Utah football took on UCLA in their “Dark Mode” game Saturday night with a whole lot on the line, namely, the lead in the Pac-12 South. A loss would essentially eliminate UCLA from South contention barring collapses from Utah and Arizona State while a Utah win would give Utah a de facto 2-game lead in the South with only four games remaining.

Utah took advantage of the opportunity and won in dominating fashion. They jumped out to a big lead at halftime and then didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal—both figuratively and literally running right over UCLA in the process.

It began early when Utah won the toss and elected to receive right off the bat. They punched UCLA in the mouth early with a very balanced first drive aided by a facemask penalty and two third and short conversions. Covey was very involved on the first drive taking a couple of jet sweeps around the edge and picking up extra yards.

Tavion Thomas capped off the drive with a touchdown run from 10 yards out. It would be his first of four on the day. Utah has now scored on their first drive in three straight games, but this game stands out because Utah asked for the ball first and then set the tone for the game.

“When we win the toss, almost exclusively we defer,” said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “We are starting to gain more and more confidence in the offensive guys and we are starting to play the line of scrimmage better. Of course, the analytics come into it. We took the ball because we knew we were without Devin (Lloyd).”

The move essentially lessened the amount of time they would be on defense without their senior leader and All-American, as he was serving a first half suspension for targeting.

UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson was a late scratch for the game after giving it a go in warmups. In his place, redshirt freshman Ethan Garbers got his first start and he played admirably. On his first drive, he led UCLA all the way down the field on a drive that ended with a short field goal to make the score 7-3 Utah.

The first quarter came to an end with Utah driving all the way down to UCLA’s 8-yard line heavily led by powerful Tavion Thomas runs as well as a balanced mix of throws and even a 14-yard Cam Rising scramble. Between the first and second quarter, the no. 22 was retired and the families of Aaron Lowe and Ty Jordan were honored on the field. Immediately after, on the first play of the second quarter, Tavion Thomas ran it 8-yards into the endzone for his second touchdown. This finished off a 10-play drive.

“My O-Line, they were moving that thing. It made it easy for me,” said Thomas. “We were all just working together. We executed.”

“We wanted to have a lot more physicality (in the red zone),” said Whittingham. “You saw that tonight. That was our objective.”

UCLA did answer back, driving down the field and converting two fourth and short situations, the second of which saw Zach Charbonnet break free for a 30-yard touchdown to make it a 14-10 Utah lead. This would be the last time UCLA scored in the first half.

Utah’s offense was on fire on the night and did not back down, throwing another punch in a seven play, 75-yard drive. The drive had multiple long runs from TJ Pledger as well as another 9-yard scramble from Rising. Eventually, the drive ended with a Kincaid receiving touchdown to put Utah up 21-10.

“Our offensive line deserves a huge shoutout. We don’t get 290 yards rushing without a lot of movement going on up front,” said Whittingham. “Our offensive line rose to the occasion.”

“O-line did a great job, tight ends did a great job, and receivers did a great job,” said Rising. “I’m glad we were able to finish (drives).”

The game's only turnover came when Utah’s Nephi Sewell intercepted a pass that was tipped a couple of times. The offense wasted no time and took advantage of the turnover right away as Thomas ran it in for his third touchdown of the half to put Utah up 28-10 at halftime.

UCLA was never able to overcome this deficit although they did fight hard in the second half. At one point with 7:23 remaining in the game UCLA had the ball with the whole field to drive, if they had scored they could have made it a one-score game. On the very first play of the drive, defensive tackle Hauati Pututau put an end to UCLA’s aspirations when he sacked Garbers in the endzone for a safety. This put Utah up three scores.

As if that wasn’t enough, the story of the day, Thomas, scored the exclamation point with his fourth rushing touchdown, this one from 24-yards out. This tied a Utah single-game record for rushing touchdowns. He finished the game with 160 yards on 24 carries and four touchdowns. He averaged 6.7 yards per carry and was the workhorse that helped drive Utah to this win.

“Tavion was outstanding,” said Whittingham. “160+ yards and four touchdowns. Just an outstanding back. He has really turned into a workhorse for us. He carried the ball 24 times and it’s a huge positive what he is doing for our team.”

Rising echoed those sentiments, simply saying, “It was nice handing ‘9’ the ball.”

Utah ended up getting the win with a final score of 44-24. They’re happy with the win, but they know they still have a lot of football left to be played.

“We’re focused on finishing the rest of the season off strong,” said Rising. “We are making sure that we are in the right position and we are not worried about anyone else. We are just handling things in-house.”

A game in which Utah scored 44 points— 22+22 on a night they honored the no. 22 for both Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe—it solidified one thing, Utah is firmly in the driver seat in the Pac-12 South.