New week, new problems for the Arizona Wildcats.
The UA spun its wheel of misfortune Saturday night, and it landed on penalties and missed field goals. They were too much to overcome in Arizona’s 49-24 loss to Colorado in front of an announced crowd of 41,068 at Arizona Stadium.
There weren’t nearly that many fans in the building to witness the Wildcats’ seventh consecutive loss. None of the past six have come by fewer than 13 points. The average margin in the past four: 36.3 points.
Arizona is 2-8, 0-7 in the Pac-12. The seven-game losing streak is the Wildcats’ first since 2004, Mike Stoops’ first year as coach.
The one notable difference this time: The Wildcats actually outgained the Buffaloes, 417 yards to 388. Penalties — a season-high 13 for 138 yards — and missed opportunities killed the Cats.
“We just didn’t finish drives,” UA coach Rich Rodriguez said. “Defensively, we just gave up some silly stuff on third down, whether it was a penalty or a conversion.
“I felt good about what we were doing. We just didn’t execute when we had to.”
That’s a familiar refrain for an Arizona team that hasn’t won a game since Sept. 17.
“We’ve definitely got to be smarter,” linebacker Paul Magloire Jr. said. “We’ve got to fix (those) mistakes.”
Resurgent Colorado won its fourth in a row to improve to 8-2, 6-1. The Buffaloes – who have an outside chance to make the College Football Playoff after Saturday’s series of upsets – broke a four-game losing streak against the Wildcats.
Arizona hasn’t done much of anything well since Pac-12 play began. Penalties were an exception - until Saturday.
“The penalties were horrendous,” Rodriguez said. “Those are killers. It’s so hard for us to stop somebody. Then we give them a first down on a penalty. You can’t do those things.”
The Wildcats entered this week sixth in the Pac-12 with 55.6 penalty yards per game. They exceeded that total – and then some – by halftime.
Most of the nine first-half infractions for 87 yards were legitimate. Some were questionable. One example: the intentional-grounding call against Brandon Dawkins late in the second quarter.
Dawkins bobbled the snap and drifted to his left. Under duress, he flung the ball out of bounds well past the line of scrimmage. Dawkins was flagged for grounding despite one – and maybe two – receivers being in the vicinity.
“I didn’t even think about grounding,” Rodriguez said. “I thought we had two guys there.”
The Wildcats lost 16 yards on the play. Josh Pollack came on for a 50-yard field-goal attempt, which he missed. It would have been a 34-yard attempt without the penalty.
Pollack had his worst game of the season. The redshirt sophomore missed three of his four field-goal tries. Every attempt came with Arizona within 18 or fewer points. Pollack had been 7 of 9 entering Saturday, with his only misses coming from 52 yards.
In addition to his usual placekicking and punting duties, Pollack served as the kickoff specialist against Colorado. Arizona’s usual kickoff guy, Edgar Gastelum, suffered a concussion in practice when he got hit in the head by a football.
“That’s a first,” a bewildered Rodriguez said. “Are you kidding me? I mean, wow. You can’t make this stuff. I wish I was.”
As has been the case all season, Rodriguez did not formally announce a starting quarterback before Saturday’s kickoff. He did say that both Dawkins and Anu Solomon would play.
Dawkins started for the third straight week and eighth time this season. Solomon came on in relief for the third week in a row. By the time he finally entered, only 57 seconds remained in the third quarter. Arizona trailed 42-10.
Solomon provided a spark. He completed a 10-yard pass to Cam Denson, a 30-yarder to Nate Phillips and an 8-yarder to Denson. Samajie Grant’s second 3-yard touchdown run of the night made it 42-17 with 13:47 remaining.
Then the rarest of rarities happened: an Arizona takeaway.
Cornerback Dane Cruikshank deflected a Sefo Liufau pass, and linebacker Brandon Rutt intercepted it. It was just the third turnover forced by the Wildcats in seven Pac-12 games.
After a 29-yard end-around run by Shun Brown, Zach Green scored from the 2 to make it 42-24 with 12:11 left. There were whispers in the stadium of a miraculous comeback akin to the 2014 “Hill Mary” game against Cal.
It wasn’t meant to be. After getting the ball back with 9:58 remaining, Arizona went three-and-out. Its next possession ended the same way. Phillip Lindsay’s 34-yard touchdown run – his third of the night – put the game away for good.
“I felt good,” Rodriguez said. “We had momentum. But then the same, silly mistakes.”
Lindsay rushed for 119 yards. Liufau amassed 269 total yards and accounted for four TDs.
Arizona had hoped to play the role of spoiler Saturday night. No such narrative exists for next week’s game at Oregon State, which is also 2-8. But the Wildcats insist they aren’t done battling.
“If anybody needs to be motivated, they probably shouldn’t be on the team,” Dawkins said. “I don’t feel like anybody needs to be motivated at this point.
“We’re not going to hand teams any wins. We’re going to come out and keep fighting no matter who we’re playing.”
