Arizona ran out of midnight magic and could not pull off the upset against No. 2 Utah in a 40-39 loss. The Wildcats (7-3, 4-3 Big 12) dropped their first home game in over a year and any Big 12 title or College Football Playoff hopes have disappeared.
Here are the grades for the offense, defense, special teams, and coaching from the loss to the Utes:
Offense: B-
Arizona got off to the start it needed to and took control early. An opening drive that featured a lot of Noah Fifita’s legs, a 14 yard catch by Chris
Hunter III, a 26 yard catch and run by Giovanni Richardson was finished with a one yard touchdown run by Quincy Craig.
The second drive was not as successful, the Wildcats were forced to punt it back to Utah. Starting at their own one yard line, the Wildcats were forced into a three and out and punted once again.
Two 15 yard catch and runs by Richardson and Isaiah Mizell put Arizona into the red zone. The Wildcats extended their lead with a five yard touchdown run by Kedrick Reescano.
Fifita nearly threw a pick-six following a 20 yard catch by Richardson but the Wildcats punted the ball back to a Utah offense that was finding its rhythm.
Arizona was unable to either tie or retake the lead before the half as Fifita threw his first interception of the game on a failed end of the half hail mary. The offense took advantage of the short field to start the second half off a Utah turnover with Fifita hitting Mizell from six yards out.
The second drive of the second half went nowhere fast for the Wildcats with Fifita being sacked for the second time of the game. The Wildcats took advantage of another turnover with a 67 yard bomb by Fifita to Hunter and a spectacular 19 yard touchdown catch by Richardson that gave Arizona the lead.
The first drive of the fourth quarter only went backwards and the Wildcats could not add onto its lead. Another three and out would follow on the next drive. Even with help from a special teams turnover, the offense continued to only go backwards, but luckily the short field allowed for a field goal attempt.
Still trailing by two, Arizona needed to go on a long drive to either take the lead with a field goal or a touchdown. It took five plays for the Wildcats to do that. Fifita connected with Mizell for 59 yards, and after two run plays, the duo connected again for a ten yard touchdown.
Fifita then ran in a two-point conversion to give Arizona a six point lead. However, Utah took the lead back two plays later, forcing the Wildcats to have to drive the field again to try and win the game.
Unfortunately, that one last opportunity was over in four plays. Two incompletions to Mizell, then an eight yard gain set up fourth and two. Arizona hurried to the line and tried to get Utah to jump offsides before the two-minute timeout. In a rushed attempt, Fifita could not connect with Richardson to extend the drive and that sealed the win for the Utes.
Fifita finished 27-43 for 356 yards and three touchdowns. Reescano led the way on the ground with 41 yards on nine carries for a touchdown. Mizell hauled in seven catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
Richardson also had seven catches but for 94 yards and a touchdown. Hunter III had six catches for 119 yards. The Wildcats offense as a whole had 415 total yards with 356 through the air and 59 on the ground.
The red zone was kind to Arizona as it went a perfect 6-6, but third downs were not. The UA went 7-16 on third down and averaged 6.7 yards to go on third downs.
When the offense was not handed a short field, it struggled to move the ball, particularly in the second half. Five of the eight second half drives were four plays or less. Two of those drives resulted in -11 and -18 yards.
Credit to Utah, it presents a stout defense, but it also felt at many moments that Arizona shot itself in the foot. Whether it was by penalty or questionable play calling, the Wildcats left a lot of opportunities out on the field.
Defense: C+
Despite a kick out of bounds penalty, the defense forced Utah into a three and out to start the game. The exact same success was the result for the second defensive drive
Working on a short field, the defense stood up strong and forced Utah to settle for a field goal attempt. The Utes’ drive was killed by a sack courtesy of Chase Kennedy and Jay’Vion Cole.
After Arizona took a 14-3 lead, Devon Dampier’s legs took over and the Wildcats surrendered the first touchdown of the game. The Wildcats had kept him contained up to that point but struggled mightily on that drive.
Utah seemed to have the Wildcats’ number as it took its first lead of the night after another Dampier rushing touchdown, this one from 15 yards out.
Some good luck went in the way of the Wildcats on the first play of the second half. Utah fumbled on a lateral pass and Mays Pese jumped on the loose ball. The defense could not hold on to the Arizona lead for long. A 62 yard run set up the Utes to regain the lead.
Just when it seemed like Utah was ready for a kill-shot, Cole ran across the field to pick off Dampier to prevent the Utes from adding on.
In a bend don’t break moment, Cooper Blomstrom buried Dampier in the backfield to put the Utes behind the chains. Utah settled for another field goal and Arizona maintained its lead.
It took three plays for Arizona to lose its lead. There was absolutely no containment in the rush defense, but Blomstrom came in clutch again by corralling Dampier on the two-point conversion attempt.
The Utes ripped off a 33 yard run on the following drive but after an Everett Roussaw Jr. sack, Utah had to punt the ball back to the Wildcats. All Arizona needed was one more stop to pull off the upset but it took Dampier and the Utah offense two plays to win the game.
A quick five yard pass was followed by a 70 yard strike that proved to be Utah’s game winning touchdown. The Wildcats’ defense allowed 500 total yards with 204 coming through the air and 296 on the ground.
Utah was 6-11 on third down and went 5-6 in the red zone. Kennedy led the way for Arizona with nine tackles, a half sack, and a half tackle for loss.
Despite forcing two turnovers, the Wildcats did not do enough to come out with a win. It is also very clear now that there is a big problem when it comes to defending running quarterbacks.
Special teams: C
It was not a great start to the night for the special teams unit. Ian French’s first kickoff of the night went out of bounds. Then, Caleb “Jet” Smith could not field a punt and it took a big time Utah role that resulted in it being downed at the one yard line for a 84 yard punt.
Chase Ridley’s second punt of the night only went 32 yards from the Arizona 10 yard line, giving Utah a shorter field.
Fast forward to the fourth quarter, Drew Nicolson was called for a questionable kick-catch interference that gave the Utes another short field. Nicolson got a chance to make up for it with a fumble recovery after Dwight Bootle II rocked the punt returner.
The last significant play made by the special teams unit was Michael Salgado-Medina’s lone attempt for the night from 47 yards out, which he nailed.
Coaching: B-
Once again, he feels like there was a lot of good and a lot of bad that came from Arizona’s performance. Similar to last week, the only difference is that the Wildcats’ walked away with a victory.
The loss only amplifies what went wrong for Arizona. Starting with the offense, it probably had four solid drives where it was not helped out by turnovers. Two drives of 10+ plays and 5+ minutes of possession showed when Arizona is on schedule and ahead of the chains, it is unstoppable.
Add in two five play drives that were basically two minute drills, the offense showed that it can score in different ways. The issue is that there were ten other drives in the game, and most of them did not look good.
Seven of those ten drives resulted in less than five plays, six ending in punts, and three ending in negative yardage. Arizona needed to find ways to stay ahead of the chains or at least have longer drives so the defense was not immediately going back onto the field.
Now, that’s not an excuse for how the defense performed. While it did force two turnovers, Arizona struggled to contain not only Dampier but Utes running back Daniel Bray. He only had 237 rushing on the season entering tonight’s game and ran for 197 on the Wildcats.
Danny Gonzales’ defensive goals in every game is to stop the run and to hold the opponent under 100 rushing yards. Safe to say Arizona was nowhere close to those goals with Utah running for 296 yards.
There was simply no answer for the Utah rushing attack. The secondary held up well, outside of the game winning touchdown. The Utes receivers just made better plays, Arizona had good coverage on most of the 50-50 balls.
There have been three opportunities for major wins and Brent Brennan’s squad has now missed all of their shots. There is still a lot of good football left to be played with a chance for Arizona to position itself for another good bowl game appearance. This loss, however, will sit, sting, and hurt for the Wildcat faithful.
Yes, the Wildcats hung around with the No. 2 team in the country, but at some point Arizona needed to walk away with one of these games with a win. The future is bright and we saw what Wildcats football could be, but these opportunities are rare which means Arizona needs to capitalize when they are present to it.
