LARAMIE, Wyo. – No. 11 Utah beat overmatched Wyoming and gave coach Kyle Whittingham something to gripe about at the same time.
Jordan Wynn passed for 230 yards and two touchdowns and Matt Asiata ran for 109 yards as the Utes defeated the Cowboys 30-6 on Saturday. But Wynn also tossed three interceptions, including two in the end zone, while Utes defense had no takeaways.
Utah is now minus six in turnover margin on the year with 12 turnovers and six takeaways.
"Our turnover margin this year has been abysmal," Whittingham said.
Yet despite being held below their 49-point scoring average, mostly due to the turnovers, the Utes manhandled the Cowboys and gained 431 yards total offense.
"I was just careless with the ball," said Wynn, who completed 16 of 25 passes in about 3½ quarters of work. "You can't force it into coverage. It won't happen again. I won't throw three interceptions again."
"For me to turn the ball over three times, and we still win by 24 points shows how good a team we have," he added.
The Utes (6-0, 3-0 Mountain West) now will be heavily favored next week against Colorado State before testing their BCS credentials against No. 23 Air Force, No. 4 TCU and Notre Dame.
Utah is off to its third 6-0 start in the last seven years. It finished 12-0 in 2004 and 13-0 in 2008.
Wyoming (2-5, 0-3) ended an eight-quarter scoring drought and scored its first fourth-quarter points this season when backup quarterback Dax Crum threw a 10-yard TD pass.
All five of Wyoming's losses have come against teams that have been ranked in the Top 25 this season — No. 3 Boise State, TCU, Air Force, Texas and now Utah. Boise State, TCU and Texas were all ranked in the Top 5 when Wyoming played them.
Entering the Utah game, the Cowboys had played the third-toughest schedule in the nation, according to Sagarin computer ratings.
Cowboys coach Dave Christensen declined to help college football poll voters by ranking the five teams he's faced.
"Naw, I'd rather you guys do all the comparisons," he told reporters.
Wynn connected with Luke Matthews on a 45-yard score and with DeVonte Christopher on a 16-yard TD.
Asiata was the workhorse on the ground, rushing 16 times, to become Utah's first 100-yard rusher this season, while Eddie Wide and Reggie Dunn each scored on touchdown runs.
Shaky Smithson, who entered the game third in the nation in punt return average, added to his sparkling stats by returning four punts for 111 yards, a 27.8-yard average. He has had four games this season with at least 100 yards in punt returns.
Quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels, who missed last week's loss at TCU because of injury, passed for 84 yards and rushed for another 27 to lead an anemic Wyoming offense that managed just 183 yards. Cowboys safety Chris Prosinski led the Wyoming defense with 12 tackles.
The Utah opened a 23-0 halftime lead, scoring two touchdowns in the final 2:26 of the half on Wynn's pass to Christopher, who spun away from one defender and carried a second into the end zone, and a 6-yard run by Wide that was set up by a 30-yard pass from Wynn to Brad Clifford.
Utah also added a 48-yard field goal from Joe Phillips in the second quarter, and has outscored its opponents 117-7 in the second quarter this season.
The Utes used trickery to score the game's first points when Wynn handed off to Asiata, who tossed the ball back to Wynn, who hit a wide open Matthews for the score.
Defensively, Utah limited Wyoming to just 67 yards rushing and had 11 tackles for a loss of 52 yards as a team.
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