Utah 35, Arizona 7 | Final Stats (PDF)
Playing off my lede from last Friday’s game preview, it was just another week for Arizona football.
Lately, that’s been a very bad thing.
The results showed once again, albeit against a very good Utah team.
Since Week 9, I have placed the Utes in my weekly National Top 10 Power Rankings. Oregon soon joined them in my Week 10 rankings. However, I have maintained Utah ahead of the Ducks in the weeks since, despite the College Football Playoff Committee and the AP Top 25 Poll favoring Oregon. Last week, the Utes were my No. 6 team.
To me, Utah has been a more dominant and consistent team than Oregon in all phases, but there’s no doubt the two will make a good matchup if the Utes get to the Pac-12 Championship game. Saturday seems to verify my notion, with the Ducks falling asleep for the better part of two quarters in Tempe, waking up to the reality that their CFP Playoff dreams are now dashed.
Utah kept its playoff hopes alive with a 35-7 rout of the Wildcats in Tucson. It was a nightmare matchup for Arizona, which was down four of its top offensive linemen. As was predictable, the Wildcats could not run the ball, which made things even more difficult for the quarterback rotation.
Ultimately, Arizona was unable to check off any of the keys to the game (see below). The closest it came was Lorenzo Burns’ second-half interception, but all it did was keep Utah out of the endzone one more time. It was not the game-changer the Wildcats needed early in the contest to maybe – just maybe – make the game interesting.
- Make Big Plays
- Create Turnovers
- Be More Physical
- Steal a Possession
- Non-offensive touchdown
All that remains now is the Territorial Cup.
Nothing else needs to be said, thus I will not be writing any previews later in the week.
The state of the program, through Year 2 of the Kevin Sumlin era, has one last opportunity to show itself before some big picture judgements are ready to be made.
Until then, Bear Down, beat ASU and bring the Territorial Cup back to Tucson.
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