Rich Rodriguez had warned that something like this might happen. He saw the signs the previous week.
The Arizona Wildcats coach was talking about the second half of the Hawaii game, when the UA defense started to leak. The Rainbow Warriors rushed for 103 yards in that half after gaining only 65 in the first.
“We’re undersized,” Rodriguez said. “They came right down at us. We’ve got to play with better leverage. We’ve got to figure out something, or everybody we play is just going to pound us. We’re not going to get bigger overnight.”
The Wildcats didn’t get bigger, and they didn’t get better. Arizona surrendered a season-high 352 rushing yards during Saturday’s 35-28 overtime loss to Washington. The Huskies gained 222 of those yards after halftime.
Tailback Lavon Coleman, a 5-foot-11, 228-pound bruiser, did most of the damage, and much of it came in chunks. Coleman rushed for 137 yards on eight carries during the second half and overtime. He ripped off runs of 44, 55 and 24 yards.
“Seattle media has been freaking out about our run game,” Washington quarterback Jake Browning said, “so I feel pretty good about it now.”
Washington’s offensive line created some huge holes for Coleman. Arizona’s defensive front appeared to wear down as the game progressed, although linebacker Cody Ippolito insisted that was not the case.
“No, not at all,” said Ippolito, who had six tackles and 1.5 sacks. “We condition probably more than anyone in the Pac-12, and we can keep up with anyone. I think we can run people into the ground, and I think we (are) more conditioned than the other team. It just came down to who was going to make the last play.”
Two factors conspired to undermine whatever edge in conditioning the Wildcats might have had.
One was the flow of the game. Arizona ran 28 plays to Washington’s six in the first quarter. From that point forward, the Huskies had a 66-46 edge in total plays. They possessed the ball for all but 5 minutes and 20 seconds in the second and third quarters.
“They did a good job controlling the tempo in the second half,” Rodriguez said. “We thought we controlled it in the first half.”
Arizona also was missing two key members of its defensive front. Linebacker DeAndre’ Miller and nose tackle Parker Zellers did not play because of injuries. Without them, the Wildcats couldn’t rotate as much as they prefer.
Arizona also didn’t have the services of safety Tellas Jones (ankle) for the third straight game. Jones dressed and warmed up but couldn’t play.
He was a force near the line of scrimmage in the first half of the opener against BYU before getting hurt.
Arizona’s next opponent, UCLA, is struggling to move the ball on the ground. The Bruins rank last in the Pac-12 at 117.8 rushing yards per game. They are averaging only 3.2 yards per attempt.
Washington was averaging 143.3 rushing yards per game and 4.5 per attempt before breaking out against Arizona.
UCLA kickoff time set
The kickoff time and television assignment have been announced for the UCLA game.
The contest will begin at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time (also 7:30 in Arizona). It will be televised by ESPN.
All five Wildcats games this season have begun at 7:30 or later.
The start time for the following week’s road game against Utah (Oct. 8) could be announced Monday.
Only one other Arizona kickoff time is known at this point: 7:30 p.m. for the season-ending Territorial Cup against Arizona State on Friday, Nov. 25.
Extra points
- Saturday’s result marked the first time the road team had won in the Arizona-Washington series since the Wildcats prevailed in Seattle in 2007.
- Arizona fell to 7-13 overall and 5-4 at home against ranked teams under Rodriguez.
- Quarterback Brandon Dawkins has six rushes of at least 20 yards in three starts. He’s second in the Pac-12 in rushing behind only Stanford star Christian McCaffrey.
- Defensive tackle Jack Banda, who started with Zellers out, had a career-high five tackles and tied his career-best mark with two sacks.
- Cornerback Dane Cruikshank’s fourth-quarter interception was the first of his UA career.
- Arizona ranks last in the Pac-12 in third-down defense. Opponents have converted 50.9 percent of their third downs against the UA.
- The Wildcats rank last in the conference in red-zone offense, having scored on 11 of 14 trips (78.6 percent) inside the 20-yard line.
