And if Mudville was in
Arizona, it would be another name for Tucson.
Unfortunately, I’m
writing this in the fourth quarter with 12 minutes or so left. But I’m still
watching, hoping Arizona can punch it in.
At this point, it’s
obvious what went wrong here tonight.
Six trips to the red zone,
six times the Cats came up empty.
Funny thing is, the
defense showed up in Eugene. They really did.
They only gave up 13
points in the whole first half, and remained tough throughout the game (even
with seven minutes left, they still look pretty good).
At halftime, the Cats had
caused two turnovers, put their offense in a position to score both early and
often, while putting the Ducks on their heels.
UO didn’t look much like
a top-10 team, much less a top five.
And while the
water-cooler conversations on Monday may be all about whether Oregon should be
ranked two or three—if you watched the game for the first 38 minutes and 19
seconds—team Nike looked like they could be beaten.
For Oregon’s sake, I hope
they don’t have to play an SEC team any time soon.
We were there.
We were so close.
And then the Arizona
offense stalled.
They locked up. They
committed the same amount of turnovers as the Ducks, and practically
gift-wrapped 13 points for the Ducks.
Yet, Oregon fought tooth
and nail for those 13 points.
In fact, UO looked so exasperated,
it almost seemed like the third ranked team was too highly ranked.
(And as I write that,
Oregon took Denker’s pass back for six, making it 49-0.)
But really, it shouldn’t
have happened.
Marcus Mariota was
nothing special. He made freshman mistakes. De’Anthony Thomas and Kenjon Barner
were held in check.
I know, I know, they
combined for 133 yards, but neither of them scored tonight.
But really, it all comes
down to this—you can only ask so much of your defense before they run out of
gas—which is what happened to the Cats.
At 42-0, one of the ESPN
announcers stated the obvious.
“Oregon is just dismantling the twenty-second
ranked team in the country.”
And as evident as that
was, he really didn’t tell us the whole story.
The Wildcat offense dismantled
itself.
Need I remind you that
six possessions within the Oregon 25 yard line resulted in ZERO points?
So as disappointing as
the game was, I made it a point to find something good.
After looking at the poor
offensive execution by the Ducks in the first half, I feel that in three years,
Arizona will be better than the Ducks.
In fact, we’ll beat them
at their own game.
And that Wildcat defense?
There are flashes of
brilliance—the quickness, the speed, the ability to make tackles in space, and
the toughness, both mentally and physically.
It’s there, I promise
you.
Even as the game comes to
a close, at 49-0, and Arizona was unable to come up with points on the board, I’m
still seeing the glass as half full.
Never have I felt so
hopeful coming out of a 49-point loss.
In all reality, the score
should have had us with at least 42 points on the board.
Wishful thinking, yes,
but we need something to believe in.
The Cats are 3-1, and are
coming back home to play a ranked Oregon State team.
If I’m the Beavers, I’m
staying up tonight to think about how to beat that Wildcat defense.
But for Arizona’s sake,
let’s hope the offense stays up tonight to figure out how to score.
