“Interesting” meaning the kind of day that makes you want to take some Tylenol, crawl under your covers and go to sleep.

The Utes first two offensive possessions resulted in seven plays for 138 yards and two touchdowns in the first five minutes of the game.

The Cougar defense was putting up about as much resistance as a practice tackling dummy.

Just as suddenly, BYU began to dominate and held Utah to 32 yards on its next six possessions, forcing four punts and two fumbles.

“Defensively we played hard but we gave up too many big plays,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said. “That’s what Utah does. (Devon) Dampier’s a dang good quarterback. You combine that with (Wayshawn) Parker and the speed of (Daniel) Bray, the athleticism of the receivers and the tight ends and they’ve got the big boys (on the line), I’m a fan of that. They’ve got 300-pounders in there playing fullback

“They are really difficult to prepare for. I think at the beginning of the game the speed got to us and how quick they make decisions, how efficient and effective they are in executing.”

Utah two touchdown drives in the second half, though, were a direct result of gigantic BYU mistakes that ultimately decided the game.

In the third quarter, senior linebacker Isaiah Glasker had Dampier dead to rights for a sack but in a scene that has been repeated multiple times over the past three weeks, the Cougars allowed Dampier to escape for an 9-yard gain and a first down. Two plays later, Utah scored on a 14-yard pass from Dampier to Braden Pagen and the home team took a 21-20 lead.

In the fourth quarter with Utah at the Cougar 19-yard line, BYU forced an incomplete pass on 3rd and 7 but cornerback Jayven Williams was tagged for pass interference on the play. The contact seemed incidental but the penalty gave the Utes a first down and three plays later, Dampier scored for a 28-20 lead.

“There were so many different parts of the game,” BYU senior defensive tackle Bodie Schoonover told BYUtv. “The defense needed to get more stops and the offense needed to score more, and all around we can just play better.”

Holding the line

Schoonover had the best game of his career with six tackles, two sacks, three tackles for loss and a forced fumble.

“Everybody has hard times and we have to get through it day by day,” Schoonover said. “Take it play by play and practice by practice and we’ll bounce back just fine.”

Despite the uneven performance, the BYU defense produced 11 tackles for loss, while the Utes had zero.

After the first two possessions, the BYU defense contained Dampier the rest of the first half but the senior had a terrific second half, finishing with 293 total yards. He also had a 29-yard catch on a 4th-and-1 trick play and had a hand in all four Utah touchdowns.

“Devon Dampier is a great runner,” Schoonover said. “If we could have just contained him a little more, I think we could have come out with a win. You have to tackle him low and pay attention to the fundamentals and details, making sure we get our keys and just playing ball.”

With three games left, BYU no longer controls its own destiny.

“The message (from the coaches) was faith, family and football,” Schoonover said. “This is BYU. It’s all love. We’re going to learn from this game for sure but we’re going to go on as family and stick together.”

LJ’s return

BYU senior running back LJ Martin, who missed the past four games due to a lower leg injury, returned against Utah. In limited action, he had seven carries for 19 yards and one touchdown along with one catch for five yards.

“He wants to play and he wants to do more, but he’s got a future and I can’t, as much as he wants to play more, I just can’t in my right mind just ask him to put it on himself,” Sitake said. “He’s not 100%. So how would it be for me to ask him to do more not at 100%? I think that’s about as much as I would have felt comfortable asking him to do. Next week we’ll get more. This just happened to be the week that he returned.

“I thought he looked good in a lot of things, but he’s not 100%. But it’s not like (Utah’s) Parker was 100% either. You saw him get banged up. It’s at the end of the season where everybody’s not 100%. I was just glad for the morale boost that we got from him (Martin) being on the field, and practicing with us all week was actually a huge benefit for us.”

A kinder, gentler rivalry

Both head coaches stated their admiration for each other other and the programs they run.

“We wanted to make it about what’s good,” Utah’s Morgan Scalley said. “We wanted to have a less toxic environment when it comes to the rivalry. I thought we had that today. I’m grateful to our fans, grateful to our players. Not a lot of extracurricular stuff after the plays. But I have nothing but respect for Kalani, that staff, the way they prepare their guys and the way their guys play.”

“Congratulations to Morgan,” Sitake said. “It was good to see him at midfield, and I love that guy. This is a tough place to play. I know, I’ve been here. I’ve coached here. They have the longest winning streak in college football for a reason, and it’s hard to come here and get a win.”

The game’s momentum swung wildly back and forth but it was Utah that came out with the right plays at the end.

“The emphasis going into this game was we have to be able to out-physical them,” Scalley said. “We’ve got to be able to turn the ball over and protect the ball as well. Well, the first half, man, did we fail. At the same time, in that second half, we completely flipped the script. The takeaways were huge.”

Close again

With Utah’s 28-20 win, 21 of the past 31 rivalry games have come down to the last possession. The eight-point final breaks a tie with Florida State Miami as the college football rivalry with the most one-possession games.

That’s a flag

BYU was hit with 11 penalties for 80 yards against Utah, both season highs.

The defense was flagged three times (late hit, pass interference, offsides) for 35 yards. The offense was tagged eight times for 45 yards, including four false starts, two illegal formation penalties, a delay of game and one holding call.

Filling it up

Attendance at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday was 52,901, the seventh-highest total all-time.