up to that point, we had slowly taken back the momentum from having spotted Utah to an early lead. We dumped the passing game and was running the ball at will, tearing off large chunks of real estate with each carry. For the game we averaged over 7 ypc and had just put together an 11 play 83 yd scoring drive the possession before and forced Utah to punt 3 times in the 3rd quarter (including two 3 and outs).

We were down 24-27 and started moving the ball again looking for the go ahead score. Their defense was tired and unable to stop Harvey, Bryan and Fui. With about 3 min left in the 3rd quarter we had approached mid field when Max got picked for the first time that quarter. Utah immediately revived, got the momentum back and marched down the field for the score and iced the game with 4 more Max Hall turnovers in a row all on pass attempts.

I don't know today if it was Max or Anae who abruptly decided to stop what had been getting us back onto the game and gave the advantage back to the yewts. Instead of sticking with what was working (punishing ground attack) and driving for the go ahead TD and crush the spirit of the yewts, we all of a sudden started passing and 4 picks and a Max Hall fumble later they scored on each possession and piled on for a huge win.

I still believe that if we (either Max or Anae) had remained patient and stuck with the run game, we would have scored multiple times and finished them off, their undefeated season would've been lost, no Sugar Bowl victory, etc. Whether that would've impacted the Pac12's decision to invite them or not is another thing, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.

I just know that at that point the game was in our grasp and it turned on a Max Hall pass.