Utah Utes vs. Colorado Buffaloes

Utah hopes to get Kenneth Scott – who left the game in the third quarter on crutches – back and the Utes will be crossing their fingers for a speedy recovery from Devontae Booker. Fortunately, the Utes rode the performance of Joe Williams, who rushed for 187 yards on 34 carries with a touchdown, and that’s all about Utah’s offense could get going against the Buffs, as Travis Wilson only threw for 108 yards, with one pick and one touchdown.

Player of the game: Utah running back Joe Williams.

On their first possession, the Buffs lost six yards in three plays and settled for a 31-yard field goal attempt, which was blocked.

In general, neither team played particularly well, but Utah was less bad than the Buffs on a snowy afternoon.

Utah finally pushed the lead to 10-0 two possessions later, getting a 37-yard field goal from Phillips, but Colorado finally converted an opportunity into points on the next possession.

The Buffs then held the Utes on their next possession to force a punt and take possession at the Colorado 19 with 2:28 left in the game. But when the Buffs hit the 8-yard line, Phillip Lindsay was stopped for no gain, Apsay threw incomplete on second down and was sacked on third down.

Late in the first half, Apsay connected with Nelson Spruce for a 28-yard touchdown that cut the deficit to 10-7. But Wilson threw into triple coverage and safety Tedric Thompson picked off his pass in the end zone to stop the drive. The Utes drove down to Colorado 15 following a 64-yard run from Williams.

Down to their third-string quarterback for more than half the game, the Buffs dropped a 20-14 decision to Utah to finish the season 4-9. Colorado made things interesting late in the fourth quarter. After forcing a punt, the Buffaloes drove to the Utah 47 in the final minute. Colorado now enters a long offseason after winning just one Pac-12 game this season. Colorado (4-9, 1-8) ends a season in which it was more competitive than in the past, but still struggled to win games.

The touchdown was the 23rd of Spruce’s career, putting him into the all-time CU lead in that category. He finished with 111 yards and a touchdown on five receptions…. Gionni Paul had 12 tackles for the Utah defense as Viliseni Fauonuku had a career-high four sacks. They will have a chance for a 10 win season if they win the bowl game, which would be the first since the 2010 campaign.