No. 5 Stanford's comeback falls short at Utah

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SALT LAKE CITY - Nestled into the Rocky Mountains, Rice-Eccles Stadium has breathtaking views in all directions. To Stanford, though, it became a den of horrors Saturday.

From the moment Utah started gashing the Cardinal defense in the second quarter, the contest had the look of a trap game. The No. 5 team in the nation was sucked into it and came out with a 27-21 loss.

The fast and furious Utes pounded out 181 yards rushing, and their 6-foot-7 quarterback, Travis Wilson, threw two touchdown passes and kept his recent tendency toward throwing interceptions to a minimum. At the end, Utah's defense stiffened and stopped Stanford's final two plays on the 6-yard line.

"This week we preached, 'Don't overlook this team,' " Cardinal running back Tyler Gaffney said. "They played UCLA to the end, Oregon State to the end. Those are two great teams. This was definitely not an overlooked team. They just came out and beat us."

The loss ended the nation's second-longest winning streak at 13 games, and now the Cardinal's next opponents are UCLA, Oregon State and Oregon.

If Stanford (5-1, 3-1 Pac-12) harbored any national-title aspirations, they were all but dashed in a withering display of read-option runs and bubble screens by the Utes (4-2, 1-2), who hadn't beaten a top-five team since upsetting No. 4 Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.

Stanford head coach David Shaw said he didn't care about the national-title implications of the loss. "I care about the next game we play, UCLA," he said. "We don't have time to wallow, because they're going to come into Palo Alto ready to come after us."

For the second straight game, Ty Montgomery returned a kickoff for a touchdown, this time a 100-yarder. That play and a 1-yard run by Gaffney on the opening drive were Stanford's only scoring plays until Devon Cajuste caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Hogan in the fourth quarter.

Utah's Nate Orchard gets ready to sack Stanford's Kevin Hogan in his first loss as the Cardinal starter. Utah's Nate Orchard gets ready to sack Stanford's Kevin Hogan in his first loss as the Cardinal starter. Photo: George Frey, Getty Images Photo: George Frey, Getty Images Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close No. 5 Stanford's comeback falls short at Utah 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

"We knew we were coming into a hornets' nest," Shaw said. "Everybody in our conference knows this is one of the toughest places to play."

Hogan was in the rare position of having to pass the Cardinal back from a 13-point deficit. Although he struggled for the second straight game, he nearly pulled it off.

On 3rd-and-2 at the Utah 6 with about a minute left, Shaw went to his jumbo formation - with pass-catching whiz Montgomery on the sideline - hoping the Utes would pack the middle. The call was for Hogan to sprint around the right side. If he couldn't run it in or find fullback Ryan Hewitt with a pass in the flat, he would throw to the tight end.

Utah had all the options covered. Hogan threw a pass toward Charlie Hopkins, a converted defensive end who in his brief experience as a tight end has caught just one pass for 4 yards. At least Hogan threw where none of the Utes could get to it.

The fourth-down play was a slant pass to Cajuste, but Hogan, under heavy pressure, threw too high for the 6-foot-4 receiver.

Utah's main weapons stepped up in a major way. Tailback Bubba Poole had 111 yards rushing and caught seven passes for 75 yards. Wilson, who threw six interceptions the previous game against UCLA, threw just one. He threw two touchdown passes, although the latter was mainly a display of athletic prowess by wide receiver Dres Anderson.

On a 3rd-and-17 play, Wilson lofted an underthrown pass down the right sideline that Anderson grabbed in front of safety Devon Carrington at the 10 before finishing a 51-yard touchdown. Anderson later scored on a 3-yard run, and Andy Phillips booted two field goals to make it 27-14.

Stanford had trouble containing Anderson, Poole and others on the bubble screens. "We weren't really expecting the perimeter stuff," linebacker Trent Murphy said. "We thought they'd come more downhill and keep it in the middle."

Murphy said the key will be how the team plays next week against UCLA. "It's about how we respond from here on out," he said. "It's a long season. There's still a lot of games to win."