The defense held steady, giving Utah two touchdowns and a field goal.
The Oregon offense, however, failed to be the point-scoring machine that it had been for the season’s first four weeks.
Although the season is entering its seventh week for the Ducks, they return to the Pacific-10 Conference after a 17-13 defeat in Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“When it’s a close game and you know you had chances to win that are probably four or five plays on both sides of the ball, then we say ‘gee, if we had only made those plays we could have won this game,’” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said in a teleconference on Sunday.
Oregon (4-2 overall, 1-1 Pac-10) was in the game early, putting the first points on the board with a 42-yard field goal by Jared Siegel midway through the first quarter. The short-lived lead silenced the crowd of 44,676 fans — the sixth-largest crowd in the stadium’s history.
The Utes answered in the same quarter with a 28-yard field goal by Brian Borreson — the only field goal he made in three attempts.
In the second quarter, the Ducks looked like the Oregon of old as they took the lead with 10 points in four minutes.
After a successful fake punt on fourth down, quarterback Kellen Clemens threw a long pass to Samie Parker to get Oregon to the two-yard line.
Following an incomplete pass, Clemens ran around the right side and dove in for the Ducks’ only touchdown of the day and a 10-3 lead.
When Utah came back on offense, cornerback Steven Moore stripped a Utah receiver of the ball to bring the Oregon offense back on the field. The Ducks capped their scoring with a 40-yard field goal by Siegel.
The Utes narrowed the lead to 13-10 on a 69-yard touchdown pass from Alex Smith to Steve Savoy.
“We need to come back with greater attention to detail,” Bellotti said. “We did some things on both sides of the ball that allowed them to bring it back.”
On the offensive side, the Ducks sank during the second half. At one point, four straight drives by Clemens resulted in punts, and Oregon didn’t score after halftime.
Defensively, the Ducks held for most of the half. However, the 13-10 lead wasn’t safe.
Shortly after the fourth quarter began, Smith found Ben Moa open for a nine-yard touchdown pass. Borreson’s successful point gave the Utes the 17-13 lead.
“I was not pleased with the way we blocked at the line of scrimmage,” Bellotti said. “Either at the run or the pass.”
Oregon struggled with some plays defensively, but Bellotti credited Moore and Kevin Mitchell with good efforts.

“Steven Moore actually had a solid game, but he got beat a couple times,” Bellotti said. “He made 12 tackles and created a turnover. Kevin Mitchell made a lot of plays.”
The Ducks will now refocus and work out their kinks before traveling to Arizona State for Saturday’s game.
“Win or lose, the Utah game had implications on other things way beyond what we’re looking at right now,” Bellotti said. “Things we’re not worried about. We’re worried about the Pac-10 Conference.”
The Ducks also had lingering injuries plague them during the game with Parker, Demetrius Williams, Robby Valenzuela and Justin Phinisee each taking hard hits.
“We don’t have five healthy experienced bodies (on the line) right now,” Bellotti said. “We’re not blocking as effectively as we were a couple weeks ago when we had those guys healthy. We’ve got to get better this week, and then we’ll have a week to rest. It’s important that however physically we are, we’ve got to come up with a great effort this week.”
The sole Duck who did not return to the game after being injured was fullback Luke Rowley. He suffered a concussion during the game.
The last time Oregon lost to Utah, the Ducks finished the season 9-3 and played in the 1994 Rose Bowl.