Arizona Football: Wildcats valiantly battle back but fall short, lose 24-20

This will be the third time Khalil Tate has led the Wildcats against the USC Trojans, it would be a sweet win if they could master the game.

Execution. That’s where you win the game of Football. You hear it all the time. The Arizona Football team did not execute in the first half and it caused the team to go into the locker room at halftime down 17-0. The Cats would valiantly battle back but fall short. We have never seen so many flags in our lives. There were 26 total penalties,18-169 yards for USC and 8- 80 yards for Arizona.

At some point, Khalil Tate ran the ball and it seemed he had re-injured his ankle. But he ran the ball after that proposed injury. He can run through pain, but one would assume his coaches want him to stay in the pocket and just throw away the ball. It wasn’t until the crowd urged Tate on that he ran and although you would not think it, he ended ran five times for 14 yards. Running back JJ Taylor on had seven carries for 22 yards. The team as a whole only earned 116 yards of offense as opposed to USC’s 284 yards, two touchdowns, and a field goal in the first half.

Two key incidents gave Arizona try a two-minute drill at the end of the half. One was a botched time-out by USC, their center didn’t get the message the rest of the team was calling a timeout and hiked the ball and lost it to Arizona around the USC 10-yard line. Tate and his Cats got to the 38-yard line after a couple of plays and two penalties, one which overrode the other, were called against USC.

Even though USC was called nine times for 95 yards worth of penalties in the first half, it really didn’t matter, they went into the half ahead and their defense was working on a shutout. Arizona’s five for 55 yards worth of penalties was half of what USC was assessed, but it didn’t help them get on the board as a 38-yard field goal attempt by Lucas Havrisik was blocked by USC. It wasn’t the kicker’s fault though, looked like his O-Line couldn’t keep the Trojans down.

Arizona Wildcats Football

A number of Zona Zealots Contributors agreed they aren’t too happy with Kevin Sumlin’s clock management. Leaving time-outs on the board is not necessarily wise when you are down 17-0. Others felt that Sumlin and Mazzone keep holding Tate back from what he does best. We don’t know exactly what was going on, the coaches or players will not be spilling all the beans on issues.

Whatever the team as a whole did in the last two minutes of the half, should be something they could have capitalized on given then get the ball back to start the second half. Out of the gate, it didn’t happen.

As the third quarter went on, things looked better for Arizona. Shun Brown earned a team-high with eight receptions for 88 yards. The coaching staff didn’t pull Tate, he kept playing, and he made things happen. The defense played hard and made key tackles and got the ball back. Along with USC’s 17 penalties for 169 yards, and some replays, the Cats fell short by four points.

Arizona got the ball inside the five yard line and took five tries to finally get Gary Brightwell into the end zone after both JJ Taylor and Khalil Tate tries. Why the Cats ran the same “run up the middle” plays to score was beyond us. Sweep to the left? Sweep to the right?

The missed extra point by Lucas didn’t matter, poor guy it was his birthday today. It didn’t matter because the onside kick didn’t work and USC recovered and took a knee.

“Players were determined and wanted to score a touchdown,” said Sumlin on the decision to not kick a field goal but go with a touchdown in the final minutes.

Tate ended the game with 232 yards, two touchdowns, and ran 13 times for 38 yards, on a sore ankle. Add to that one interception. Some changes were made during the game, like Michael Eletise coming in for Layth Friekh at some point, and maybe that made a difference.

Perhaps it would be nice to have a bye week now, but no Arizona won’t be able to rest and recover until late November.

The defense was again without Justin Belknap, and they could have used him. That said, Colin Schooler logged 13 tackles, Jarrius Wallace nine, Demetrius Flannagan-Fowles seven and Time Hough five. PJ Johnson and Kylan Wilborn both notched a sack. To finish out the game, Arizona’s defense shut down USC six times on three punts and two turnovers and stopped the Trojans on downs which resulted in an offensive touchdown.

Here are the players post-game, and I read this very differently than most of what I read on Twitter from media and fans. These players are very frustrated, they are not losers. Sumlin put the leaders in front of the media. I don’t know if Tate ever saw Rich Rodriguez in this press conference room, but I have. And he is channeling Rich. HE HATES TO LOSE! HATES IT! And it’s a team sport and he is being guided by new coaches who didn’t recruit him. To me, I see a very frustrated quarterback who is trying to not throw his team or coaches under the bus.

USC’s defense held Arizona’s offense to just 98 yards rushing. Adjustments in the second half helped the Cats with their comeback in the air, but it needed to start earlier in the game for the Cats.