Major Takeaways in the Arizona Football loss to No. 10 USC

Falling to 3-5 (1-4) on the season after their loss to No. 10, we take a look at the major takeaways from the Arizona Football loss. 

We are now into the bye week for Arizona Football, and despite the Wildcats putting forth a competitive effort on Saturday in their loss to Washington, Arizona falls to 3-4 (1-3) on the season.

Returning to action to resume Pac-12 Conference play against Washington, Arizona was competitive, putting up 526 yards of offense and scoring 39 points.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as the Wildcats were outgained by the Huskies who put up 595 yards and 49 points. Their 516 yards passing and four touchdowns would help pace the Huskies in their 49-39 win.

So with Arizona Football now falling to 3-5 (1-4) on the season, we look at the major takeaways following the Wildcats’ loss to No. 10 USC.

Arizona Struggles to get stops on Third-Down

Last night Arizona struggled to hold the high-powered USC offense, and a big reason for that was because of the Trojans’ ability to convert on third down.

Overall, Arizona’s defense struggled mightily, allowing USC to convert on 11-17 of its third-down attempts. The Wildcats will need to figure out something over the remaining couple of weeks, otherwise, it could be a rough end to the season.

Arizona’s Receivers are some of the best in the Country

Jedd Fisch and the Wildcats have put together an impressive offense, and a lot of credit needs to be given to Arizona’s receiving corps.

Last night, Arizona’s trio combined for 283 receiving yards each and three touchdowns on 17 receptions. That sort of production is elite and is unmatched by many.

Should Arizona somehow keep this trio together for 2023, and we are talking about one of the best offenses in the country easily.

Pac-12 Refs are still hot garbage

This is not a new revelation by any means, but once again on Saturday, the conferences’ porous officiating was on full display.

Look, I am not blaming the refs for this loss, after all, they were not the reason that Arizona’s defense gave up 621 yards of offense and 45 points; however, a couple of crucial, blown calls did not help this one either.

I know USC had its gripes in this one too; however, you would hope that Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff and the conference would say enough is enough. They keep saying they are committed to this conference, but you can’t say you’re truly committed when you put that product on the field week in and week out.

Slow and Steady Progress

This time last year, Arizona was 0-8 and was coming off of a loss to USC in Los Angeles. As we are all too familiar with by now, that team eventually went on to a 1-11 finish, with their sole win coming against a Covid-depleted Cal team.

And while Arizona is still far from perfect, we have seen significant improvement.

This isn’t a moral victory speech by any means, but facing a huge disparity in talent, the Wildcats, with arguably the worst defense in college football, went toe-to-toe with No. 10 USC, falling 45-37. That’s impressive all things considered, so the future is bright in Tucson.

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