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Utah defense dominates Wyoming in blowout victory

Oct 12, 2008 - 1:00 AM LARAMIE, Wyoming (Ticker) -- Even a sub-par showing by Utah was more than enough to take care of Wyoming.

Despite their weakest offensive performance of the season, the 13th-ranked Utes continued their march toward another potential BCS bowl Saturday with a 40-7 Mountain West Conference victory over the Cowboys.

The high-powered Utes (7-0, 3-0 MWC) came into the day averaging nearly 412 yards of offense per contest, but were held to a season-low 244 on a blustery day in Laramie, where winds were gusting as high as 55 miles per hour.

"The weather was the biggest factor today," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "The wind is more damaging to an offense than rain or snow. It makes it very difficult to throw the ball in either direction."

But Utah forced five turnovers, scored twice on special teams and once on defense and kept Wyoming (2-5, 0-4 MWC) winless in conference play. Less than five minutes into the contest, junior cornerback Sean Smith intercepted a tipped pass and ran it back 25 yards for the game's opening touchdown.

"(Defensive end) Paul Kruger jumped and he tipped it and, luckily, it went right to me," Smith said. "It felt good to score. It has been a long time. It brought back memories."

The 6-3, 217-pound Smith, who converted from wide receiver less than two years ago, picked off another pass in the third quarter. With the Cowboys driving into Utah territory for just the second time all afternoon, Smith jumped in front of an errant pass and made an acrobatic, one-handed grab in mid-air.

In the second quarter, Utah blocked a punt and Aiona Key took it 19 yards for another score to make it 20-0.

"Their kid made a great play," Wyoming head coach Joe Glenn said. "We have not had a punt blocked all year. We've worked hard on it and done a good job on it. The punt was off in 2.4 (seconds), which is good. The guy just made a heck of a good play coming right up the middle."

Utah's offense finally got on the board with six seconds remaining in the first half, as junior tailback Matt Asiata pounded through the line for three tough yards and just got over the goal line to make it 27-0.

Asiata added his second score of the day on a 13-yard reception from Brian Johnson in the third. The 6-foot, 235-pound Asiata, who broke his leg in the season opener last year and missed the rest of the season, has a team-high eight touchdowns this season.

Johnson had trouble throwing the ball into the wind for most of the afternoon, completing 10-of-19 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown. The silver lining was that Johnson did not turn the ball over for the first time all season.

"Neither offense was very productive, but I am very pleased that we didn't turn the ball over," Whittingham said. "Defensively, we had five takeaways, and when you are on the plus side of that, you have a good chance to win."

The Cowboys, however, were not as fortunate. They went through three quarterbacks, with ineffective starter Karsten Sween getting benched in the third quarter in favor of Dax Crum, who lasted just one series before third-stringer Chris Stutzriem took over.

Wyoming, which was shut out twice and scored just three total points in its three previous conference games, finally scored its first touchdown in league play on Stutzriem's 18-yard strike to Greg Bolling in the fourth quarter.

"I checked the coverage, and Stutzriem happened to throw to me," Bolling said. "I was able to catch it and stay in bounds. Hopefully, that will give us some confidence that we can score."

In four games against conference foes, the Cowboys have committed 20 turnovers and averaged less than 200 total yards per contest.

After forcing a punt - the Utes' season-high ninth of the afternoon - in the fourth quarter, Wyoming returner Tashaun Gipson lost a fumble that was picked up in the end zone by safety R.J. Rice to increase Utah's lead to 40-7.

Louie Sakoda - a candidate for the Lou Groza Award, given annually to the nation's best placekicker - drilled two field goals for Utah, including a 50-yarder.

"We still haven't put together a complete game in all phases," Whittingham said. "Not a lot of teams do that, but we're finding ways to win and are handling adversity well. But we haven't played our best game as a team."