No. 3 Utah took another massive step toward the Big 12 Championship Game and College Football Playoff on Saturday, beating No. 9 BYU 28-20 in the Holy War at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
With the victory, the Utes improved to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in Big 12 play, remaining the conference’s only undefeated team.
And according to ESPN’s projections following the game, Utah now has a 93% chance of reaching the Big 12 Championship Game and a 90% chance of making the College Football Playoff.
Those numbers tell the story of just how important Saturday’s victory was for the Utes.
Utah Takes Control of the Big 12 Championship Race
Utah wasted little time making a statement, jumping out to a 14-3 lead in the first quarter.
But as is often the case in the Holy War, things were far from over.
BYU responded with 17 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 20-14 lead into halftime, putting Utah’s perfect season in serious jeopardy.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the biggest question was whether BYU could generate enough offense against Utah’s defense, especially with uncertainty surrounding running back LJ Martin. As we noted in our
[BYU vs. Utah prediction, pick and preview], t...