Arizona at Oregon Game Review

Oregon 34, Arizona 6 | Final Stats (PDF)

The Ducks did what they needed to do Saturday, and the result was a 34-6 victory that could have been a little closer or an even bigger blowout, depending on your perspective.

There is not much to break down in summary of the game, so let’s take a quick review of my keys to the game before diving into the answers to my questions from last week.

Reviewing the Keys to the Game

Start Fast

Oregon scored on the second play of the game and led 14-0 after the first quarter, later taking a 21-0 lead.

Create Turnovers

Scottie Young Jr. was able to snare an interception off Tristan Cooper’s deflection, but it was too little, too late (28-6 deficit late third quarter). Arizona simply hasn’t been able to force meaningful turnovers to change the momentum of games.

Play Disciplined

The Wildcats hurt themselves with several early penalties that prevented them from establishing any rhythm. The inexperienced offensive line accounted for several of the infractions, plus there was a head-scratching 12-men on the field penalty against the defense following a lengthy delay for an injured Oregon player.

Tackle Well

Arizona tackled well in spurts, but still missed some opportunities near the line of scrimmage. Additionally, the lack of sound assignment football continues to rear its ugly head too often, which I’ll touch on below regarding the defense.

Fight to the Finish

The Wildcats never gave up, and individually players fought to the finish. But as I will discuss below regarding mindset, playing a complete football game requires more than this simple check of the box each week.

Reviewing Arizona’s Key Questions

Who is the quarterback?

I hate to answer a question with a question, but did this question really get answered?

Grant Gunnell earned the starting nod based on his recent performances, but it wasn’t a full-fledged commitment to the true freshman. This was always going to be a difficult situation for Gunnell or Khalil Tate given the issues with the offensive line, not only for pass protection but in establishing a consistent running game to take pressure of the passing game.

Both quarterbacks were able to do some things to get the offense moving initially, but neither could sustain it against a strong Oregon defense.

So, as we move on to Utah and close out the season with the Territorial Cup, it appears we’ll continue to be asking this question a couple more times: Who’s the quarterback?

Who is healthy on the offensive line?

The primary concern for Arizona last night was its offensive line. The Wildcats had three first-time starters, including true freshman left tackle Jordan Morgan, center Seven Bailey and right guard Jon Jacobs.

Veteran starters Cody Creason and Josh McCauley were not on the trip, and Bryson Cain did not play, but was on hand presumably for emergency duty. The Wildcats have also been without co-starting right tackle Edgar Burrola.

Being down four starting offensive linemen is tough for any team to overcome, especially the Wildcats who don’t have the talent or depth across the board that many teams in the Pac-12 do.

Even so, this unit hurt Arizona not just in their performance run or pass blocking, but with penalties. Right tackle Paiton Fears had a couple false start penalties, including on the first series of the game. Bailey had a costly 15-yard personal foul penalty for trying to clear the pile on the third series.

What has Chuck Cecil & Co. done with the defense over the bye week?

The Wildcats settled on a three-down defensive front and utilized linebacker Anthony Pandy in a variety of ways on the edge as a STUD and outside linebacker. Pandy is the team’s most versatile defender in the box and played a pretty strong game once again.

Arizona’s down linemen did a solid job, especially early in the game when Oregon’s starting left tackle missed the first two possessions. As the game wore on, the Ducks made some adjustments and found holes to run the football. Once again, there were too many occasions where Arizona’s box defenders strayed from their assignments or filled the wrong gaps.

The back end was similar structure to recent games, with Jace Whittaker playing a coverage safety position. Coverages continued to be mixed, but predictable, especially in the absence of pressure on the quarterback.

An alarming trend of miscommunication and blown coverages reemerged on just the second play of the game when Whittaker and cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace were caught in between coverage assignments and the Ducks hit for a long touchdown. It’s been remarkably disappointing with the breakdowns in this secondary, which have been all too frequent ever since the opening game at Hawai’i.

At the same time, one has to credit Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert for a strong performance. He twice made pro-level throws into tight windows for touchdowns. The first was a flea-flicker off a reverse in which the Wildcats had pretty good coverage on the two deep targets up each boundary. Herbert went to his second option down the left sideline, and delivered a perfect pass to his receiver who had a half-step on Roland-Wallace. The freshman corner was not badly beaten, but got caught peeking back to the quarterback for a quick moment and lost his over the top coverage.

The second outstanding throw that Herbert made was on a fake double screen with a tight end releasing on a wheel route. Linebacker Tony Fields II was in good position, but turned inside and the ball was delivered perfectly to the outside. Solid coverage, better throw.

Both of these plays are best defended up front as they take time to develop. While Arizona got a bit of pressure at times, it was not consistent enough – as we’ve seen all season.

It is worth pointing out that Cecil installed a couple safety blitzes we had not seen this season, but it took until the second half to check them off the play sheet. If the Wildcats are to win one of their next two games – especially the Territorial Cup – dialing up these sort of pressures will be needed.

Where is this team’s mindset?

It seemed the team’s mindset was about where it had been prior to the bye week. That’s not necessarily a good or bad thing. It’s just more of the same.

By now it seems clear that if things are going well, this team will come together and play inspired football. But when things are not going well – as has been the case for five straight games – they will play hard individually, but not necessarily collectively.

For far too long, this team has been defined in two ways: 1) the defense played hard, but the offense played sloppy or 2) the offense did its job, but the defense can’t stop anyone.

Whether one unit is stronger than the other should never be the point. Every position – every unit – should be feeding off and complementing one another. If the offense has a bad possession, the defense needs to step up. If the defense gives up a big play, the offense needs to answer. If neither are getting much going, can a special teams play light a fire?

None of that has existed at really any point this season. Which lends the question: what is the mindset? What are they trying to accomplish? Who are they playing for?

Those questions will linger another week or two.

Is it too soon to start thinking about the future?

As I wrote last week, the answer is no.

It was disappointing we did not see a few more younger players throughout the game on defense, but options are a bit limited. The Wildcats did put freshman linebacker Derrion Clark in the outside linebacker/STUD possession on the final series or two, but otherwise most of the defensive starters were still in the game for four quarters.

There was solid rotation along the defensive line, including true freshman Kyon Barrs and redshirt freshman Mykee Irving. But the second and third levels of the defense have a number of veterans that continue to show the same performance and produce the same results.

By Week 10, playing the wrong gap, being late to trigger and fill run lanes and failures to communicate basic coverage assignments in the secondary should happen frequently.

Those remain troubling concerns across the board, but there has been little accountability for missed assignments and poor effort at times. I’d like to see younger players mixed in even if just for a few snaps.

Offensively, the Wildcats have utilized much of their young talent. The Wildcats started a true freshman at left tackle and quarterback, they played a true freshman tailback at times, they have two promising true freshman wide receivers and traveled another true freshman offensive lineman.

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