Utah Utes pick up their first Pac-12 road victory with complete effort

"He's a very competitive guy. He's been here for three years, and at this point he knows what to expect. He can't do it all though," Douglas said. "Our offense has to help him out. He played well tonight, He just had a few plays that got away from him."

Utah opened the second half with better execution. The Utes marched 92 yards on seven plays, scoring on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Hays to Reggie Dunn.

Leading 27-7, Utah came oh-so-close to making it bigger a few minutes later. However, a 46-yard field goal attempt by Petersen bounced off the left goal post.

And, as was the case earlier, Arizona would up following the miss with a touchdown drive — culminating this one with a 42-yard throw from Foles to Douglas with 5:02 left to play in the third quarter.

Things nearly tightened even more midway through the fourth. Arizona had moved to the Utah 2-yard line before Black intercepted Foles in the end zone and returned it 57 yards to thwart the threat.

Whittingham said it was probably the biggest play of the game.

The Utes then took almost five minutes off the clock on a scoring drive that ended with an 11-yard touchdown run by White.

Arizona countered with a lengthy series of its own, but Daniel Jenkins' 29-yard touchdown run with 23 seconds remaining only made a cosmetic difference.

The loss dropped the Wildcats to 2-7 overall and 1-6 in the Pac-12.

"Utah played less man defense than we anticipated and mixed up their zone coverage and blitzes," said Arizona interim coach Tim Kish, who replaced the fired Mike Stoops last month. "And that kept us off balance a bit."

With the win, the Utes are now 2-4 in Pac-12 play. They conclude the regular season with games against UCLA and Colorado at home, as well as a road date at Washington State. Utah is one victory away from bowl eligibility and an almost certain ninth consecutive postseason appearance.

Email: dirk@desnews.com Twitter: @DirkFacer