It was a wild and emotional night at Rice-Eccles Stadium for the No. 20 Utah Utes. Despite early defensive struggles, the Utes offense went toe to toe with the No. 7 USC Trojans from start to finish. The defense would eventually regroup and make crucial stops down the stretch, as Utah handed the Trojans their first loss of the Lincoln Riley era, in front of a sold out crowd 43-42.

Here are the takeaways from the game:

Cam Rising wins the duel against Caleb Williams

Cam Rising was on fire all night offensively, proving Utah can turn to the passing game to win big games. He would go for 29 of 43 for 417 yards and two touchdown passes and three rushing touchdowns of his own. It was a dominating performance as he edged out USC quarterback Caleb Williams who threw for 381 yards and five touchdowns. Despite the Utes’ ugly defensive play in the first half Williams was sacked four times in the game and the Utes defense stepped up crucial in the second half.

Rising’s options were abundant offensively Saturday night, tight end Dalton Kincaid would ball out. He finished the night catching all 16 of his targeted passes for 234 yards. Devaughn Vele had 62 yards and one touchdown. Micah Bernard had 57 yards with a touchdown and Money Parks added a long 45 yard catch that set Rising up for a 2 yard rushing touchdown. Utah would edge out USC offensively having 562 total offense to their 556.

The Utah offensive line won the trenches

While Rising and Kincaid will get the majority of the publicity—and deservedly so—offensive line coach Jim Harding’s group was crucial to the performance on offense. USC came into the game averaging four sacks per game. They didn’t sack Rising once and the line provided Rising ample time to pick apart the Trojans. The Trojans also had zero quarterback hurries.

This was one helluva game for a group that is proving to be an elite pass blocking unit. An additional thing of importance is that Jaren Kump saw significant action for the first time all season.

With it looking more and more like Utah will need to rely on the passing game going forward, it’s a gigantic positive that that’s a strength of the offensive line.

Kincaid proved he’s the Travis Kelce of College Football

Dalton Kincaid was remarkable on the big stage, with 16 passes thrown his way and 16 receptions. This included his ridiculous body-contorting catch, getting one foot in bounds.

His 16 catches in the game are tied for second all-time in Utah history and the most by a tight end in a game in recorded program history. Kincaid’s 234 receiving yards rank second all-time at Utah, the most by a tight end since at least 1996.

It was a night that he would stake his claim to the best tight end in college football, something that could be turning into a hotly contested debate over Kincaid and Georgia tight end Brock Bowers. USC knew what was coming and couldn’t stop him, as he also ran for 105 yard after the catch.

Utah’s defense struggled but finished strong

There is no denying that the Utes defensive play in the first half was feeling like the UCLA loss all over again. Utah would give up six touchdowns but the defense would show tenacity and grit in the second half, coming up big, Williams would be sacked by cornerback Clark Phillips III for a loss of eight and Karane Reid would capitalize and sack Williams again, forcing the Trojans to punt after a fumble recovery in the third quarter. That save would set the Utes up to tie the game up on the following drive.

The most critical stop would come in the final 38 seconds of the game for the defense. Safety RJ Hubert would break up Williams’ desperation pass as time would expire.

“(We) made the stop (we) had to make,” Whittingham said. “That was the critical stop to win the football game.”

For Karene Reid, on the last drive, locking in as a defense to fight to the end was the mindset.

“Just to prevent them from getting to the 50 yard line,” said Reid. “It was pretty obvious that they needed a field goal. We backed up and kept everything in front of us.”

While the offense will garner all of the attention, and rightfully so, the defensive adjustments were crucial to the victory.

It was more than a game

For most of the season, the team has seemed somewhat and searching for their ‘why.’ The Ute aging that ‘why’ again on Saturday night, as they honored their fallen teammates, Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe. While it was the blackout game, the team used the night to play with their hand painted helmets honoring Jordan and Lowe.

Because of this, it makes the victory even sweeter as the Utes battle back this season with a chip on their shoulder. After the game, Rising shared why it was important for their team.

“We just wanted to come out here and battle. We’re going to give it our all,” said Rising. “We were looking forward to playing and we wanted to make sure we represented that ‘22’ well, having that on our helmet.”

Up next

The Utes have a BYE week, something that could halt most teams’ momentum. However, in this case, it comes at an ideal time for Utah to regroup, keep the positivity and confidence flowing through the building, and also work on their deficiencies.

Aside from a heavy focus for the defense on basics, they will need to solve their running back issues and special teams needs to solve their kicking woes.

How they utilize this next week will go a long ways into how they finish their season, as they now control their own Pac-12 destiny.