Thanks largely to a favorable schedule, the Utes went into Thursday's game with their path clear. Conversely, OSU could hardly have been blamed if it had been late for the kickoff. Its schedule resembles a cop's, with shifts on days, nights and weekends. The Beavers opened their season on a Thursday at Stanford, then went nine days before playing at Penn State. The next week was a regular Saturday game against Hawaii, but then it was a 12-day layoff before hosting USC, again on a Thursday. This week marked the Beavers' third Thursday game of the season.

OSU has had layoffs of seven, nine and 12 days and has another nine-day layoff before playing Washington State next. After an Oct. 18 game at Washington, the Beavers then get 14 more days off before playing Arizona State.

Who does the scheduling for those guys, Scooby Doo?

Getting into a rhythm can't be easy.

Still, they looked in sync enough to nearly beat the Utes.

Then there were the Utes, who had just four days to prepare for the Beavers.

Although the Utes appeared in control as the first half waned, their momentum waned along with it. Leading 20-9, they relinquished plays of 33, 27 and 24 yards, the last one going for an OSU touchdown. The Utes must have got it out of their system as they stopped the Beavers twice on the 2-point conversion.

Which left only one conclusion: The Utes are tough on short yardage, weak on long — not a great scenario. But it was the best they could produce.

Offensively, they had their moments, but they also revisited a season-long problem. Johnson threw his sixth interception of the year; he has had at least one in every game.

Meanwhile, the Ute defense gave up plays of 33, 27, 24, 32 and 41 yards.

Nevertheless, it didn't sidetrack the Utes from their plan. The crowd mobbed the field, the band played and the players stole away with another one.

To them things seemed all the sweeter for the trouble.

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E-mail: rock@desnews.com