PULLMAN, Wash. - Committing five turnovers, Washington State handed over the football and the game to Utah, 27-7, in front of a stunned and quiet crowd of 26,179 in Martin Stadium.

The loss was the first of the season for the Cougars, but their ninth straight dating back to the 1998 season. The Utes handed WSU its first home loss to a non-conference opponent since 1991, while moving to 1-0.

After a stellar debut by the defense, holding Utah to four yards on three plays in its first possession, the Cougar offense looked to create fireworks. Steve Birnbaum quaterbacked the Cougars to two quick first downs, but his second pass of the day was caught and fumbled by Nian Taylor at the Utah 40 yard line. The Utes responded with a 12-play, 29-yard drive culminating in a 48-yard field goal by Golden Whetman to take a 3-0 lead with 5:39 left in the first quarter.

Utah kept the Cougars out of scoring range until late in the second quarter, but after hauling in a pass at the Utah 28 yard line, Taylor coughed up his second fumble of the game after a hit from Jay Hill. With just 2:04 remaining until halftime, the Utes quickly marched downfield to turn WSU woes into Utah euphoria. Darnell Arceneaux completed seven-of-10 passes to set up a 45-yard Whetman field goal, sending WSU into the locker room down six.

On WSU's first second-half play from scrimmage, Birnbaum and Taylor looked to atone for their first-half mishaps with a lengthy pass down the right sideline. Although Taylor beat his man temporarily, the Utes Jeff Ray made a miraculous recovery to tip the ball away from Taylor's awaiting arms and maintain Utah momentum. Three plays later, the Cougars were forced to punt and Utah began what would be its first endzone-bound drive.

Starting at their own 35 yard line, the Utes used 15 ground yards from Mike Anderson and Omar Bacon, and 30 all-purpose yards from Arceneaux to set up the score. On first-and-10, Arceneaux dropped back and pumped right to Chris Christensen, who lost DeJaun Gilmore and glided open for a 35-yard touchdown reception. A Whetman point-after put the Utes ahead 13-0 with 10:50 left in the third quarter.

WSU retaliated with a quick first down and then moved to its own 48 yard line to face third-and-one. Birnbaum dropped back and fired to Farwan Zubedi, who danced around his defender and scrambled to the Utah 32 yard line before Andre Dyson wrapped him up and forced the third Cougar fumble of the day.

Utah's quest to turn three Cougar turnovers into three scores was stopped short, but barely. After cruising to the WSU 3 yard line, an errant Areceneaux pass on second-down was intercepted by Earl Riley in the endzone.

The Cougars then entrusted their faith in redshirt freshman Jason Gesser to quarterback the team into the game. On his inaugural play under center, Gesser handed off to Jeremy Thielbahr who rumbled one yard before dropping the ball on the carpet and returning possession to Utah.

The Cougar defense forced the Utes into a field goal situation at the 36 yard line, but a roughing-the-kicker penalty gave Utah a first down at the WSU 9 yard line. One snap later, Anderson busted through a handful of Cougars to earn six more Utah points, and WSU trailed 20-0 with 2:16 left in the third quarter.

Before game's end, Anderson - who compiled 108 rushing yards on the day - broke loose for a 40-yard touchdown run to create a 27-0 spread. The Cougs would finally get on the board with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter when Deon Burnett capped a 16-play, 80-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown dive.