Disastrous start dooms Arizona Football in loss to Washington

SEATTLE, WA – There was perfect weather, but it was far from a perfect result as the Arizona Football team (0-2, 0-2) fell to the Washington Huskies (2-0, 2-0).

In the first road game of the 2020 Covid-ridden season, I’m sure the Arizona Football team wishes they could forget about their 44-27 loss to the Washington Huskies on Saturday night.

Now granted the final score doesn’t look so bad, but for those who were watching, it was clearly a game in which the Wildcats were poorly prepared, and also one that they poorly executed in. Because of that, it doomed the Cats from the start.

Arizona Wildcats

Down 37-0 with 13:49 to play in the game, and facing a fourth down and eight, the Wildcats benefitted from a defensive pass interference that gave the Cats a fresh set of downs. Four plays later, the Wildcats FINALLY scored. They then missed the extra point.

And that sequence couldn’t have been any more fitting and telling of how the night went. From the start it was clear it was going to be a long night. Holding the Huskies to a 4th and 1 on the opening drive, Washington faked the punt, getting the first down, and setting up a touchdown a few plays later.

Washington didn’t punt all that first half until about a minute left in the 2nd quarter. Every time they got the ball that first half, it would be big play after big play, en route to scoring 24 points.

Hell, Arizona had just 40 yards of offense in that first half, and even more depressing is that the Huskies ran more plays on Arizona’s side of the 50-yard line than the Wildcats did plays period.

The offense was uninspired, unprepared and outmatched, I mean use whatever negative descriptive word you choose here, and somehow it would still be fitting. The difference in preparation and skill for the two teams was clear.

Granted the defense didn’t play well, however, remember, this is a group that was more or less thrown together, and are playing a lot of walk-ons defense. However, this is year three of this offense, and the Wildcats didn’t start scoring until Washington’s starters were pulled.

Thanks for the effort, but the final score was/ is a lie. Everyone that suffered in watching this knows this was a straight butt-whippin’.

Also, if there was a moment in this game in which the Wildcats could have benefitted from some momentum or confidence for their defensive group, for whatever reason, Kevin Sumlin and the staff chose to ignore it.

Already down big, Washington threw a pass that clearly looked like a fumble, but naturally the Pac-12 refs chose to ignore it, and more embarrassingly, the coaching staff did nothing to fight for their players. Pathetic.

In a season that is rather unprecedented and has severely been impacted Covid, we knew this was going to be a learning year for a lot of the players anyways, and credit to them for not giving up last night. It is just unfortunate that our coach seems to have given up entirely.

In a game that was so antithetical to the USC loss, Arizona would have been better off cancelling the game and sitting at home, rather than travel to Seattle and get your confidence completely shattered in a game the Wildcats clearly had no business being in.