GLENDALE
“I know you wanna leave me, but I refuse to let you go ... ”
It took 58 minutes and 34 seconds of game time, but the Arizona Wildcats finally gave their fans a reason to dance on Saturday night.
And then another 1:23 for BYU to cut the music.
Luckily whoever operates the sound system at University of Phoenix Stadium has some taste, and at least the Wildcats and their kin got to listen to a little Temptations, however briefly.
“Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” blared after Arizona took its first and only lead of the game with less than 2 minutes left against the Cougars, which is ironic, because there’s no doubt that Rich Rodriguez was ready to drop to his knees and pray to the heavens for 40 more seconds. Maybe “Ball of Confusion” would’ve been the more appropriate choice, or probably more accurately, “Just My Imagination.”
Because if the Wildcats were missing anything for the first 51 minutes of their eventual 18-16 season-opening loss to the Cougars, it was a little creativity.
“We certainly didn’t execute well, and it started with play-calling,” Rodriguez said.
There are certain words you don’t want to use around Rodriguez, lest he delivers his potent death stare and you melt like a warm marshmallow.
You don’t want to mention injuries, you don’t want to toss around the words “depth” and “chart” in the same vicinity, and you never, ever, ever want to call his offense boring.
Sorry, RichRod, but most of Saturday was a snooze-fest. The BYU defense is good, but not shut-down-a-RichRod-offense good, yet the Cougars stifled Arizona.
Rodriguez spent the entire offseason retooling his defense like a newlywed using a gift card at Home Depot. If the Arizona head coach tinkered any more, he would’ve earned a free 50-percent-off coupon. They’d have had to offer name tags at the new staff meetings.
Maybe he should’ve looked inward.
On a night when the Arizona defense looked roughly 48 times better than it did last season, limiting the Cougars to 306 yards through three quarters — and 415 total — the offense faltered.
How couldn’t it?
Vanilla is usually an ice-cream flavoring and not a RichRod offense, but Arizona was a double-scoop of plain on Saturday. If you were thinking peanuts, you’re nuts. Not even sprinkles! Not even whipped cream! Cherry on top? Ha.
Arizona managed just 107 yards in the first half, including 119 through the air. That’s not a misprint — the total yardage included negative-12 rushing yards. The Wildcats had a pedestrian eight first downs, averaged 3.7 yards per play, and worse, only had 32 offensive plays in the first place. For the night, they’d finish with 328 yards on 56 plays.
Arizona first crossed midfield midway through the first quarter and was promptly send back to its side on a 7-yard Solomon sack, and it wouldn’t cross midfield again until less than three minutes remained in the first half.
It took Solomon an entire quarter to get it going, and the Wildcats finally started to show some life on their first full drive of the second quarter. Four straight completions took Arizona from the 15-yard line to the 46, and BYU was on its heels.
If only it stayed there. If only Cougars couldn’t jump. Instead, the Cougars proved they do have the ability to reach for a ball, and on a third-and-14 at the Arizona 41-yard line, Solomon bought some time, waited, scrambled, scrambled and chucked it ... only for the ball to be picked off by BYU linebacker Francis Bernard.
When the Wildcats looked like they were going to go wild, the Cougars stepped in to ruin the day. On a third-and-4 at the BYU 19-yard line with one second left in the first half, the Cougars sent the house and Bernard found a clear path to the quarterback, dragging Solomon down for a 16-yard loss and setting Arizona up with a difficult field-goal attempt that was missed by Josh Pollack.
“This game’s on me,” Solomon said. “I have to play better. It’s our first game, and we have to get things correct.”
Don’t forget: Arizona averaged 495 yards per game and 6.49 yards per play last year, the Wildcats’ best offensive output since Rodriguez’s first season at the helm.
Finally the offense showed some resemblance to that unit in the fourth quarter, ticking off a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to close the gap to 15-10, then rebounding from a Solomon interception on the next possession to pull off a 4-play, 80-yard drive — capped off by a 49-yard touchdown scamper by Nick Wilson, the lone bright spot (138 yards, two scores) on an otherwise darkened performance. That BYU then marched down the field for a game-winning field goal is not the offense’s fault, but if you’re scoring at home, those two Arizona drives accounted for more than half of Arizona’s offensive output.
RichRod can’t possibly like the sound of that.
Better turn up The Temptations.
