After a win this last weekend against Oregon State, Utah is shifting gears and preparing to play Washington on the road.

Not only have the Utes never beat the Huskies since joining the Pac-12, the last seven visits to Seattle have resulted in losses for Utah. They will need to be hitting on all cylinders if they stand any chance of beating a Washington squad that embarrassed Arizona in a 49-3 win on Saturday.

Head coach Kyle Whittingham is readying his team to see the Huskies at the top of their game.

“They’re probably playing their best football of the season,” Whittingham said. “Really had their way the entire 60 minutes. We’ve got a big challenge up at their place.”

Utah has yet to play at Husky Stadium but knows it will be in for a test. Many people regard this stadium as one of the hardest to play in. With Vegas already favoring Washington, Utah will need to be focused.

“I can’t give you much background [on the stadium] because I haven’t experienced it yet,” Whittingham said. “But I know they’re playing well, and the strength of their team is their defense.”

Turnovers

A week after tossing four interceptions at USC, Travis Wilson did not throw one against OSU (although he maybe would have been picked off once, if it weren’t for a Beaver defender not keeping his eyes on the ball). This comes as a relief to the Utah offense, who made taking care of the ball a priority heading into the contest with the Beavers.

While the Utes cleaned up their play on offense and did not turn the ball over a single time, the defense, while it did hold Oregon State to only 12 points, couldn’t force any turnovers. This makes it two games in a row without any interceptions or forced fumble recoveries.

“We’re saving them all up,” Whittingham said. “We’re still doing the same things in practice. We’ll keep trying to create them, but it has been eight quarters now.”

Injuries

This team has taken a beating this season, as multiple players have been lost for the season due to injury, including Siale Fakailoatonga and Evan Moeai. Others have been forced to sit out games, like Jared Norris against USC and Hunter Dimick this last weekend, in addition to a few games earlier in the season.

Norris hated being on the sideline against the Trojans, so there was never a doubt in his mind whether he would sit out another game. On the road this week, he is going to embrace the hostile environment with his team.

“We love playing away,” Norris said. “We have faith in our coaches, and our coaches have faith in us. As a team, we’re unified and we’re all brothers. Everybody cares about everybody. There’s no divisions, and that’s a big key to our success.”

While the Utes are doing their best to make up for some of their fallen leaders, they will need to continue to stay unified the rest of the way.

“We’re getting pretty banged up,” Whittingham said. “Injuries seem to have accumulated more this year in season than in years past, but the next guy up has got to perform. Even though we’ve been hit fairly hard, we’ve been able to continue to maintain to play competitively.”

k.brenneisen@dailyutahchronicle.com

@kbrenneisen

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