PASADENA, Calif. – The Rose Bowl is where the Arizona Wildcats’ offense disappears under Rich Rodriguez.
The UA has played three games as the visitor against UCLA and managed a total of 41 points. RichRod’s teams sometimes score that many in one game.
There was no deep, complicated explanation for the offense’s vanishing act Saturday night: The Wildcats are simply running out of healthy bodies in their offensive backfield.
Breakout quarterback Brandon Dawkins was the latest to go down, suffering an apparent rib injury in the first half. From the second quarter on, Arizona barely could move the ball with or without him.
The end result was ugly yet familiar: a 45-24 Arizona loss to UCLA, its fifth in as many tries against the Bruins under Rodriguez.
Arizona fell to 2-3, 0-2 in the Pac-12. It doesn’t get any easier next week, either: The UA visits Utah, which lost in heartbreaking fashion to Cal earlier Saturday. UCLA improved to 3-2, 1-1.
All football teams endure injuries. Rodriguez lamented that Arizona seemed to suffer all of them at one position for the second year in a row. He was premature in that assessment.
First it was running backs. Then it became quarterbacks.
The injuries led Rodriguez to ask himself questions he’d rather not ask during a game, such as “Who’s next?” and “What plays do they know best and run best?”
Dawkins had been in the midst of a brilliant, breakout stretch. He was second in the Pac-12 in rushing entering Saturday’s game, and he led Arizona to a 7-0 lead with a 30-yard run, a 34-yard pass and a 3-yard touchdown toss.
But later in the first half, Dawkins got hurt. He tried to stay in the game but couldn’t. With Week 1 starter Anu Solomon (knee) not making the trip, Rodriguez turned to walk-on Zach Werlinger in the hopes of somehow generating some offense while preserving freshman Khalil Tate’s redshirt.
But when Werlinger proved ineffective – he failed to complete any of his five pass attempts – Rodriguez turned to Tate. And the freshman from nearby Junipero Serra High provided UA with a spark.
Running mainly zone-read plays, Tate plowed through and dashed around UCLA defenders, leading Arizona to a field goal – its first points since early in the first quarter. Josh Pollack’s 20-yarder made it 24-10 with 2:53 left in the third quarter.
Tate led three scoring drives in all in the second half, throwing for 72 yards and rushing for 79. He threw his first two career touchdown passes. Whether he plays again next week will depend on the health of Dawkins (and Solomon).
“(Rodriguez) always tells me to be ready,” Tate said. “So when they called my number, I was just ready.”
But the Arizona defense, which kept the Wildcats in the game in the first half, cracked in the second. The Bruins scored on their first five drives of the second half after the Cats had stopped them on their final five possessions of the first (excluding an end-of-half kneel-down).
“The first half the defense played really well,” Rodriguez said. “Well enough for us to do something if we got anything going offensively.”
After a slow start, UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen got going, finishing with 350 passing yards and three touchdowns. The Wildcats hit him repeatedly in the first half but didn’t get as much pressure in the second, when UCLA got its running game going and forced Arizona to honor it.
Arizona’s special teams didn’t help. The kickoff and punting units had their worst performances of the season. Two of the first four UCLA scoring drives in the second half began in UA territory. Rodriguez could be seen reaming Pollack after several of his 10 punts.
The game turned in UCLA’s favor late in the first quarter. With the scored tied 7-7, Arizona failed to convert on fourth-and-one. On the next play, Rosen eluded UA safety Tellas Jones, rolled right and found Kenneth Walker III for a 62-yard touchdown. Walker broke free from cornerback DaVonte’ Neal.
The second quarter was devoid of any offense of any kind. Arizona went three-and-out on five consecutive possessions. Tyrell Johnson finally gained a first down on the Wildcats’ final drive of the half, but three plays later Arizona punted for the eighth time.
UA’s defense held serve. UCLA went scoreless in six second-quarter possessions, including a fourth-down stop and three consecutive three-and-outs.
Johnson became the Wildcats’ main ball-carrier when Nick Wilson re-injured his sprained left ankle late in the first quarter. Wilson returned to the starting lineup after missing last week’s game and the final three quarters of the previous one. He might not have had to rush back if replacement J.J. Taylor hadn’t suffered a broken ankle that will sideline him indefinitely.
UA linebacker Cody Ippolito was among several fifth-year Wildcats who left the Rose Bowl late Saturday night without having beaten UCLA.
“I don’t think they have our number,” Ippolito said. “We put ourselves in positions to lose.”
