-of-5 third-down situations.

"They kind of hit us in the face real hard right off the bat," said defensive end Paul Kruger. "It gave us a wake-up call."

The whole situation, he added, was foreign to a defense that ranks among the national leaders in six categories.

Even so, defensive coordinator Gary Andersen didn't panic. He saw some good things happening.

"I felt like they were playing hard. They were running to the football when they had the opportunity and they were tackling well. TCU made some nice plays," Andersen said of his discussion with the defense. "So I felt like at that point, we just needed to settle them down and I said 'Hey, do your job, take care of business."'

The message got through — loud and clear.

After Andersen tweaked things, mixing in a little bit of zone coverage, the Utes got downright defensive in the second quarter. They held TCU to just six yards and one first down. The Horned Frogs were 0-for-5 on third down.

"We just realized that 'Holy cow! We've got to start playing our ball,' and we did," Kruger said. "People got focused, came out to play and things worked out."

TCU never scored again as Utah rallied for a 13-10 win in the pivotal contest. The Horned Frogs wound up giving up four sacks and turned the ball over twice by game's end.

"The credit goes to the kids. They are the ones that rallied and stopped them," said Andersen, who noted that the players had a look of determination in their eyes throughout the game. "They took a couple body blows. They jumped off the mat and we're still prepared to go play."

The momentum swing, he continued, was made possible because players did a great job making opportunistic plays. A couple of huge sacks, Andersen pointed out, knocked TCU out of the red zone.

"We made some adjustments on the run on the sidelines," he continued. "The kids did a great job of handling those adjustments and put them into place for the next three quarters and did a fantastic job."

Head coach Kyle Whittingham also praised the effort.

"It took us some time to settle in," he said. "But we did and played well the rest of the way."

Utah enters Saturday's game at San Diego State on a defensive roll. The Utes are eighth in the nation in rushing defense (97.1 ypg) and opponent first downs (150) while ranking 11th in total defense (281.2 ypg) and opponent third-down conversions (29.8 percent). They're 13th in opponent fourth-down conversion (30.8 percent) and 15th in scoring defense.