Arizona’s defense goes missing again in lopsided loss to No. 12 Oregon

If they’re going to pull off an upset or two during this gauntlet of games against ranked opponents, the Arizona Wildcats will have to play better defense.

That side of the ball struggled in a major way for the second time in three weeks Saturday.

Arizona surrendered 580 yards in a 49-22 loss to No. 12 Oregon at Arizona Stadium. The Ducks won a game in Tucson for the first time since 2011. Oregon (5-1, 3-0 Pac-12) has won five in a row this season following an opening loss to Georgia.

The outcome resembled Arizona’s visit to Cal on Sept. 24. The Golden Bears piled up 599 yards – including 354 on the ground – and 49 points. The Ducks rushed for 306 yards, the third time in four games the Wildcats have surrendered 283 or more.

"It's very hard. It's very frustrating," UA coach Jedd Fisch said. "Stopping the run is in a lot of different phases. Whether it's being gap sound, whether it's lining up properly, whether it's tackling, whether it's getting more people to the ball ... we can't play like this. We can't be in a situation where we let up 300 yards rushing. We're gonna fight, scrap and claw to find a way to not do that."

The Oregon game was Arizona’s first of five in a row against teams currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25. Next week’s opponent, Washington, might fall out of the rankings after being upset at Arizona State earlier in the day. The Huskies still will be favored.

The Wildcats (3-3, 1-2) were hoping to replicate what went down in Tempe on a crisp fall night in Tucson. So were their fans. The announced attendance was 50,800 – Arizona’s first home sellout since 2015.

It seemed like a possibility when the Wildcats drove inside the 10 on the opening possession. Then they fumbled.

The defense rose to the occasion on the next drive, forcing a punt. Oregon wouldn’t punt again until 1:41 remained in the third quarter. In between, the Ducks scored touchdowns on seven consecutive possessions.

"We didn't stop them," Fisch said. "We turned it over. And that’s usually a recipe for not winning the game."

Bo Nix completed 20 of 25 passes for 265 yards, at one point hitting on 14 throws in a row. He also ran for 70 yards and three scores. The transfer from Auburn had a pair of rushing touchdowns in the third quarter as Oregon expanded its lead from 28-13 to 49-13.

Oregon quarterback Bo Nix steps over Arizona safety Isaiah Taylor and into the end zone for a third-quarter touchdown.
Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

Meanwhile, the UA offense was plagued by mistakes. Arizona turned the ball over three times. Passes that Jayden de Laura completed last week in a record-setting performance against Colorado sailed over receivers’ heads or bounced off the Arizona Stadium turf. De Laura completed 24 of 42 passes for 241 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

The Wildcats had their way with the Buffaloes. Oregon sits at the opposite end of the Pac-12 spectrum. If the Ducks aren’t the best team in the conference, they’re at least in the discussion.

The ease with which Oregon dispatched Arizona showed just how far the Wildcats have to go to match the league’s elite programs. Arizona is unquestionably improved in Year 2 under Fisch; the Wildcats already have won more games than they did last season. But they clearly need more playmakers on defense.

Fisch was asked afterward if Saturday's game could be used as a way to measure his program's progress.

"I don’t know if we're measuring ourselves," he said. "We played Mississippi State here. They're sitting at 5-1, and the only game they lost was a weird game at LSU. But we don't measure ourselves against Mississippi State. We don't measure ourselves against Oregon. We measure ourselves against ourselves.

"We have a standard, and our standard is to perform at the very best every opportunity we have. And if we can continue to do that, there's going to be a lot of wins in our future.

"We love our kids. We have a lot of young kids. So we're just going to get better. And as we continue to get better, more and more people will want to join this program. As they continue to want to join this program, we're going to be in the same position as the teams that have been able to recruit for 5-7 years to the exact same system."

Arizona was in position to take a 7-0 lead but fumbled that precious opportunity away. On first-and-goal from the 7 on the opening drive, the Wildcats attempted a jet sweep to Jacob Cowing. But Cowing couldn’t hang onto the ball. DJ Johnson recovered it at the 11. Fisch said Cowing didn't present a big enough pocket for the handoff and blamed himself when he came to the sideline.

The UA defense held, and Arizona took a 3-0 lead on Tyler Loop’s 38-yard field goal. At that point, Oregon had run just five plays and possessed the ball for only 2 minutes, 12 seconds.

The Ducks then went to work, exploiting the biggest mismatch in the game – their rushing attack vs. the Wildcats’ run defense.

Noah Whittington’s 55-yard touchdown run gave Oregon a 7-3 lead. He did not appear to be touched as he raced through the Arizona defense.

The Wildcats had great field position, at their 43, on the next possession thanks to Anthony Simpson’s career-best 39-yard kickoff return. But they managed only one first down before having to punt.

The Ducks needed just seven plays to go 90 yards. Nix’s 39-yard pass to Kris Hutson – a play-action bomb to the post set up by the ground attack – moved the ball to the 2. Nix ran it in from there to make it 14-3 with 12:01 left in the half.

Arizona again made only one first down on its next possession, and Oregon again had no trouble moving the ball down the field. The Ducks’ nine-play, 86-yard drive ended with a 3-yard TD run by tight end Moliki Matavao.

The Wildcats caught a break late in the second quarter. Oregon’s Dontae Manning was ejected for targeting, giving Arizona a first down at its 48. On the next play, DJ Williams burst through a hole and raced down the right sideline for a 52-yard touchdown to make it 21-10.

That was as close as the Wildcats would get. The Ducks scored their fourth touchdown in as many possessions to make it 28-10. This time it was Jordan James plunging in from the 1 with 34 seconds to go in the first half.

Oregon scored on its first three possessions of the second half and made it look easy at times. Arizona will need to put up at least some resistance to push for a bowl berth - something that's still within reach with a 3-3 record at the midpoint of the season.

"We have to," Fisch said. "We have to find a way to continue to develop the players we have on our roster, continue to recruit well and continue to get the players that we have playing defense right now playing at a high level. We're going to continue to work through that."

Extra points

Safety Jaxen Turner returned to the starting lineup after missing the Colorado game and the second half of the Cal game because of a shoulder injury. Turner appeared to suffer a lower-body injury in the third quarter. He briefly returned before limping off.
Tailback Michael Wiley sat out the second half as a precaution after suffering an oblique injury, Fisch said.
Defensive tackle Tiaoalii Savea, who suffered a lower-body injury vs. Colorado, did not dress. Freshman Jacob Kongaika took Savea’s spot in the rotation.
Cornerback Isaiah Rutherford missed his second straight game because of a bruised knee.
Quarterback Jordan McCloud, who started last year's game against Oregon, is no longer on the team, Fisch confirmed.
Oregon played without running back Bryon Cardwell and safety Bryan Addison.