Figuring out the Utah offense is an exercise in physicality, but certainly not mystery.
Even the Utes' head coach, following Saturday night's 34-21 victory against the Arizona Wildcats, admitted as much.
"There's no secret," Kyle Whittingham said, wearing shorts while others bundled in coats. "If you want to defend us - you can watch the tape - you take away (running back) John White, load the box and force us to throw the football."
That's exactly what the Wildcats tried to do.
And precisely why, as early as Monday, the Utes prepared a counterattack.
The team's wide receivers were told that, to keep the Wildcats from playing run defense with their defensive backfield, the Utes would take a few shots deep against man-to-man coverage.
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They did just that.
Utah's first touchdown was from 65 yards away, from quarterback Jon Hays to wideout DeVonte Christopher.
The first possession of the third quarter produced a 44-yard scoring pass from Hays to Reggie Dunn, giving Utah a 27-7 lead.
"When you get the look you want, you've just got to make the play, really," Hays said. "We did that tonight."
Both deep balls were plays called in the huddle, not audibles.
"They just burned them off the line, really," said Hays, who tied a career high with 199 passing yards on 12 of 21 completions. "They're great playmakers. They did some things - got off the line, got open.
"It was some easy throws for touchdowns."
Connecting on the 65-yarder early in the second quarter gave the Utes confidence that what they'd prepared for was correct.
"You spend so much time practicing and watching film and doing all that stuff to prepare for the game; when it actually, works, man, that's one of the best feelings, when you see all your hard work just paying off," said Christopher, who led the team with 79 receiving yards.
"When the head coach and the offensive coordinator tell you the game is on your shoulders at the receiver spot, then you know how your mindset's got to be that whole week."
The Wildcats committed two pass interference calls, which Whittingham called "as good as a completion."
A game plan is one thing, Whittingham said, execution another.
"You can't just throw incompletion after incompletion," he said.
The UA could not be blamed for daring Hays, a junior college transfer who didn't start until Game 5 because of starter Jordan Wynn's season-ending shoulder surgery.
"We were expecting it, the way teams have played us the past couple weeks," Hays said. "We practiced it all week. We came out and executed it."
Hays' experience over the past month has made the Utes' passing attack just dangerous enough, Christopher said.
"Game 6 Jon Hays is way different than Games 1 and 2," he said. "His command of the huddle, the way he gets the calls in, checks into plays, everything.
"He just gets better and better each week."
His coach agreed.
"He's more confident, he's making better decisions, he's not forcing the ball into coverage," Whittingham said. "All those things you would hope would happen in the natural progression, maturation of a quarterback."
Loosening up the UA defense with passing made life a bit easier for White, the 5-foot-8, 180-pound halfback who logged his fifth 100-yard game of the season Saturday.
His 109 yards on 27 carries helped bury the Wildcats in the second half.
"My life is never easy," he said. "I'm in the land of the giants."
Saturday, he had help slaying them.
"That makes everything better," White said. "The defense is going to change.
"They can't play the defense they're going to play, if we keep going up top."
