Utah 27, TCU 20

For as many problems as Utah has, TCU has more. Before the season, this was pegged as one of the most important conference match-ups. Now, it was a battle between two teams hoping to gain some respect and enough wins to deserve a bowl bid. Utah kept their recent success going, bagging a win over TCU and increasing their win-streak to four.

Utah played a pretty good all-around game against the Horned Frogs. They were able to run the ball once again, (when they run, they win, no run = no win) and Johnson had a decent game as well - although the whole team only posted 227 yards in the game. The biggest problems in this game had to do with the special teams and penalties. First off, Utah had a punt blocked and then returned for a touchdown. They also gave up all sorts of long returns - when previously their return coverage had been pretty decent. The other glaring problem was with penalties. They had 10 penalties for 98 yards. Many of these penalties were stupid personal fouls or unnecessary late hits. Some penalties are bound to happen but, when a player intentionally does something cheap, while trying to get away with it, I get frustrated with them.

Utah's next game is the real kicker. It's a well known fact that Utah gets up for the big games (see TCU, UCLA, Louisville) but they struggle against patsies (see UNLV). The Utes play on Saturday against Colorado State in Fort Collins. While Colorado State is only 1-6, they lost to Colorado by 3 and California by 6 earlier in the season. This could easily be a catch-game for the Utes. Lets hope not ;).