Arizona lost to Washington State 69-7 Saturday afternoon at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington. Here are some pertinent notes, quotes and statistics:
NOTES
* In their past two trips to the state of Washington, the Wildcats have been outscored 118-10. They lost 49-3 at UW last season.
* Arizona has allowed 11 sacks the past two weeks, matching its total from the first seven games. The Wildcats did not record a sack against the Cougars and had only one tackle for loss, a season low.
* Arizona’s point total has declined each week since the UA scored 47 against Hawaii: 28, 24, 23, 14, 10, 7.
* The Wildcats have lost the turnover battle in four straight games and have only one takeaway in the past five games.
* Samajie Grant had a career-high 77 rushing yards on eight carries, including a career-long 50-yard run.
* Senior receiver Nate Phillips had one reception for 8 yards, extending his catch streak to 42 games, fifth longest in the nation.
* Senior linebacker Paul Magloire Jr. had a career-high 15 tackles, the most for an Arizona player since Scooby Wright had 15 in last year’s New Mexico Bowl.
* Redshirt-sophomore tight end Trevor Wood made his first career start.
QUOTES
UA coach Rich Rodriguez on trying to keep things positive: “For us, the only thing we can do right now is try to mess up someone else’s season. We’re not going to quit trying. That’s the one thing I’ve told the team. … Try to figure something out – that’s our job as coaches. We’ll let this hurt for 24 hours, get back home and try to play better.”
WR Cam Denson on the offense struggling to establish a rhythm: “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot. We get a lot of penalties and dropped balls. The first play of the game we scored a touchdown, and it got called back. That really could have ignited the offense.”
QB Anu Solomon on the lack of rhythm: “Some of it is chemistry. Some of it is, we’ve got to, as quarterbacks, do a better job of getting out of a bad play. We get so carried away with tempo, we’re not scanning the field and checking into a better play. We’ve got to do a better job at that.”
Safety Isaiah Hayes on the emotional state of the team: “Obviously, nobody likes to lose. But we can’t let that predict how we play for the rest of the season. We’ve got to keep our energy up, keep our spirits up, keep on moving forward and finish.”
Cougars QB Luke Falk on his and his team’s play: “You know, I’m not really focused on the individual stats or anything like that. But I thought it was a really good, complete win. We’ve been looking for a game like this from start to finish, and I thought our mentality was right all week. We just came out and really made this game like an extension of practice.”
STATS
* Washington State had 34 first downs; Arizona had 14.
* WSU had 614 total yards; Arizona had 286.
* WSU averaged 26.8 yards per punt return; Arizona averaged 21.9 net yards per punt.
* WSU converted 11 of 14 third downs; Arizona converted 2 of 10.
* WSU advanced to the red zone 10 times and scored each time (eight touchdowns, two field goals).
* Arizona averaged 5.3 yards per carry; WSU averaged 4.4.
* Arizona’s average starting field position was its 25-yard line; WSU’s was its 36.
* QBs Brandon Dawkins and Khalil Tate combined to complete 2 of 10 passes for 6 yards with two interceptions.
