Grading Arizona football’s performance in win at Colorado
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Coming off of the second bye week of the season, Arizona was looking to get back on track after two heartbreaking losses against Colorado.
It was a dominant performance from the Wildcats who put a 52-17 beatdown on the Buffaloes to improve to 5-3 (2-3 Big 12) on the season.
Brent Brennan’s squad is now one win away from being bowl eligible.
Here are the grades for the offense, defense, special teams, and coaching from the Boulder blow out:
Offense: A+
There’s starting off a game on schedule, then there’s starting a game off on fire.
It only took three plays for Arizona to find the end zone. After a quick scamper by Noah Fifita, and then an 11 yard pass to Kris Hutson, Tre Spivey took a screen pass 57 yards to the house.
One play after the defense forced a turnover, Fifita connected with Hutson from 12 yards out for the second touchdown of the game.
On another short drive, Fifita threw his third touchdown pass of the game. This time it went to Gio Richardson who broke one tackle and took it 60 yards to the house.
The fifth drive for the Wildcats involved some wacky plays. Ismail Mahdi would fumble off the behind of Cam Barmore, but Barmore was able to fall on top of it.
Then Fifita looked to have thrown an interception, but was roughed after the pass and the ball stayed with Arizona. After all this, it would result in a Wildcats punt.
Another short field was set up for the offense off of a turnover, it took two plays to get into the end zone yet again. Javin Whatley ran it in from 13 yards to give the Wildcats a large lead.
Right before the half, Fifita threw his fourth touchdown of the game. Connecting with Whatley from 34 yards out, it put Arizona in firm control of the game.
With yet another short field set up for the offense, courtesy of the defense, Arizona was set up in prime position again. However, on a short pass, Hutson tried to do a bit too much and fumbled the ball right back to Colorado.
Following the fourth turnover by Colorado, Mahdi ran for ten yards and then another seven to get into the end zone, opening the flood gates for Arizona.
Mahid continued his strong second half with a 68 yard dash on the first play of the drive. It was then Kedrick Reescano who finished the drive with a one yard touchdown.
Fifita finished the night going 11-19 for 213 yards and four touchdown passes. Hutson finished with five catches for 37 yards and a touchdown.
Richardson led in receiving yards with 63. Mahdi had three carries for 85 yards. Overall the offense had 403 total yards with 213 through the air and 177 on the ground.
Defense: A
The defense followed up the hot start by the offense with getting a three and out on the opening possession. On the next drive, it would get the ball back to its offense.
Chase Kennedy got to the quarterback to force the ball loose and Leroy Palu pounded on the ball for the first turnover of the game.
The third drive of the game was not as successful for the defense. After a nearly eight minute drive, Colorado was able to find the end zone for the first time of the game. There were two third downs converted as well as a fourth down.
It seemed like Arizona’s defense had let up a long touchdown pass by Colorado, but with the help of some penalties it was able to get off the field without any damage being done.
Just when it seemed like the Buffaloes offense was on the move, Dalton Johnson picked the ball off and returned it inside the Colorado ten.
The following drive resulted in continued success for the Wildcats defense. Forcing a three and out, Arizona got off the field with a combo sack by Treydan Stukes and Tia Savea.
Straight out of the half, Jay’Vion Cole got the Wildcats the turnover trifecta, picking the ball off and setting the offense up with yet another short field.
Ayden Garnes got the fourth turnover of the night with another interception for the defense.
Arizona let up the second touchdown of the game on a 59 yard touchdown pass after third string quarterback Julian Lewis came into the game and gave Colorado the slightest sign of life.
The defense got its get back by forcing a three and out on the next drive.
A fifth Colorado turnover was forced by Cole and was picked by Genesis Smith. The fumble was returned all the way back to the Colorado four yard line.
One last fourth down stop put the punctuation mark on a strong performance for the Wildcats defense.
Kennedy finished with eight tackles, which led the team. Cole had both a forced fumble as well as an interception.
Special Teams: B+
Luke Wysong had a nice return on the first punt by the Buffaloes going for 27 yards.
After the second drive stalled out, Michael Salgado-Medina came out and hit a 49 yard field goal to extend the Arizona lead early.
He would miss his second attempt from 30 yards but at that point the game was well in hand.
Coaching: A
Brennan said numerous times throughout the bye week that his players attacked practices and acknowledged that there is still a lot of football to be played.
His team came out tonight and enforced its will on Colorado. Seth Doege and Fifita have seemed to figure things out. Getting players like Spivey out in the open field was part of the adjustments this week and it showed.
Being able to pick apart the defense through the air will more than likely be a big part of the game plan moving forward for Arizona.
On the defensive side, Danny Gonzales completely shut down the Buffaloes. There still may be concerns with the quarterback run game but it was improved tonight.
The secondary was able to create turnovers time and time again. Moving forward it will allow for the linebackers and defensive lineman to focus on stopping the run.
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