Arizona Football dominated the No. 19 Oregon Ducks, win by 29 points, 44-15

Arizona Football got back some key players, and the rest were fired up for an upset as the Wildcats took on the No. 19 Oregon Ducks.

Arizona Football is back on track. The Wildcats beat the Oregon Ducks for the third time in the last five meetings. The ESPN announcers could not stop singing Khalil Tate’s praises as he led the Cats to a 44-15 win over the Oregon Ducks. Sans one interception on a badly placed pass, Tate solidly marched his team down the field completing 27 first downs. Oregon, as a comparison, only made 18.

Arizona’s offense logged a total of 465 yards. Do you still wonder if injuries are an excuse for not winning?

Khalil Tate came off the team bus in a boot but then was seen warming up without it on the field before the game. Tate ended up starting the game and played through the end of the game. Tate didn’t run in this game as much as folks wanted him too, but he did end up with 26 yards on seven carries. It was his passing which resulted in three touchdowns on 19-33 attempts for 189 yards (58% completion).

On the other side of the ball, Shawn Poindexter (two completions for 27 yards and two touchdowns) and Shun Brown (10 completions for 96 yards and one touchdown) were the main receivers on the night. Brown got a penalty for what was the one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. He struck a pose in the end zone while still on the grass right before he got hit. The late hit, which wasn’t called by the Pac-12 referees sent Coach Sumlin cussing and screaming at the officials. Both he and Brown were charged 30 yards collectively.

Arizona Wildcats Football

It was worth it.

As far as running backs, JJ Taylor notched an extra 212 yards and 2 touchdowns on the season for a total of 1,027 yards and 6 touchdowns. Taylors longest run was 64 yards against the Ducks. He becomes the first Wildcat to surpass the 1,000-yard mark this season. If that wasn’t enough, JJ sealed the game with a touchdown flip into the end zone. Wow, just wow!

The Cats did not fumble the ball in this game.

If the running game produced 276 yards, then plenty of kudos should be awarded to Arizona’s O-Line who created many opportunities for the Cats as they also protected their QB! We hope some Pac-12 player of the week awards coming, but then again you know how it goes.

Here is the rundown of scoring by the Arizona Wildcats, note that Josh Pollack was perfect scoring 14 of Arizona’s 44 points.

  7-0   TD Poindexter, S.  22 yd PASS from Tate, K. PAT KICK by Pollack, J.
10-0   FG Pollack, J.          34 yd Field Goal
13-0   FG. Pollack, J.         32 yd Field Goal
16-0   FG Pollack, J.          23 yd Field Goal
23-8   TD Taylor, J.J.            1 yd RUSH PAT KICK by Pollack, J.
30-8   TD Poindexter, S.    8 yd PASS from Tate, K. PAT KICK by Pollack, J.
37-8   TD Brown, S.         27 yd PASS from Tate, K. PAT KICK by Pollack, J.
44-15 TD Taylor, J.J.         19 yd RUSH PAT KICK by Pollack, J.

The defense completely shut down the Ducks running backs holding them to 84 yards and zero touchdowns. One of the best quarterbacks in the Pac-12, Oregon’s Justin Herbert, was also picked off on Saturday night.

The Arizona defense stepped up big time, stopping the Ducks 13 times on third down as the Ducks converted only three of 16 Oregon third down attempts. A few standouts on defense were Scottie Young Jr. who snatched his third interception and Tristan Cooper who knocked a receiver cold while also knocking the ball out of his hands.

Colin Schooler has now has made 129 tackles on the season with a team-high 11 tackles tonight against his brothers’ team. “I felt like we won all three phases of the game,” said Schooler on the IMG Sports Network, “We just had to get pressure on Justin and I feel we did a really good job today — I’m not going to let him forget who won this game.”

Tony Fields II came in second behind Schooler with six tackles and one huge sack.

Here are the memorable and priceless highlights of the game (wait for it…oh yeah and wait for that too…):

If the team didn’t know how to sing the Bear Down song at the beginning of the season, they sure do now!

Arizona may have knocked Oregon out of contention to win the Pac-12 North. I would like to personally thank JJ Taylor and Shun Brown for putting me over the edge to win this weeks game in my College Fantasy Football pool. I believe that this team, now healthy, can keep winning.  Arizona’s next opponent is the Colorado Buffaloes who they play at home on November 2, at 7:30 pm on FoxSports1.