Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — The Washington State Cougars are a win away from taking the Pac-12 North champions, and their College Football Playoff hopes remain alive.
Luke Falk threw for 311 yards and three touchdowns and No. 19 Washington State beat Utah 33-25 on Saturday.
The Cougars are now one win from winning the North and playing in the conference championship game for the first time since the league created divisions in 2011.
“For the last three years, we’ve been right on the cusp of the thing,” Washington State coach Mike Leach said. “We’ll see. This is a good group. We’ve won a lot of games in the Pac-12 in the last three years. We need to win another one.”
Washington State (9-2, 6-2) led from start to finish and could have won by more, but settled for five field goals despite moving inside the Utah 30 on those possessions. The Utes turned over the ball on three of its first four possessions, all in the first quarter, but the Cougars found the end zone on just one of the extra opportunities.
Utah (5-5, 2-5) had seven turnovers on the day and has lost five of its last six games.
Chima Onyeukwu picked off Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley’s pass with 58 seconds remaining to seal the win.
Falk set the Pac-12 career touchdown passes record in the second quarter. The Logan, Utah, native surpassed former USC quarterback Matt Barkley with his 117th touchdown pass and finished with 118.
“The only thing I’m after is a championship win and we’re one game away,” said Falk. “If we do our job and put it in, it’s not as close of a game and we don’t have to put that stress on the defense.”
The “Air Raid” offense was held in relative check by a stout Utah defense that was put in bad positions all game. It finished with 338 total yards and just 27 on the ground. Falk also threw two interceptions.
Tavares Martin Jr. had 10 catches for 64 yards and a touchdown for Washington State.
“Our defense was lights out tonight,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “But it wasn’t enough to overcome seven turnovers. Going minus-4 before (the Hail Mary interception), can’t win doing that. … It could have very easily got out of hand in the first half, but our red-zone defense was tremendous.
“Most important stat in football other than the score is the turnover margin and we were on the wrong end of that by a long shot.”
The Washington State defense played well throughout, bottling up the Utah run game and harassing Huntley. Defensive end Hercules Mata’afa entered the game as the league’s second leading sack artist with 6.5 and added three more Saturday. Huntley finished with 305 passing yards, one touchdown, three interceptions and 51 rushing yards on 20 attempts. He was sacked seven times. Running back Zack Moss had 32 yards and two touchdowns on 13 attempts.
“Mental mistakes by us (early) and it cost us,” Huntley said. “We’ve got a lot of things to work on.”
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