Utah Utes football: 'Opportunistic' defense is key to Utah's victory

A week after a less-than-stellar performance in Oregon, the Utah defense came to play and made the difference in a fast start that led to a comfortable victory over Louisville.

The Ute defense came up with three turnovers in the first half, and the special teams added a blocked field goal to keep Louisville off the scoreboard and gave the Utes a 20-0 halftime lead.

"The three takeaways we had in the first half really set the tone," said Ute coach Kyle Whittingham. "That's exactly how we wanted them to respond and they answered the bell. There's a lot of pride in that group."

Whittingham called it "opportunistic football," and said that led to the Ute victory.

"Impact plays, takeaways and sacks — those are the two keys to playing great defense," he said.

The first big play came after the Cardinals drove to the 8-yard line early in the game. The defense held, and on fourth down, R.J. Stanford broke through to block Ryan Payne's short field goal try.

"They told me to go, so I laid out for it and got to it," said Stanford, the fastest player on the team. "The wings stepped in and after that I had an open lane. I relied on my speed and it worked out."

The next big play came with the Utes leading 7-0 midway through the quarter.

After Louisville's Trent Guy picked up a first down and was heading upfield, Utah's Koa Misi caught him and stripped the ball. Robert Johnson flipped it behind his back just before stepping out of bounds, and Stanford recovered. On the very next play, Terrance Cain connected with David Reed for a 42-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0.

"I thought I was out of bounds, so I tossed it back in," Johnson said. "I know you have to have to have your feet inbounds, so I thought, 'Let me rip it back out.' And I threw it back hoping somebody with a red jersey was there, not a white one."

Later in the quarter, Kepa Gaison tipped a Justin Burke pass and Mike Wright was there for the interception. That led to a field goal, making it 17-0 Utah.

"That's been a big goal of ours, to get a lot of turnovers and we did that tonight," said Wright.

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