It's been a while since the Utah Utes have given up so many points. Saturday's 55-28 loss at TCU was the most they've allowed since giving up 66 to San Diego State in 1990.

"It's bad. It's something that is like a nightmare. Fortunately it doesn't happen very often around here," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "But when you make the kind of mistakes against the caliber of team we were playing, that's what happens."

And the Utes, no doubt, are hoping what happened in Fort Worth stays in Fort Worth. They fumbled a kickoff; had a punt blocked; threw a pick-six; and were flagged for an abundance of penalties.

"We just did too many things to put ourselves in bad situations," Whittingham continued. "But no excuses for the defense. Because we gave up 300 and almost 50 yards rushing, which is ridiculous."

For the record, the Horned Frogs rushed for 342 yards. They wound up with 549 yards of total offense.

"It's definitely not sitting well. We didn't play how we wanted to play. It was obvious throughout the game," said senior linebacker Kepa Gaison. "It was one of those things were we didn't execute what we planned to do. We paid for it."

And how.

Now comes the response as the Utes prepare for this weekend's home finale against San Diego State.

Whittingham is confident his team will bounce back.

"It's a mature football team. I think they understand when you have a loss what you do is you evaluate it, learn from it and you put it behind you," he explained. "That's what you've got to do. Move forward. Our team did a very good job of that after the Oregon game."

After dropping a 31-24 decision to the Ducks in Eugene, the Utes reeled off six straight wins before facing TCU.

Whittingham said the margin of error against a team like the fourth-ranked Horned Frogs is slim.

"You've got to be at a high level of play as the competition increases," he noted. "Obviously your level of execution has got to match that and we didn't do that. That's probably the biggest thing."

With two games left to play and a probable invite to the Las Vegas or Poinsettia bowl to follow, the Utes resumed practice on Monday determined to stay grounded on the present and not eye the big rivalry tilt with BYU on Nov. 28.

"It's easy not to look ahead. Especially when you're coming off a disappointing game," Whittingham said. "You want to get back on track. All our efforts and focus and attention is on San Diego State."

Utes on the air

San Diego State (4-6) at No. 23 Utah (8-2)

Saturday, 2 p.m.

TV: Versus-HD

Radio: 700 AM

e-mail: dirk@desnews.com