SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah had Max Hall's number.

That fact, as much as anything, resulted in No. 8 Utah's BCS-busting 48-24 victory over No. 15 BYU in the 84th version of the Blue-and-Red Rivalry in front of 46,488 at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the second-largest crowd in school history.

Hall was responsible for six turnovers (five interceptions and a fumble), had at least five passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage and had four other near-interceptions.

Utah decided to let Hall see if he could beat them.

He couldn't. Not this year, anyway.

"Their defense played outstanding," said Hall, facing an army of media types after the game. "They caused me a lot of trouble tonight, obviously. I was just trying to make plays, trying to do things, and they were able to pick the ball.

"I take a lot of responsibility for the loss. Man, I think our guys played hard, I played hard. The bottom line is we just made mistakes."

Hall's counterpart -- Utah's Brian Johnson -- had a career game, completing 30-of-36 passes for 303 yards and four touchdowns in the Utes spread offense.

"They just did to us what everybody in the conference has done to us," BYU junior defensive end Jan Jorgensen said. "We have a hard time stopping the short passing game. Their athletes against our athletes, we had hard time stopping that. We had a weakness and they exploited it."

Utah (12-0 overall, 8-0 MWC) jumped out to a 17-3 lead early in the second quarter but BYU fought back with two long scoring drives. Both ended in Harvey Unga touchdown runs, and it was tied at 17-all with six minutes to play in the half. Utah took a 20-17 lead on a 35-yard Louie Sakoda field goal but BYU responded by driving to the Utah 41-yard line with under a minute to play. That's when BYU tight end Dennis Pitta went right, Hall threw left and Joe Dale picked off the pass. Hall got face-to-face with a Utah defender after the play and was tagged with a personal foul penalty, giving the Utes the ball at the BYU 44 with 36 seconds to go.

"We kind of butted face masks," Hall said. "I think he should be in a movie, it was a little bit of an act. I shouldn't have done it in the first place. It was a stupid mistake by me."

Utah capitalized quickly and scored on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Johnson to David Reed, and took a 27-17 lead into the locker room at the half.

BYU (10-2, 6-2) surged in the third quarter, holding Utah scoreless and closing to 27-24 on an 11-yard quarterback draw by Hall at the 6:46 mark. Twice after that, BYU forced Utah to punt and had a chance to take the lead. But Hall was picked by Robert Johnson on a deep throw to Collie to end one drive and Hall's third turnover was a fumble, recovered by Utah defensive end Paul Kruger at the BYU 31. This time, the Utes took advantage and scored on an 8-yard pass from Johnson to Brent Casteel, which gave Utah a 34-24 lead early in the fourth quarter. Utah's two other fourth-quarter scores also came as a result of turnovers. Kruger intercepted a Hall pass and returned it to the BYU 4, setting up a 4-yard touchdown pass from Matt Asiata to tight end Chris Joppru. Hall's fourth interception was by Utah's Sean Smith, which set up another short touchdown drive and the final margin. Hall's fifth interception bordered on the ridiculous -- Pitta kicked a low pass high into the air with his heel and Dale had his second pick.

As the clock ticked down to triple zeros, Utah's fans surged onto the field to celebrate an undefeated season and likely BCS bowl berth for the second time in five years.

Hall finished 21-of-41 for 205 yards and one rushing touchdown in what was decidedly the worst performance of his college career.

"The quarterback gets all the heat for a loss," BYU's Austin Collie said. "That's the unfortunate thing. Max made some plays, but we as an offense didn't do our job, and that's all around the board. We didn't execute the way we needed to execute."

Collie had 10 catches for 104 yards, his 10th straight 100-yard receiving game. BYU actually ran the ball very well against Utah (214 yards), including 116 yards on 15 carries and two touchdowns from Harvey Unga.

But instead of setting up big passing plays with an effective running game, BYU coughed up the ball as well as a chance to pull off the upset.

"We just kept getting after him (Hall)," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. "The six takeaways we forced we huge and they came in spurts, which is how the game of football works sometimes. When our backs were to the wall this season, we responded every time."

While Utah gets the glory and the big bucks that comes with an expected BCS bowl bid, BYU is pretty much where its been the past two seasons: 10-2, playing in a minor bowl game.

"I congratulate Utah and its victory," BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "Utah had a remarkable season in going undefeated. In terms of the game today, we made too many mistakes to win the game. Turnovers were the name of the game. Utah made the most of those opportunities and we did not. That is as clear as I can put it."

 

• Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at ddickson@heraldextra.com