Though the start of Saturday’s game wasn’t delayed by much, the pregame festivities were anything but normal at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

As driving rain poured down, lightning strikes lit up the night sky in Salt Lake City, delaying players from warming up on the field and preventing fans from entering the stadium.

Eventually, after workers squeegeed the soggy turf, which had accumulated puddles of rainwater, players were able to enter the field for warmups with about 30 minutes to kickoff — a significant departure from the norm, which is usually an hour prior to game time.

While the storm brewed outside, Utah’s players were doing warmups inside the team’s locker room. When they finally emerged onto the field, instead of going back to the locker room like normal after warmups, they went dir

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