Arizona Aftermath: Stats, storylines and quotes from the Wildcats' win at Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. — The injury-plagued Arizona Wildcats outlasted the Stanford Cardinal 21-20 on Saturday to begin Pac-12 play with a win for the first time since 2019.

Here’s an in-depth review of the Wildcats’ latest triumph, along with a look ahead to a gauntlet of a conference schedule, including Saturday’s Pac-12 home opener against seventh-ranked Washington.

Pertinent storylines

Defense rises on the road ... again

“Bailing out” can be an exhausted — and sometimes harsh — expression, but Arizona’s reconstructed defense, once again, rose to the occasion when the Wildcats struggled to find an offensive rhythm, especially in the first half.

Arizona’s opponents have out-scored the Wildcats 17-7 in the first quarter this season, but the Wildcats are out-scoring teams 35-9 in the second quarter. Six of Arizona’s 11 drives at Stanford resulted in five punts and turnover on downs. Whether it’s turnovers, injuries or the offense out of sync, the common denominator for Arizona’s first two road games has been the defense keeping the Wildcats within striking distance.

Arizona had 11 tackles for loss and five sacks, including two from defensive end Taylor Upshaw, at Stanford, which is the most since the Wildcats’ win over Colorado in 2018. Arizona linebacker Jacob Manu leads the Pac-12 with 39 tackles to go along with five stops for loss and three sacks this season.

“Felt like there was a lot of tackles for loss, a lot of negative yardage there, and hats off to our defense and our defensive plan there,” Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch said.

The Wildcats now have 30 tackles for loss through four games this season, “which is quite a mark,” Fisch said. The Wildcats had 54 tackles for loss in 2022.

“And it has to do with how these guys prepare and play. If you listen to (Manu) and our coaches, all they do is swarm the ball,” Fisch said. “If you swarm the ball and are always running to the ball, that’s how you’re able to get tackles for loss.”

Stanford’s average yards to gain on third down on Saturday was 10.7. The Cardinal were 8 for 17 combined on third- and fourth-down conversions. Stanford’s average field-goal attempt on Saturday was 45.8 yards. Preseason All-Pac-12 First Team kicker Joshua Karty was 2 for 4 and missed back-to-back 51-yard attempts.

Said Fisch: “Our defense did such a tremendous job against them in terms of holding them to field goals and forcing them to kick field goals, forcing them to convert third-and-longs, they were able to do that.”

Backups rise to occasion

Leading up to Saturday, Fisch and Arizona quarterbacks Jayden de Laura and Noah Fifita listened to a podcast with legendary quarterback Tom Brady, “and he was talking about how long it took him to become the starter,” Fisch said.

“You never know,” Fisch said. “We talk about it all the time. You don’t know if there’s going to be an injury, you don’t know if there’s going to be something that occurs.”

When the second-year Fifita was called on to play his first meaningful snaps as a UA quarterback, he was perfect — literally, completing all four of his passes for 47 yards. At the end of the third quarter, de Laura, who passed for 157 yards and scored two touchdowns, was tackled on a rollout near the Arizona sideline and hobbled to the medical tent before he was ruled out for the game.

In a “tough situation,” Fifita “made some great plays for us” and led Arizona on a nine-play, 67-yard touchdown drive, then threw a 7-yard pass to receiver Jacob Cowing for a first down on the final possession to run out the clock and seal the win.

“I think the control that he showed was the most important and impressive thing,” Fisch said. “I thought Noah handled himself beautifully in that situation and there was no flinch.”

Manu, Fifita’s longtime teammate going back to their careers at Servite High School in Anaheim, said, “One thing about him is that he’s always going to be prepared.”

“A lot of coaches, a lot of my teammates, the offensive guys made sure I was good and comfortable, and I just appreciate all of the faith they had in me, between my teammates and my coaches,” Fifita said.

One of those teammates was running back Michael Wiley, who exited the game with an undisclosed injury. Fisch said he doesn’t “know the extent” of de Laura and Wiley’s injuries, “but I do know that both of them were out of the game right after the play occurred.”

Fellow backup and Stockton, California, native Jonah Coleman logged 104 all-purpose yards and led the Wildcats in rushing with 75 yards on a career-high 12 carries in his NorCal homecoming.

“I asked before the game, ‘How far is home?’ He said it was a two-hour drive to Stockton, and he said it meant a lot to him, this game,” Fisch said. “All Jonah does is work. He’s been unbelievable since he’s been here.”

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh

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Announced attendance for the final matchup between Arizona and Stanford as Pac-12 opponents was 38,046. Actual attendance appeared to be somewhere between 20,000-30,000.

“It was way different (than the cowbell-rattling crowd at Mississippi State),” said Manu. “We knew coming into this game that it was going to be like that. We prepared all week without music, nothing during practice. We had to bring our own energy and we knew that.”

By the numbers

5,089: Days between Arizona’s most recent victories against the Cardinal. Arizona beat Stanford 43-38 in the 2009 season and lost six straight to the Cardinal before Saturday. The last time the UA beat Stanford in Palo Alto was 2006.

38.8: Arizona safety Gunner Maldonado’s Pro Football Focus grade for pass coverage on Saturday. Maldonado’s average grade in pass coverage this season is 35.6.

64: Total points allowed by Arizona through four games. Last season, the Wildcats surrendered 136 points in the first four games.

74.4: Fifita’s PFF grade on Saturday; de Laura received a 50.5 grade, which was the worst on Arizona’s offense.

Injury report

Fisch said he didn’t “have much on the injury front” on Saturday. Heading into the Stanford game, the Wildcats were without starting defensive tackle Bill Norton (shoulder) for precautionary reasons and started Tiaoalii Savea, albeit Norton still played on special teams.

During the game, the Wildcats lost de Laura, Wiley, linebacker Justin Flowe, nickelback Martell Irby and right guard Raymond Pulido, who made his UA debut after missing the first three games following a bike accident. Pulido left the game twice with an ankle injury.

“To be honest, there was a little too many (injuries) for my liking today,” Fisch said, “so I need to talk to our doctors, talk to our trainers.

They said it

Fifita, on Cowing and other veterans stepping up in the fourth quarter: “That’s huge. You can name a bunch of names on our offense that have that veteran leadership. We’ve been talking about trust a lot this weekend. The opportunity I was provided and the ability to trust me, I really appreciate it, especially the veterans, from Cowing to Mike Wiley. Mike Wiley was hurt and he was the first one to come up to me and make sure I was good. It takes a lot of pressure off of me, it makes my job easy, and I really appreciate them.”

Fisch, on the Pac-12: “The conference is a phenomenal conference. If you look around, there’s a lot of great football going around. ... We’re going to do whatever we can to keep it that way for the next eight weeks.”

Looking ahead

According to Action Sports Network, Arizona enters its Pac-12 home opener as 18-point underdogs to No. 7 Washington, which is averaging 593.3 yards per game this season, the most in FBS, with Heisman Trophy hopeful and UW gunslinger Michael Penix Jr. leading the charge.

“I told the team in the locker room: we’ve won five out of the last seven games we played,” Fisch said. “We ended (last) season 2-1, we started this season 3-1, and now we’ve gotta go home and we need a great environment back in Tucson.”

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Photos: Arizona football opens Pac-12 slate with road win at Stanford