SANTA CLARA, Calif. – On a night when neither offense could do much of anything, it was only fitting that a pass that bounced off a receiver’s hands and leg turned into the winning play.
Byron Murphy returned a deflected interception for the game’s only touchdown to lead No. 10 Washington to a 10-3 victory over No. 17 Utah in the Pac-12 championship game Friday night and a berth in the Rose Bowl.
“You know, life isn’t easy. A Pac-12 championship is not going to be easy,” Huskies coach Chris Petersen said. “It’s not reality. If it happens (easily), go buy lottery tickets, because it’s not going to be like that. That’s just luck.
“It is a grind, it’s hard.”
The matchup between the two stingiest defenses in the conference lived up to the billing with Washington (10-3) holding Utah (9-4) to 188 yards and both offenses limited to just one field goal apiece all game.
That’s why it was up to the defense to come up with the score for the Huskies.
Utes quarterback Jason Shelley’s pass hit Siaosi Mariner in the hands inside the Washington 35. But Mariner couldn’t hold onto the pass, and it ricocheted off his leg and into the hands of Washington’s Murphy, who raced 66 yards for the score with 1:05 left in the third quarter. The extra point came from the foot of Peyton Henry, who had kicked a 29-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead late in the second quarter, and made it 10-3.
“The ball came up, and I just knew I had to make a play,” Murphy said. “The opportunity was there. I just had to make sure I took it.”
Jordan Miller intercepted another pass from Shelley on the following drive, and Murphy got his second interception of the game the next time Utah had the ball. The Huskies sealed the victory with a fourth-down stop in the final minute to earn a trip to Pasadena, California, and “The Grandaddy of Them All.”
“They play the kind of game we want to play,” Washington linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven said of the Utes. “They play a physical brand of football. They want to run the ball down our throats, and I think we’re built to play that kind of game.”
Murphy broke up the final throw, which was to Mariner, but the Utes thought pass interference should have been called.
“Everybody’s hurt,” Shelley said. “We were that close. We played that bad and we still lost by only seven points.”
The Huskies had four drives of at least 10 plays but got only one field goal out of those. They were stopped on fourth-and-6 from the Utah 23 on the opening drive, threw an interception in Utah territory on the third drive and had a field goal blocked in the fourth quarter.
“It’s really hard to describe, because we’re so excited about our defense out there and in some ways frustrated on the other side,” Petersen said. “We just couldn’t get things done like we needed to.”
The Utes tied it with a score on the opening possession of the third quarter when Matt Gay’s 53-yard field goal just cleared the crossbar, but they couldn’t get anything else.
Utah made it to the title game despite losing quarterback Tyler Huntley and running back Zack Moss to injuries in a four-day span in early November. They then lost leading receiver Britain Covey to what appears to be a serious knee injury in Friday’s game.
Shelley and Armand Shyne stepped in and led the Utes to three straight wins and a chance to play for the conference crown, but they weren’t good enough against the Huskies. Shelley’s three interceptions were his first turnovers as a starter, and he threw for just 137 yards. Shyne ran for 37 yards on 11 carries.
“It’s hard when you lose a game and you don’t give up a defensive touchdown,” Utes coach Kyle Whittingham said. “It doesn’t happen very often. But give the Huskies credit, because there’s a reason we didn’t do much on offense.”
The Huskies came into the season with College Football Playoff hopes, but a season-opening loss to Auburn and then a pair of losses to Oregon and California in October ended that quest. Washington still managed to win the conference and will go to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 2000 season.
Utah is also bound for a bowl, though the destination won’t be known until Sunday.