Michael Lev: 5 takeaways from Arizona's 21-20 victory over Stanford to open Pac-12 play

Arizona barely escaped Stanford with a victory in a game it was favored to win by two scores.

Along the way, several Wildcats went down with injuries — including starting quarterback Jayden de Laura, whose backup, Noah Fifita, helped save the day.

So yeah, lots to talk about in the wake of the Cats’ 21-20 victory over the Cardinal on Saturday. Here are my top five takeaways on the game:

1. QB conundrum

Do we have a quarterback controversy in Tucson? Is it time to make a change, regardless of de Laura’s status?

I feel pretty confident in saying that Jedd Fisch will not make a QB swap if de Laura’s apparent right ankle injury is minor and he’s cleared to play against No. 7-ranked Washington this week. But it shouldn’t be a slam-dunk decision. Based on what we saw Saturday — heck, what we’ve since late last year — changing quarterbacks ought to merit serious consideration.

Fisch made the point after the game that Arizona has won five of its past seven games. De Laura has played well — really well — in only three of them: UCLA, NAU and UTEP.

He didn’t turn the ball over a single time against Stanford, a positive development to be sure. But he didn’t move the offense with any consistency (more on that in item No. 2). Meanwhile, Fifita got the ball out of his hand quickly, executed under pressure and handled a tense situation with complete calm.

Did Fisch call simpler plays for Fifita? Was Stanford playing an easier-to-decipher defense? Was Fifita seeing things that de Laura wasn’t?

I will readily acknowledge that it’s a small sample size. Fifita played only two possessions. No one has any meaningful film on him. In a sense, it’s like facing a pitcher for the first time and not knowing what he throws. Adjustments will be made as the book on Fifita adds more chapters.

It’s also the easiest thing in the world to blame all of the offense’s problems on the quarterback and to assume the backup will fix everything.

But of this I’m certain: The offense looked different when Fifita was operating it.

He deserves a chance to run it for an entire game.

2. Offensive issues

Arizona’s offense had a strange statistical profile entering Saturday. The Wildcats were compiling yards at a high rate. But they weren’t scoring points at a commensurate pace.

The NAU game was weird in terms of possessions and the total number of plays. The Mississippi State game was a turnover fest. The UTEP game had an issue here and an issue there.

This was not that.

Arizona flat-out struggled to move the ball in the first half against Stanford. Aside from one series, the Wildcats had no rhythm.

It’s difficult to tell what’s happening down the field when watching on TV. Here’s what you could see, all too often: de Laura dropping to pass, not finding anyone open, holding the ball, running around and throwing it away. On the play where he got hurt, that was the exact sequence of events.

What’s maddening about de Laura is that you truly never know what you’re going to get from one Saturday to the next. His game log mirrors his play style: Both are all over the place.

One week after completing an Arizona-best 79.3% of his passes, de Laura hit on just 53.8% (14 of 26). This didn’t happen against Utah. It happened against the worst pass defense in the Pac-12 entering Saturday.

I never thought I’d say this entering this season, but it’s inescapable at this point: While the defense is balling out, the offense is holding Arizona back. About that defense ...

3. A defensive oddity

What a gutty, strange performance by Johnny Nansen’s group. The Wildcats limited the Cardinal to 20 points; even if the normally reliable Joshua Karty had made the two 51-yard field goal attempts that he missed, Stanford would have had only 26 points. More often than not in modern college football, that’s good enough to win.

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Arizona had 11 tackles for loss, including five sacks — the Wildcats’ most in a game since 2018. They did it without Bill Norton, who’s arguably been their most important defender, and, for most of the game, Justin Flowe, who’d been coming on like a freight train.

Arizona put Stanford in compromising situations time and again. The Cardinal faced 16 third downs, and the average distance required to convert them was 11 yards. That’s exactly what defenses are supposed to do. And yet ...

Stanford converted third downs from the following distances: 7, 15, 11, 12, 12 and 9 yards. One of those was a questionable pass-interference call against Tacario Davis, but still: How could the UA defense do so many things right except the one thing that, in theory, should be the “easiest” to execute?

That oddity aside, you couldn’t help but impressed by the overall defensive effort — particularly the front. Even shorthanded, the Wildcats never stopped coming.

4. Not out of their depth

Arizona’s depth was put to the test at Stanford. Five regulars went down or were extremely limited. It’s a testament to the recruiting and team building done by Fisch and his staff that the Wildcats were able to endure it.

Arizona’s depth really stood out at running back, where Michael Wiley got dinged in the first quarter and didn’t play from the second period on.

Jonah Coleman rushed for 75 yards on 12 carries — the third time in his career he’s had 10-plus totes. Coleman also had three catches for 22 yards. (The initial box score gave him four for 29, but it erroneously awarded the final reception to Coleman instead of Jacob Cowing.) There’s no doubt in my mind — zip, zero, zilch — that Coleman could carry the load if called upon.

Meanwhile, DJ Williams scored the winning touchdown and converted the clinching first down. In the course of pulling off the latter, Williams made one of the smartest plays of the night — sliding down to stay inbounds to make sure the only clock stoppage was to move the chains.

On the preceding play, Rayshon Luke gained 6 yards. What’s notable about that? Well, the coaching staff trusted him in a situation where ball security was paramount. That was the supposed reason Luke hadn’t been allowed to return kickoffs. I’d love to see him in that role, whether Wiley’s available or not.

5. Only harder from here

One-time Stanford Cardinal Tiger Woods once said he won a tournament without his “A-game.”

Arizona defeated Stanford without its A-game, and that’s an important step for the program. If the Wildcats are in the “win close” stage of their build under Fisch, well, that’s precisely what they just did. It’s something they likely wouldn’t have been able to do under the same set of circumstances a year ago. This was a character-building victory.

What’s concerning is that Stanford was really struggling entering Saturday — and UW is demolishing everything in its path.

The Cardinal got obliterated by a USC team that never ran away from a depleted Arizona State squad Saturday night. Stanford then lost at home to Sacramento State.

The Huskies have yet to score fewer than 41 points in a game. Michael Penix Jr. will be, by far, the best quarterback Arizona has faced this season. The Wildcats will be heavy underdogs.

They’re going to have to execute a lot better to have any chance against the Huskies. The heart, effort and will to win are abundant, though. That’s a start.

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