Arizona Football explodes offensively in home win over NAU

TUCSON, AZ – We had an offensive shoot out in the Old Pueblo, as Arizona Football (1-1) outpaces Northern Arizona (1-1) in 65-41 win.

It’s been a little while since we last had Arizona Football action, but finally the home opener was here to tantalize and excite fans, as the Wildcats outpaced NAU in the 65-41 win here in Tucson.

Boy was it a long week off from football action, as fans were itching for more Wildcats Football. In that off week, we saw persistent debates about the future of this team, whether Arizona should fire defensive coordinator Marcel Yates, whether Arizona should move on from Kevin Sumlin, etc. Regardless, it was too much noise, and we’re glad that’s over with

Arizona Wildcats

However, at the end of the day, we just needed some new, football action to get our minds off the negativity, and luckily from the start we saw a lot of excitement from Saturday’s game.

We’ve been waiting weeks to see some fireworks at the home opener, and luckily it only took 1:31 into the game to get our first score, when Khalil Tate delivered a beautiful, 47-yard pass to Tayvian Cunningham to put the Cats up 7-0.

Not but a few plays later, Arizona would add another score on a 25-yard touchdown run from J.J. Taylor to make it 14-0, followed by a 94-yard touchdown run from Gary Brightwell to burst this thing open at 21-0.

At that point, Arizona was cruising and not slowing down!

Still up 21-0, NAU would finally score near the end of the first quarter, when quarterback Case Cookus delivered a 24-yard strike to Stacy Chukwumezie to make it 21-7.

But that’s when the domination of the second quarter would take place!

Arizona would score two more touchdowns, this time on a one-yard run from Tate to put the Cats up 28-7, followed by another Cunningham touchdown, this time from eight-yards out.

Needing to find some sort of offensive rhythm, the Lumberjacks would connect on a field goal to make it 35-10, and at that point, Tate’s evening would be over, as we then saw the long, anticipated debut of freshman QB, Grant Gunnell.

Seeing his first college action, Gunnell looked poised and confident, very un-freshman-like. In his first drive under center, Gunnell would help the Wildcats capitalize, going 75-yards in 10-plays to make it 42-10, after he would deliver an eight-yard strike to Drew Dixon for both of their first career touchdowns.

After a safety, Gunnell would get to work again, this time delivering a beautiful deep ball to Thomas Reid III who caught it in stride, racing 75-yards to the house to make it 51-10, Cats.

NAU would get a field goal just before the half, but Arizona was leading comfortably 51-13 at the break. However, that’s when things would start to get out of hand.

Replacing most of his guys with youngsters and back-ups, the Wildcats would really struggle defensively in the second half, ultimately being outscored 28-14 and making this game appear to be closer than it really was.

Luckily the Wildcats would keep pace early on, extending their lead to 65-27, but two more touchdowns by the Lumberjacks certainly created at least some cause for concern.

Gunnell would finish the game going 9-11 for 151 yards with three touchdowns and no picks. As for Tate, he would end the game 14-17 with 138 yards and two touchdowns passing with zero turnovers to go along with his one-yard touchdown run.

However, it was Arizona’s myriad of running backs that stole the offensive show here. Together, six running backs would get carries, with Brightwell and Taylor doing the most damage, as the two combined for 243 yards on 15 carries with two touchdowns.

Bam Smith would also have himself a game, going for 84 yards on eight carries with two total touchdowns as well!

So what was good?

• The quarterbacks! Gunnell and Tate went a combined 23/28 with 289 yards and five touchdowns passing which is impressive!
• The running backs looked great, and were able to find holes in the defense and were able to run the ball well. Five guys got more than five carries and all looked pretty good.
• The offense had over 700 yards of offense for the third time in school history
• Arizona scored 51 points at halftime, the most in school history, and ended up scoring 65 in total!
• Guys got plenty of reps, and quite a few receivers were able to be utilized.

The not so good:

• Arizona still gave up 41 points… granted most were in the second half against guys that won’t play much if at all, but you would like to see less defensive struggles, especially towards the end
• Arizona only had one sack in the game, which still shows that there may be a lack of a pass rush this season, which isn’t a good problem if you’re the Wildcats.
• The secondary still needs a lot of work. The Wildcats gave up 373 yards passing to Case Cookus, but that could be problematic moving forward, if Arizona can’t improve
• PENALTIES! Arizona made a lot of mistakes penalties-wise, and a couple were a bit selfish (the unsportsmanlike penalties for sure). The Wildcats finished with 11 penalties for 127 yards, bringing their total up to 215 yards on 21 penalties. Yikes!

He said it:

"“I’m happy about the win, but there’s a lot of things I’m not happy about… Yeah we won the game, but you know, we gave up 41 points a bunch in the second half… and to give up 41 in that fashion is not okay. And the penalties we had today is not okay. It’s about us, and some of these penalties are strictly about you” Sumlin said.”"

Senior Jace Whittaker and linebacker Anthony Pandy certainly weren’t happy about the defensive performance after the game, and Whittaker definitely noted the groups’ need for improvement.

As for Arizona, they will have a big test next week when they play 2-0 Texas Tech here in Tucson.

At Zona Zealots, we’re happy for the win, but definitely would love to see the defense continue to make strides and hope the Cats can come away 2-1 after next week! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!