The Three keys for Arizona Football to beat Colorado

With the Arizona Football team preparing for their upcoming road game against the Colorado Buffaloes, here are the three keys to a Wildcat victory!

It’s another week of Arizona Football, and as we brought you our weekly breakdown of Arizona’s upcoming opponent Colorado, we also felt it would be a good time to breakdown the three keys to an Arizona victory.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t going to be an easy game for the Wildcats, Colorado is a tough team, and they’re even tougher at home.

Arizona Wildcats

Add in the fact it will be Family Weekend for the Buffs this weekend, and I’m sure it is going to be a packed and rowdy environment, and the Wildcats could still be without Khalil Tate and J.J. Taylor, so potentially without them it makes the task of beating Colorado a daunting one.

However, even though the Wildcats are a 4.5-point underdog, I do still believe this is a winnable game for the Cats, and here are three keys to an Arizona victory!

1. Control the clock by running the football

Don’t get cute this weekend, Arizona is a strong, rushing team, and they need to play to their strengths.

As it stands, Arizona is the best rushing team in the conference, averaging 255.5 yards per game. They also have one of the best offenses overall, averaging 37.8 points per game. They also have one of the best offenses overall, averaging 37.8 points per game.

Depending on whether Tate can go this week or not, regardless I think Arizona needs to control the clock, and do so by running the football.

Statistically speaking, Colorado isn’t the greatest defensive team by any means, but they do have a good offense to put the pressure on the Cats. So, minimizing their offense by controlling the time of possession to ultimately help your defense on the road should be the targeted outcome for the Cats.

2. Minimize the mistakes and turnovers

It’s damn near impossible to play mistake free football, but the goal nonetheless should always be to get as close to mistake-free/ turnover-free football much as possible. Dependent on who plays this weekend, Arizona needs to take care of the football, play smart, and not give Colorado more opportunities to score and put our defense out there for extended periods of time.

Should Arizona be able to replicate their “0 Turnover” performance from last week, I think that gives them a great chance to beat a solid team on the road.

3. Continue to play with confidence on defense

Arizona has been rolling since their loss to Hawaii, so whatever they’ve been doing to manufacture wins, they need to find a way to keep doing that.

During the Wildcats’ three-game winning streak, a lot of their success can be attributed to their improved defensive play. I don’t know if it’s the group finally gelling, defensive coordinator Marcel Yates finally using the right guys, or Chuck Cecil having a bit of input that’s helping, regardless, whatever they’ve been doing the past two games has been working.

This group is going to need to have another, strong performance this Saturday in order to win, and I think they have the ability to do it, but they need to channel their confidence and momentum the last two games, and put together another gutsy performance.

Anyways, those are just the three keys I feel are important for Arizona in order to win this game. What are your thoughts? As Al