'O,' not usual 'D,' rolls for Utes

Much of Utah's success last year came from its stingy defense, which finished the season on a streak of 10 straight quarters without a score.

While the defense played well in Thursday night's 41-21 victory over Texas A&M, it was the Ute offense that really set the tone from the start and played well all night.

The Utes rolled up 582 total yards, including 370 through the air, and if the Utes hadn't just missed on a couple of long passes early, who knows, maybe they could have gained 700 yards and scored in the 50s. But they need to save something for Arizona next week, right?

Junior quarterback Alex Smith, who didn't get to play against Texas A&M last year, had a superb night, completing 21 of 29 passes for 359 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 76 yards and two touchdowns.

Of course, Smith was passing the praise around to everyone else.

"The O-line protected so well, the receivers made plays, and the running backs ran hard," he said. "That opened up a lot of quarterback runs and made me look good."

Then there's the coaching staff.

"I give credit to the way we practice," Smith said. "I don't know what anyone else thought, but it seemed really slow out there. We go so fast and so hard in practice that a lot of things end up slowing down on the field."

The offense gave the Utes the lead just over a minute into the game when Smith connected with Steven Savoy on a 78-yard pass. From there the rout was on.

It looked like a simple pass play over the middle, but an Aggie defender got turned around and Savoy suddenly found himself sprinting up the sideline all the way to the end zone.

"I wasn't expecting to be that open," Savoy said. "I caught the ball and just started running."

Savoy had a good season last year as a freshman, when he was the Utes' second leading receiver with 40 catches, but he really looked good Thursday, despite playing with bruised ribs much of the night. Savoy also scored the Utes' second touchdown on a 9-yard reverse and caught five passes total for 108 yards.

"We came together today as an offense," Savoy said. "People didn't really see that last year, so this year we have to prove we are one of the best offenses in the nation. We were really clicking as an offense tonight."

Twice Savoy got behind his defender only to have Smith's passes just miss his outstretched hands by inches.

"The score could have really been outrageous if we had connected on those passes," Savoy said. "Alex throws the ball a long ways, but I think my ribs slowed me down a bit."

"We were so close on a lot of them," Smith added. "But we've got to continue to get better."

Besides the long pass to Savoy, Smith also hit John Madsen with a 38-yard TD pass and Jerome Wright with a 13-yard scoring pass. Last year's leading receiver Paris Warren didn't score a touchdown, but he led the Utes with seven catches for 116 yards.

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