Utah’s 2024 season took another wrong turn Saturday night, as the Utes lost for the third straight time.
TCU emerged with a 13-7 victory over Utah in a defensive struggle, as the Utes dropped a second straight game at the normally impenetrable Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Here are three Utah-centric takeaways from the loss that moved the Utes’ record to 4-3 and 1-3 in Big 12 play, all but eliminating Utah from the conference race with five games to play.
An ugly, ugly first half set the tone
There is no sense in mincing words: the first half was brutal for Utah offensively — it was their worst half of the year — and the hole that the Utes found themselves in after 30 minutes was too much to overcome.
The Utes only had 85 yards of total offense in the first half and punted on all seven of their first-half possessions.
There were three three and outs, only one drive went more than 20 yards and that one — the Utes’ final of the half — ended up in a punt after TCU got pressure on Isaac Wilson and had a second-down sack that lost 10 yards.