Arizona Aftermath: Stats, storylines and quotes from the Wildcats' win over Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. — No. 21 Arizona spoiled Colorado’s home finale and Senior Day festivities with a 34-31 win over the Buffaloes.

The Wildcats extended their winning streak — and Colorado’s losing streak — to four games.

Here are notable storylines, statistics and quotes from the Wildcats’ walk-off win in over CU on Saturday:

Buckling down in crunch time

Trailing opponents or being in one-possession games entering the fourth quarter isn’t a rarity for Arizona this season. Besides the Wildcats’ wins over Northern Arizona, UTEP and Washington State, every game for the Wildcats has been a one-possession contest, including Saturday.

Excluding overtime periods at Mississippi State and USC, Arizona is outscoring its opponents 90-37 in the fourth quarter this season. The Wildcats have not given up a point in the fourth quarter in the last two weeks.

After Colorado led 31-24 going into the final period, the Wildcats scored 10 unanswered points and held the Buffaloes to two punts and a missed 44-yard field goal before the Wildcats’ go-ahead possession to win the game.

With 4:57 remaining, the Wildcats orchestrated an 11-play, 67-yard scoring drive with quarterback Noah Fifita completing all four of his passes for 23 yards while running backs Jonah Coleman and DJ Williams combined for 50 rushing yards. Arizona’s final drive in its 27-24 win over Oregon State was a 10-play drive that chewed up 5:20 and made it a two-possession game with 2:22 left.

“If you look at the way we finish games recently, we like to use all the clock there at the end,” Arizona coach Jedd Fisch said. “If a team wants to give us the ball with six minutes left, we want to use it all. We felt like we could mix the run and the pass as needed, keep the ball in bounds.”

Fifita completed a 5-yard screen pass to wide receiver and former Buffalo Montana Lemonious-Craig, who was pushed into the end zone but was ruled down at the 1-yard line. A potential blessing in disguise for Arizona, because it gave the Wildcats a fresh set of downs, allowing them to milk the clock. If Lemonious-Craig scored with just over a minute left, “now it’s a whole different ball game,” Fisch said.

“Now you gotta hold them, stop them and there’s chances for if they did score, ‘Are they gonna go for (a 2-point conversion)?’ You don’t know what’s going to happen in the game,” Fisch said. “Clearly we were fortunate … but we’ll take it.”

Fifita took the following snap, ran to the middle of the field and took two kneels. With two seconds left, kicker Tyler Loop, who made a career-long 52-yard field goal on Saturday, chipped a 24-yarder to win with no time left on the clock.

“Love the way our team battles in the fourth quarter,” Fisch said. “Love the way our team embraces physicality at the end of games. Guys are enjoying playing football around here. It’s nice for Arizona to be 7-3. ... I’m really excited about the way the program is going and the way we played today.”

‘Kept watering the plant’

Fifita concluded the game completing 21 of 35 passes (60%) for 214 yards and two touchdowns. While Saturday was Fifita’s second start without throwing an interception, the four-time Pac-12 Freshman of the Week winner had his most inefficient completion rate as a Wildcat.

Fifita was 3 for 7 after the first quarter — 8 for 18 at halftime. A key component to Fifita’s second-half turnaround? His predecessor, Jayden de Laura, who hasn’t started since the Pac-12 opener at Stanford, when he suffered an ankle injury.

If there’s anyone who knows about first-half struggles, it’s de Laura. In the first two games this season, de Laura committed six turnovers — five interceptions, including three first-quarter interceptions at Mississippi State. De Laura was a calming voice for Arizona’s new starter.

“He just kept supporting him and told him, ‘I understand what you saw, I totally get what needed to happen there. You’re great, you’re doing a fantastic job. Keep it up,’” Fisch said. “When you hear it from a player versus a coach, it’s just stronger. It’s just better. My tolerance isn’t as good as a player’s tolerance.”

De Laura “kept watering the plant and kept telling him, ‘Hey, we’re good. You’re good.’”

“And I think when you saw the way (Fifita) came back in the second half, he wound up being far more efficient, more like what we expected ... and just controlled the second half of the game. Their camaraderie makes a huge difference in being able to handle adversity.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

The Jonah Coleman game

Coleman ran for a career-high 179 yards on 11 carries on Saturday. Coleman started his fifth game of the season, while senior running back Michael Wiley was limited after re-injuring his leg last week against UCLA, the same injury that sidelined him for three games. Arizona had 207 rushing yards.

“We had a great week of preparation and we knew the plan going in and we executed it,” Coleman said. “Kept fighting, fighting, fighting and that’s all you could ask.”

Coleman had runs of 54, 49, 24 and 21 yards at Colorado.

“Jonah Coleman is a fantastic running back,” Fisch said. “He’s going to be a captain in our program, I’m sure, starting next year.

“He’s a leader in our program.”

By the numbers

8: McMillan improved his season touchdown total to eight, tying his mark from last season.

29: Colorado had 29 rushing yards in the second half. Arizona’s defense held Colorado to 102 yards of total offense in the final two quarters after allowing 250 in the first half. Pro Football Focus gave the Wildcats a 91.8 grade for rushing defense.

5-5: Arizona scored on all five of its trips to the red zone. The Wildcats are 42 for 44 (95.5%) scoring inside the red zone this season, which ranks fifth nationally.

They said it

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, on the loss to Arizona: “Shoot, we scored 31 points. That should be enough to win the football game. That was the challenge that I gave them at the beginning of the week. ... And I feel like we would win if we scored 31 points, and (we) came up short.”

Norton, on the defense surrendering 31 points after allowing an average of 13.3 points in the previous three games: “I think we need to finish more. I think we left a lot of stuff out there on the field, a lot of missed opportunities. We had some chances where people couldn’t make plays, where they should’ve made plays, and we couldn’t pull it down. That’s what we got to circle back on this week. Figure out what we did wrong and figure out how we finish off on that.”

Coleman on Loop’s game-winning field goal: “Practice execution is game of reality. Loop does it practice with pressure kicks literally almost every day and prepares for moments like this — and he executed.”

Injury report

Arizona wide receiver Jacob Cowing exited the game in the fourth quarter after taking a hit on a punt return and went to the locker room before returning to the sideline. UA defensive back Martell Irby, who started his second straight game at “Mike” linebacker, left with a knee injury. Fisch said, “I don’t think either one will affect next week.”

Looking ahead

Arizona’s (7-3) final home game of the season against No. 18 Utah (7-3) will kick off on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. on Pac-12 Network.

It marks the seventh Pac-12 Network broadcast of the season for the Wildcats. Utah has lost two of its last three games, albeit the setbacks were to No. 8 Oregon and No. 5 Washington. The Huskies beat the Utes 35-28 on Saturday in Seattle.

Saturday is Senior Day, and the Wildcats will honor several standout seniors, including Irby, Cowing, running back Michael Wiley, left tackle Jordan Morgan, punter Kyle Ostendorp and tight end Tanner McLachlan.

The Wildcats are early one-point favorites to beat the Utes, according to Draft Kings.