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Utah quarterback Jordan Wynn can understand why the coaches started Terrance Cain in the second half.

He'd had a miserable first half as he missed open receivers and threw wild passes, resulting in the Utes' first scoreless first half since the TCU loss Nov. 6.

Luckily for him, Wynn got a chance to redeem himself, as he and the Utes' offense did just enough to beat BYU 17-16 in front of 45,272 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Wynn finished the night 13 of 30 for 199 yards with an interception and a touchdown for the No. 23 Utes (9-2, 7-1).

Wynn was replaced at the start of the second half by Cain, who went 2-for-7 with two interceptions in two series.

The mistakes were bad news for Cain, playing in his last game at home, but gave Wynn a chance to rally the Utes.

Wynn, who led Utah to a 38-34 win at San Diego State after the Utes trailed 20-3, helped Utah to a 17-point fourth-quarter effort Saturday.

The key play was a 37-yard touchdown pass to DeVonte Christopher less than two minutes into the quarter.

The pass was tipped, but the sophomore brought it down for the touchdown, giving Wynn his second tipped-pass touchdown in as many weeks.

"We couldn't get anything going offensively," Wynn said. "We talked at halftime how one touchdown could break it open for us, and we got it."

Wynn's interception came on the next series, but he was bailed out by teammate Kendrick Moeai, who forced and recovered a fumble.

Wynn then completed a 6-yard pass to Matt Asiata and a 29-yard pass to Dallin Rogers, setting up Asiata's 3-yard touchdown run with 4:24 remaining.

Wynn said he wasn't upset the coaches replaced him, but the move did push him.

"I wasn't playing well, and that is how it is in close games — you have to play well, and I wasn't," he said. "It motivated me and gave me an extra push."

Wynn wasn't the only one who had trouble. Utah's running game never got going, either, as the Utes finished with 89 yards on 28 carries..

The Utes had 12 carries for 11 yards in the first half. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham admitted running backs Eddie Wide and Asiata couldn't do more in the first half.

"You have to give [BYU] credit," he said. "They had a tough run defense and good schemes; that was a lot of it. Our inability to rush the football in the first half was most damaging to us. It's hard to throw when everyone knows you are going to throw. The second half, we were able to open things up for us on the ground."

Whittingham said the Utes switched quarterbacks to find a spark.

They just didn't know they were going to find it in Wynn.

"Jordan Wynn responded well the second time when called upon," he said. "The first half, when we hadn't scored a point, we were looking for a spark, and Terrance Cain is a good player who had success earlier in the season. We gave him an opportunity to see what he could do. It didn't work out, but Jordan responded well in that situation."

lwodraska@sltrib.comTwitter: @lyawodraska,@sltributes