There are few teams in the country good enough to beat themselves and still win games.
We saw that with Georgia, one of the nation’s best programs, yesterday at home against South Carolina. Bulldog quarterback Jake Fromm entered the contest without an interception thrown all season long, yet the Gamecocks picked him off three times in their upset in Athens.
Later in the evening and nearly 2,000 thousand miles away in Tucson, Jacob Eason, who lost his starting job to Fromm two years, was set to lead his Washington squad on the road at surging Arizona. The Wildcats were winners of four-in-a-row, while Eason’s Huskies were coming off a frustrating loss to Stanford that led to a week of criticism in Seattle.
Despite the recent success and optimism going into the matchup, the Wildcats are not a team that can beat itself and still pull out games. Especially not against significantly more talented rosters like Washington.
Yet, that is exactly what happened Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. Any chance the Wildcats had of pulling yet another upset was thrown out the window with too many miscues – both physically and mentally.
It’s not to say Washington wouldn’t have ultimately won the game, but Arizona gift-wrapped too many opportunities for the Huskies.
The game started off ominously, as the Wildcats’ opening drive quickly stalled after some initial success. J.J. Taylor ran for five and 16 yards, respectively, on the first two plays of the game, putting the Huskies on their heels. Arizona switched its personnel and had issues getting lined up on the next play, and a mix up in the backfield led to a two-yard loss. Two plays later, it was time to punt.
Washington’s Levi Onwuzurike broke through the middle of the line, then fended off two personal protectors to block Arizona’s first punt of the game. It set up a short field, but the Wildcat defense stood strong and stopped the Huskies on downs.
Still, Khalil Tate and the Wildcat offense could not get anything going, including on a third-and-four where the first signs of Tate’s anxiousness and lack of confidence against the Washington defense began to set in.
After a punt, Washington took possession and marched into the red zone, but had to settle for a field goal. This was an all-too-familiar occurrence for the Huskies, who had struggled mightily finishing drives with touchdowns coming into the game.
Trialing 3-0, the Wildcats again did little with the football. Washington was stacking the box and daring the Wildcats to throw, and Tate continued to bail on plays quickly despite solid protection, at times.
Defensively, Arizona continued to play well in the first half. A stop led to a punt, but the Wildcats truend the ball over as the punt bounced of Thomas Reid III’s shoulder while Stanley Berryhill III was waiting to fair catch it.
It was yet another short field and another good stand for the Wildcat defense. Washington kicked another field goal, and the deficit was only 6-0.
Washington forced the Wildcats to punt on the ensuing possession, but the Huskies had a miscue of their own as they muffed a punt and gave the Wildcats to ball at the 40-yardline.
The Wildcats could not muster a first down, and instead settled for a 50-yard field goal from Lucas Havrisik to make it a 6-3 game.
A couple possessions later, it was still a 6-3 game, when Arizona had the ball deep in its own territory. Tate, who had panicked and bailed against pressure (whether it came or not) all game long, inexcusably retreated toward the endzone and flipped the ball sideways with his left hand for an easy scoop-and-score defensive touchdown by Brandon Wellington. Washington led 13-3.
Watching the television broadcast, FS1 broadcasters Tim Brando and Spencer Tillman did not hold back on their observations of the play or Tate’s performance leading up to it. Among their comments:
Brando: “That’s been, really, the story throughout this first half. And it reared its ugly head yet again with this pressure. We talked about deer in headlights; that’s what happened here to Tate.”
Tillman: “You can’t make those kind of mistakes backed up in your own endzone.”
Brando: “I don’t know what he was thinking there. That’s a huge error, and one at this stage of career should not be made.”
Tillman: “We talked to him yesterday (Friday) about that and the decisions he is making. I said, ‘how do you know you’re improving?’ He gave us a line, but I’m not so sure his evidence is backing it up, today.”
To the credit of Tate and the Wildcats, they bounced back. Taylor rushed four consecutive plays to begin the ensuing drive, and later Tate connected with Jamarye Joiner on a 40-yard touchdown pass that seemed to ignite Arizona Stadium.
The Wildcat defense continued to play tough, forcing another Washington punt. That set up a 9-play, 68-yard drive emphatically capped off by a Taylor 1-yard touchdown. Suddenly Arizona had a 17-13 lead and the stadium was rocking going into halftime.
Despite the lead, it was truly a half of what-could-have-been for Arizona.
The defense was impressive and held the Huskies’ offense to a pair of field goals, despite two of Washington’s drives starting in Wildcat territory and the average possession beginning at the 40-yardline.
Indeed, the Wildcats gift-wrapped 10 points on the muffed punt and the fumble for a defensive touchdown. If the game was 17-3, as it easily could have been, the second half may have been a whole lot different.
As it was, Washington was in a great position on the road despite having lost 10 consecutive games when trailing at the half.
Unlike the first half, the Huskies were able to establish a strong running game and keep the Arizona defense on its heels. Meanwhile, the Husky defense kept doing what it had been doing to keep Tate uncomfortable.
By the middle of the third quarter, Washington was holding onto a 20-17 lead. The Wildcats had picked up a first down with a Tate scramble, but the next play was a quick pass to Joiner, and he lost the ball while being tackled for a short gain.
It was recovered by the Huskies, who took over at the Arizona 36. Six plays later, it was a 27-17 score. And that was now 17 points directly off Wildcat turnovers.
Still, Arizona continued to battle. Tate and the Wildcats put together their best drive of the second half, with completions of 22 and 29 yards moving the ball into the red zone.
Unfortunately, after a four-yard run by Michael Wiley, Washington’s MJ Tafisi suffered an apparent neck injury. There was a significant delay to take the necessary precautions to assess his injury, and he was put on a stretcher and taken to nearby Banner-University Medical Center. Fortunately, after evaluations, Tafisi was able to rejoin the team for the flight back to Seattle, so everyone is hopeful of a speedy recovery for Tafisi.
This was a pivotal moment in the game, because after the delay Arizona was unable to punch it in the endzone. It appeared Taylor had scored on a six-yard run, but holding was called Reid III. The next play, Tate was sacked again for an 11-yard loss, and eventually Arizona had to settle for a field goal to make it a 27-20 game.
From there, it was all Washington as the better team won out in the fourth quarter. Arizona was unable to stop the run and unable to force a turnover, allowing the Huskies to control the ball with ease.
It was not a pretty game for either team, but credit the Huskies for a strong second half of football. The Wildcats needed to strike early in this one, and they simply did not do that.
Let’s take a look back at the keys to the game and how things played out.
Stay on Schedule (offense)
We knew going into the game that Washington plays aggressive, attacking defense near the line of scrimmage. They’re talented enough to do it utilizing their three-man front, or by sending linebackers and safeties on blitzes both in run and pass situations.
Thus, a big key for the Wildcat offense was going to be staying on schedule. That meant being productive on first and second downs to keep the Huskies from pinning their ears back on obvious passing downs.
For the game, Arizona was 5-of-16 on third down conversions. The average distance to gain was 8.7 yards.
The five conversions all came in the first half (0-of-5 in second half). Those conversions came on distances of 10, 1, 9, 2 and 1 yards. In the second half, the Wildcats never faced a third down situation less than seven yards to gain.
Arizona struggled much of the night on first down, averaging only 3.5 yards per play (3.2 in first half). First down plays included six negative-yardage plays, two holding penalties (not factored into the yards gained) a fumble and an interception.
To say Tate and the Wildcats’ offense were thrown off schedule is an understatement.
Win the Line of Scrimmage (offense and defense)
In the first half, this was either a wash or perhaps favored the Wildcats, especially on the defensive side of the ball. In the second half, this was all Huskies.
The shift began on Washington’s opening drive of the second half.
Washington’s receivers had not been able to get open much of the first half, but Chris Petersen and Co. drew up a play to begin the second half. They lined up talented freshman Puca Nacua in one-on-one coverage against cornerback Lorenzo Burns.
Nacua had just one catch all season coming in, but is a player that will be seeing the field more. At 6-foot-1, he’s bigger than the Huskies’ go-to-receiver, the 5-foot-11 Aaron Fuller, which gave Nacua an advantage over Burns, who is also 5-foot-11. The play was a 28-yard completion on a fade pass that Nacua pulled in despite good coverage by Burns.
Nacua went on to finish the game with three receptions for 97 yards.
The importance of this play was it gave the Huskies the confidence they could complete balls downfield if Arizona continued to clog the line of scrimmage. But that began to open up later in the drive, too.
After Washington moved the ball into Arizona territory, the Wildcats forced a third-and-two at the 39-yardline. The Wildcats were poised to stuff a Sean McGrew rush for a loss, but he fought through the tackle of Colin Schooler and Kylan Wilborn for a short gain of 1-yard. It would have been very interesting to see what Washington would have done had the play been stopped for a loss or no gain. Instead, it was a short 1-yard left, and Eason picked up the first down with ease on a sneak.
From there, the Huskies ran McGrew inside for five yards and Chico McClatcher on a fly sweep for six. That set up a good throw from Eason to Fuller to put the ball inside the 5-yardline. After Arizona’s defense stuffed the ensuing run by Slavon Ahmed, the Huskies went to play-action and slipped a tight end across the formation for an easy touchdown.
Once Washington began to win the line of scrimmage in the second half, Eason and the Huskies were able to keep the Wildcat defense off balance the rest of the game. They ran the ball 25 times for 142 yards in the second half (prior to three kneel downs at end of game), while throwing just 10 times, eight of which were completions.
Win the Turnover Battle (all phases)
This was an absolute-must against a team like Washington, and it was a complete failure for the Wildcats in all three phases. The Wildcats turned the ball over three times offensively, once on special teams and did not create a defensive turnover for the second consecutive game.
Arizona must clean up its ballhandling, which was also an issue at Colorado but fortunately the Wildcats were able to pounce on the loose balls (or they were down before it came out). And Tate, too, has to stop giving the ball away via interceptions or careless fumbles.
The Wildcat defense also has to get back to its ways from earlier in the season of forcing turnovers.
4. Be Physical (all phases)
Much like winning the line of scrimmage, this was a relative wash in the first half. After halftime, Washington gets the edge in decisive fashion.
Part of being physical also has to fall on the quarterback position, and this is something that Urban Meyer preaches constantly. The five things he evaluates a quarterback on are: Competitiveness, toughness, leadership, football IQ and ability to extend the play.
While Arizona had a few breakdowns in pass protection throughout the game against Washington, there were nearly a half-dozen plays (or more!) where Tate bailed on the play or the protection before there was any pressure on him. This killed numerous opportunities and set the offense behind the chains as he took unnecessary sacks (stepping out of bounds) and fumbling.
The goal for an offensive line is always to keep a quarterback from getting hit. But the quarterback has to be willing to trust his protection and know that at times he is going to get hit. Tate too often looks to avoid the contact and bails early on plays when he thinks there will be pressure or if his first pass read is taken away.
When the quarterback bails on plays, there is little the offensive line or the receivers can do to properly block or get open down field. There was an instance in the second half on a third-and-long where the Wildcats came out of a timeout with a quad-receivers set that I don’t believe we – or Washington – had seen this year on film. Despite no pass rush, Tate scrambled to his left away from the four-wide receiver side. This left his receivers no opportunity to find holes in the Husky zone defense to get open.
There are some positive teachings moments for Tate, though. When Arizona got things going late in the second quarter, he was staying in the pocket, stepping up and finding room to throw or run.
On the first touchdown drive, Tate stepped up and completed a third-and-nine pass to Berryhill III for a key first down. On the next play, he did the same, expect he was able to find room for an 8-yard run on first down. Two plays later, on third-and-two, he was patient in the pocket, kept his feet quiet and delivered a well-thrown ball to Joiner for the 40-yard touchdown, while he was getting hit. That’s the type of play Tate needs to show more of.
Don’t Get Tricked (defense and special Teams)
It wasn’t necessarily a trick play, but Washington got the Wildcats on special teams with the blocked punt. The Huskies should have blocked another, but somehow the punt got off and the Wildcats were able to capitalize on a muffed punt on the other end.
Offensively, the Huskies did not have to pull out any specific trick plays, but they did make some good second-half adjustments. I highlighted the opening play above as it introduced Nacua as a bigger target in the offense. They also found success on the back side of the Arizona defense with pitch-back plays that out-leveraged the Wildcat defense several times, especially in the second half.
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