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Saturday, Sep. 26, 2009

Louisville looking to win on the road

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah hasn't recovered from a loss in a long time.

The Utes haven't had to until now.

Utah (2-1) hosts Louisville (1-1) on Saturday, trying to shake off last week's 31-24 loss at Oregon that ended the Utes' 16-game winning streak.

"When you're not accustomed to losing, it tears your heart out," Utah offensive lineman Zane Taylor said. "But this isn't going to kill us. This isn't going to ruin our season. We're going to truck on and keep winning games."

Utah and Louisville last met in 2007, when the Utes won 44-35 and got back to .500 after a 1-3 start. Utah didn't lose again until the final regular season game at BYU, which was also the last time the Utes lost at all before the trip to Oregon last week.

The loss knocked Utah out of the AP Top 25 for the first time since the 2008 preseason poll.

"The key is going to be how we react to this," coach Kyle Whittingham said. "We haven't been in this situation for awhile but we have a Louisville team that is coming in and is very similar to Oregon in that they have talent, speed and athleticism."

The Cardinals haven't won a road game in almost a year and the latest loss was likely the worst of the skid.

Louisville led rival Kentucky 27-24 late in the fourth quarter, but fumbled a kickoff return that allowed the Wildcats to rally for a 31-27 victory.

The Cardinals drove to the Kentucky 21-yard line and were in position to retake the lead, but the Wildcats intercepted a tipped pass from Justin Burke to end the threat.

"We didn't capitalize on a lot of things," said Burke, who was 15-for-28 for 245 yards and two touchdowns in his second career start. "It's one of those things. You grow as a player and as a team we're going to learn how to close out games like that."

Louisville twice had to settle for field goals during drives deep into Kentucky territory in the third quarter. The Cardinals also allowed a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in their fourth straight road loss.

"We know what type of opportunities we missed on Saturday and we know what we did and why we missed it," Burke said. "And that's a huge learning tool."

The Utes were in a similar mood this week, knowing they had plenty of chances to extend the nation's longest winning streak last week at Oregon.

"We didn't play particularly well in any phase of the game," Whittingham said. "The encouraging thing is that our guys hung in there and found a way to have a chance to win it at the end."

Utah couldn't quite complete a comeback from a 21-7 deficit and finished with only 297 yards of offense. Terrance Cain threw two interceptions in his third start, including one that set up the Ducks for a field goal late in the fourth quarter.

Cain finished 20-for-41 for 178 yards in what was easily the worst game of his brief career.

"He is a tough kid. He's resilient and things don't particularly bother him for long periods of time," Whittingham said. "His numbers were average due to a lot of factors. Everyone has to get better."

Whittingham is 2-0 against Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe, who spent much of his childhood in the state. His father, Dave, was an assistant at BYU and was the athletic director at Utah State for two years.

Kragthorpe, who was Tulsa's coach when the Utes beat the Golden Hurricane in the 2006 Armed Forces Bowl, could use a big road victory. The Cardinals have gone 3-8 away from home since Kragthorpe replaced Bobby Petrino.

Despite not winning a road game since last October, Kragthorpe said there were enough good signs last week to make him optimistic.

"It was hard, but there were a lot of encouraging things that happened in that game," he said.