Arizona fans are going to have similar reactions to this loss as many from a season ago. That is understandable as there are plenty of similarities, but this team will deserve the opportunity to prove itself over the next 11 weeks.
We can get into that more over the next two weeks as the Wildcats will have to regroup before playing Northern Arizona on September 7, but for now let’s focus on what we saw take place Saturday night.
Below are some initial reactions I have. I’ll be a little more thorough after I can watch the replay of the game later Sunday or Monday.
Here are the official stats (PDF).
The Start of the Game
My No. 1 key going into this game was the offense needed a fast start. Slow starts offensively plagued the Wildcats in most all of their losses a season ago, which is something I outlined in my keys and questions story leading into the game.
After the defense struck first with Jace Whittaker’s interception, the offense had the opportunity to assert itself from the outset. My game prediction called for Arizona to establish the run early, but that simply did not happen.
Offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone likes to give his quarterbacks an opportunity to stretch the field early. The first play of the game saw Hawai’i in soft zone coverage and the Wildcats had a couple deep routes and a back side drag route underneath. Tate never looked underneath to Cedric Peterson and Hawai’i covered the deep routes. The next play was an empty backfield designed to get the ball to J.J. Taylor, but interior penetration blew it up and knocked the pass down. The third down play was well-executed and Tate delivered a well-timed ball, but Drew Dixon mishandled the ball and it went for an interception.
After Hawai’i took a 7-0 lead, Arizona opened up with a well-designed play to get the ball to tight end Bryce Wolma, but it was a poor pass from Tate. Taylor then got his first carry inside for a couple yards, but it was third-and-long again. Tate quickly pulled the ball down feeling pressure that wasn’t there, and it was a short gain.
Before anything got rolling, it was a 14-0 deficit. Again, the Wildcats needed their offense to set the tone in this game and it simply did not happen.
The Pick
Despite a strong comeback to tie the game, Arizona was unable to clear the final hurdle. It seemed the Wildcats were poised to gain the lead in the fourth quarter as the offense had momentum, but Tate threw an interception near the goal line and Hawai’i returned it near midfield before regaining the lead on the ensuing possession.
The Cats had the ball second-and-five at the Hawai’i 13-yardline following a five-yard rush by Taylor. Arizona substituted, bringing Taylor out and putting Nathan Tilford in. But it took several seconds to get a play call in, and it’s possible Tate may have felt rushed. In what was a pretty simple RPO read, Tate’s eyes never considered the roving safety and it was an easy pick.
Mistakes happen for all quarterbacks, but timing is critical. And you wonder why it took so long to get a play called considering the tempo was in the Wildcats’ favor at the time. Still, it comes down to execution and the Hawai’i safety made a good play.
Problems in Pass Defense
Hawai’i has a prolific passing attack, but it was very disappointing to see how poorly the Wildcats handled the challenge on Saturday night, especially at the safety positions. Compounding matters, Arizona rarely pressured the Hawai’i quarterbacks, whether with their front three, front four or blitz packages.
While there is blame to be passed around to some blown coverages in both man and zone packages, I was mostly disappointed Arizona did not dial up more exotic pressures with safeties or even corners just to keep the Rainbow Warriors guessing where the numbers would be coming from.
It was interesting that Arizona essentially started the game in a 3-3-5 defense with three true linebackers and Whittaker covering the slot as a nickle back in place of the Spur. This package was also used with a Spur, giving it more of a 3-4 feel, and the Wildcats also featured a more traditional four-down defensive front with two linebackers (4-2-5). Regardless, Arizona couldn’t get any pressure, and alarmingly as the game wore on, Hawai’i established a surprising run presence.
If you aren’t going to get pressure or have sound coverage in the back end, it’s going to be a long day. That was one of my key concerns I expressed in my pregame prediction for why Arizona could lose.
Undisciplined
This one will really upset Kevin Sumlin and his staff. They preached all offseason the importance of discipline, especially for silly, selfish fouls.
Yet on the second possession of the game, Christian Young got a personal foul for a late hit, which helped set up a touchdown. Later in the game, Stanley Berrhilll III received an unsportsmanlike foul for high-fiving a fan as the Wildcats were about to tie the game at 35. Then there was the flurry of delay and false start penalites before Lucas Havrisik’s fourth quarter field goal.
A year ago, Arizona was the third-most penalized team in all of FBS with 76 penalty yards per game. On Saturday, the Wildcats committed 10 for 88 yards.
Two Back Sets
The spark for Arizona’s offense came when they introduced their two-back set with Taylor and freshman Michael Wiley. This was effective for several drives, but largely went unused in the second half except for a couple of plays. It was nice to see this package used in various alignments, including an empty set with the running backs split out and Tate keeping on a designed play in the fourth quarter. There is a lot of versatility with the running backs in both the run and pass games. Wiley is going to be really fun to watch, but needs to get stronger to be a presence running between the tackles.
Time Management
Arizona unfortunately had a couple self-inflicted issues with time management in the fourth quarter that could have saved itself valuable seconds in a down-to-the-wire game.
The first I will point to was a Tate scramble where he ran out of bounds for a short loss (sack) while trailing 45-35. Had Tate simply scrambled and thrown the ball away, not only does he avoid a short loss, he stops the clock. Instead, running out of bounds outside the 2:00 mark meant the clock began to run again once the ball was back ready for play. This isn’t a significant chunk of time except when you need every second while trailing by multiple scores.
We can also turn attention to a coaching decision to kick a field goal with just over four minutes left. Sumlin and Co. hesitated to send out the field goal team, and when they did the play clock was ticking down near 15 seconds. Arizona had three timeouts, but did not use one and was penalized for delay of game. Then chaos ensued with consecutive false starts before a timeout was burned. Havrisik went on to make a 53-yard field goal instead of the original 38-yarder he was sent on to try.
I understand not wanting to use a timeout before the field goal initially, but the decision has to be made quickly. And if the clock was running down, a timeout was necessary because those three points were essential to the chances of winning the game. Instead the Wildcats lost several seconds, yards and a valuable timeout along the way.
The Good:
Not all was bad, so let me identify a handful of the good things that stand out
- Jace Whittaker was outstanding in his return. He had the two interceptions and broke up a pass on a fourth down stop. However, his biggest impact was his leadership. Despite some miscommunications and blown assignments by the defense early, Whittaker was constantly in the ears of his teammates getting them on the same page and ready for the next play. I especially liked some of the interactions I saw with him encouraging true freshman Christian Roland-Wallace, who got beat for a touchdown but kept his head up and competed hard throughout.
- The PAT/field goal team was strong. Give credit to Donald Reiter, Matt Aragon and Lucas Havrisik for a strong performance. They were perfect on all five PATs and kept their composure in the fourth quarter while a delay of game and false start penalties turned a 38-yard kick into a 53-yarder.
- In what has been a strength in recent seasons, Arizona’s receivers blocked well for the most part. It took the team longer to commit to the ground game than I expected, but the Wildcat receivers were doing a good job on the perimeter for Taylor, Tate and the inside receivers in the quick game. It should also be pointed out Drew Dixon was dominating a block near the corner of the goal line on Tate’s last-second scramble. Had Tate stayed outside, he may have had room to score because of Dixon’s block.
- Receivers stepped up. Outside of Dixon’s early drop, it was a nice debut performance for the UA receivers. Brian Casteel and Jamarye Joiner showed their capabilities as explosive inside targets. Stanley Berryhill III had some competitive catches on the outside, as did Tayvian Cunningham from the inside.
- Six turnovers. You have to credit the defense for getting the six turnovers, especially when they had their backs against the wall in the second half. Christian Young shook off some sloppy play from the first half and forced two fumbles, which helped keep Arizona in the game.
- I mentioned Roland-Wallace’s competitiveness, but it was good to see Bobby Wolfe step in and compete at corner as well. He saw significant time in the second half after Lorenzo Burns went down, and seemed to play quite well.
I’ll have a more polished review in the next day or two. But those are my initial thoughts after tonight’s setback. Give credit to Hawai’i and Coach Nick Rolovich. They had a plan, they had confidence and they battled hard through their own adversity.
Tough start to the season. Unfortunately this section of my @DryHeatSportsAZ blog proved true. Will have some quick reaction posted a little later one. pic.twitter.com/nT8AbGSTN3
— Blair Willis (@BlairWillisUA) August 25, 2019
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Great read and a very thorough analysis. Thanks Blair!