NEW ORLEANS — The Sugar Bowl was a mismatch all right. Just not the one everyone expected.

Utah quarterback Brian Johnson threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns as the No. 7 Utes proved themselves more than worthy of their at-large Bowl Championship Series invite, beating No. 4 Alabama, 31-17, at the Louisiana Superdome on Friday night.

It was the second time in five years the Utes (13-0) crashed the BCS party and came away victorious, matching the feat of the Urban Meyer-coached 2004 squad that crushed Pittsburgh and finished No. 4 in the final Associated Press poll.

That team, though undefeated, didn't garner any national championship talk, just as this year's Utes likely won't, with big-conference schools Florida and Oklahoma set to play in the BCS title game next week.

But Utah, the only undefeated team in the country, made a strong argument for being in the discussion after beating a Crimson Tide group that held the No. 1 ranking in the country for five weeks.

"I know where I'm voting us. I'm voting us No. 1," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, whose Utes have the nation's longest winning streak overall (14 games) and in bowls (eight).

Although Alabama (12-2) underwent a revival in Nick Saban's second season with the program, getting back to the Sugar Bowl for the first time in 16 years, its season will largely be remembered for the way it finished with a loss to Florida in the SEC championship game and Friday's upset by the Utes, who were as much as 9-point underdogs.

"I don't think we were ready to play today," Saban said. "I don't know why. They were a very good football team. And I said they were a very good football team 100 times, and I believe that."

The Crimson Tide's biggest question mark entering the game was how it would cope without All-American left tackle Andre Smith, but its problems were primarily defensive.

The Utes spread the field and allowed quarterback Johnson, the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year, to go to work. Alabama, which entered the game with the third-ranked defense in the Football Bowl Subdivision, didn't have an answer.

Johnson completed 27 of 41 passes. His 336 passing yards were the most the Crimson Tide had allowed all year, passing the 274 Georgia's Matthew Stafford threw for in September.

"I thought this was the best quarterback we played against all year, systematically," Saban said.