Utah Utes football: Utes beat Pitt in thriller

Pitt vs. Utah boxscore

SALT LAKE CITY — Before Thursday's season-opening game against Pittsburgh, Utah kicker Joe Phillips was chosen to speak to his teammates on behalf of the special teams. In his remarks, Phillips told the team he'd be there for them.

True to his word, the senior delivered.

Phillips made a 21-yard field in overtime as the 24th-ranked Utes defeated the 15th-ranked Panthers, 27-24 before a standing-room only crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"I can't even describe the feeling," Phillips said. "It's awesome."

As soon as the kick cleared the uprights, Utah's home winning streak was extended to 18 games — continuing the second best run in school history.

"That win streak is huge for us," said quarterback Jordan Wynn, who completed 21-of-36 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns. He was intercepted once.

The key pick in the game, however, came on the first play of overtime. Strong safety Brian Blechen, the only true freshman to start for Utah, picked off Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri.

"The defense bailed us out," Wynn said. "Hopefully, we'll help them out next time. We just need to execute better."

Things worked out well on the final series.

The Utes used Eddie Wide and Matt Asiata to move the ball to the 4-yard line before calling Phillips into duty.

"I'm very proud of the way our guys hung in there," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, whose squad overcame three turnovers, a blocked punt and 11 penalties.

The miscues, he added, were all things that can be improved upon before the Utes open their final Mountain West Conference campaign Sept. 11 at home against UNLV.

"We made enough mistakes tonight so we'll have plenty to work on," Whittingham said. "We had unintelligent penalties at inopportune times. But the good thing is that all of these mistakes are correctable issues. It's always better to work through these issues after a win."

And the bottom line, he added, was that the Utes made one more play than Pittsburgh did.

After exchanging field goals in the third quarter — Utah on a 26-yarder by Phillips and Pitt on a 37-yard kick by Dan Hutchins (set up when a Sean Sellwood punt was blocked inside the 10-yard line) — things tightened in the final 15 minutes.

Trailing 17-10, Pitt closed the gap on a 28-yard field goal by Hutchins with 9:48 left to play.