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Some of the numbers won't make Kyle Whittingham smile: the Arizona Wildcats threw for 348 yards and rushed for 127 more Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
But in Utah's 36-23 win over the Wildcats, it was the Ute defense who helped key a comeback victory with three interceptions and a sack for a safety to help their team improve to 5-1 on the year.
"We preach that every week: four [takeaways] and a score," cornerback Dominique Hatfield said. "I know somebody's going to be disappointed we didn't get that fourth one, but we were close."
Close would be good enough for the Utes Saturday, especially after struggling out of the gate on both sides of the ball.
It took one snap for Arizona quarterback Brandon Dawkins to get his team on the board. On the Wildcats' first play from scrimmage, the speedy quarterback got the Utah defense to bite on a run fake and found a wide-open Shun Brown for a 75-yard touchdown.
From there, Dawkins' speed and elusiveness became the problem for Utah as the quarterback racked up 194 yards passing and 42 yards rushing to go with two touchdowns in the first half.
And with Utah's offense struggling — incurring penalty after penalty in the first half — even the sellout crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium turned on them for a while Saturday night.
"Everything was a mess," safety Chase Hansen said after hearing his team showered with boos. "It became such a big mess that it kind of pumped us up."
Utah lineman Pasoni Tasini accounted for the Utes' defensive score, sacking Tate in the end zone in the second quarter to cut Arizona's lead to 14-5.
"That was a momentum-changing play right there," Whittingham said.
Utah's defensive backs were beaten too often on deep balls for their coach's liking. Brown, wide receiver Trey Griffey and Samajie Grant all gashed the Utes for big plays.
"There were too many big plays over the top," Whittingham said. "That was evident tonight. We have to do a better job with the deep ball."
But Utah's defensive backs mitigated the damage by grabbing three interceptions on the night, highlighted by a spectacular pick from safety Marcus Williams who was alert enough to grab the ball after a big hit from Chase Hansen dislodged it from a receiver's arms.
"I got this guy on the other side of me making a big hit," Williams said of his third pick of the season. "I saw the ball up in the air and I took it off his back."
Defensive back Brian Allen recorded his second interception in as many games and, in the third quarter, Hatfield grabbed his first pick of the season.
"We just had to get the jitters out," Hatfield said of the Utah defense.
Twitter: @aaronfalk