Utah Utes football: Notre Dame shuts down Utah, 28-3

Utah at Notre Dame boxscore

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — It wasn't "outlined against a blue-gray October sky." And it certainly wasn't the "Four Horsemen" who ran roughshod over the 15th-ranked Utah Utes Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.

Rather it was an 18-year-old freshman quarterback, making his first career start for the Irish, and the Utes' own shortcomings that inflicted the decisive damage in a 28-3 loss.

"Notre Dame deserves a great deal of credit. They had a great game plan going in," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "They did what they had to do, what they needed to do to win the football game. They made the plays when they were there to be made and we weren't able to do that."

A blocked punt, two turnovers, 11 penalties and an offense that failed to score a touchdown added up to doom the Utes. After an 8-0 start to the season, they've now dropped two straight (TCU, Notre Dame) by a combined margin of 75-10.

It's the first time since 2007 that Utah has lost back-to-back games and the first time since that season that the Utes didn't score a touchdown.

The latter was foremost on Whittingham's mind in his postgame remarks.

"It was our ineptness on offense," he said. "That was the biggest factor in the game."

Utah quarterback Jordan Wynn completed 24-of-39 passes for 194 yards. He was intercepted once.

"We just didn't play well — couldn't move the ball, didn't score points, put our defense in short fields," Wynn said. "You name it. We didn't do it."

Outlined against a dark-gray November sky, which expelled raindrops throughout much of the contest, Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees performed well in his starting debut. He threw three touchdown passes.

"They did a great job of putting him in positions to succeed," Whittingham said. "They didn't ask a bunch of throws of him down the field. When they did, he did a nice job."

Rees completed 13-of-20 throws for 129 yards as the Fighting Irish evened their record at 5-5. They prevailed despite finishing with fewer yards (265-256), first downs (16-13) and more than nine minutes less possession time.

Utah's final 11 series on offense, however, told the story. Six ended with punts, three on downs and two on turnovers.