The Arizona Wildcats lost to UCLA 34-16 on Saturday at Arizona Stadium. Here are some pertinent notes, quotes and statistics from the UA’s latest setback:
NOTES
* The loss was Arizona’s 17th in a row. The Wildcats have the longest active losing streak in the nation. They lost won Oct. 5, 2019, at Colorado. Arizona visits Colorado this upcoming Saturday.
* Arizona failed to score 20 points for the eighth consecutive game. The Wildcats last scored 20-plus points in Week 2 of last season at Washington.
* Arizona allowed 329 rushing yards, the most yards by an opponent this season and the most since Colorado tallied 407 yards against the UA on Dec. 5, 2020. It was UCLA’s highest output since the Bruins rushed for 345 yards vs. Nevada on Aug. 31, 2013.
* UCLA had two players - Brittain Brown (146 yards) and Zach Charbonnet (117) – rush for at least 100 yards in the same game for the first time since Oct. 25, 2014, at Colorado.
* Arizona held an opponent to fewer than 100 yards passing for the second time in the past three games. UCLA had 82 passing yards. NAU had 92 on Sept. 18.
* Arizona committed 12 penalties for 81 yards. It was the first time the Wildcats had 10 or more penalties since Sept. 28, 2019, vs. the Bruins.
* UA kicker Tyler Loop made his first career field goal, a 28-yarder in the first quarter. Lucas Havrisik made a pair of 46-yarders. Arizona was 3 of 3 for the game.
* Jamarye Joiner’s touchdown pass to Michael Wiley marked a pair of firsts. It was the first TD pass of Joiner’s career and the first TD catch of Wiley’s. Joiner began his UA career as a quarterback before moving to receiver.
* UA safety Gunner Maldonado recorded his first career interception.
* WR Boobie Curry set a career high with six receptions. He has 13 catches this season, all coming in the past three games.
* LB Anthony Pandy set a career high with 13 tackles. His previous best mark was 11.
* Safety Jaxen Turner also set a career high with 10 tackles. His previous high was eight.
QUOTES
UA coach Jedd Fisch on why the team hasn’t turned the tide yet: “I don't know. I could point to a few things. We’ve turned it over in bad times. We’ve had penalties at bad times. We certainly play our tails off. And usually when you play your tails off and you play with great effort, the football gods work themselves out. But it doesn't necessarily (happen) right away. Our guys just have to keep on battling, keep on competing.”
Fisch on QB Jordan McCloud’s performance before getting injured: “I thought he was playing outstanding. I thought he was playing as good as he could have played. He threw the ball away when there was nobody open. He scrambled when there were places to scramble. The two zone-read plays we called, he converted on both of those. He made great decisions with the football. He was very accurate. It was a shame that that happened.”
Fisch on the UA defense: “They battled. They hung in there. They were on the field a lot. They had every run thrown at them. There were a lot of different, hard runs to fit up, and they got some good runs on us. But I feel that our defense really played good football. The stats might not necessarily show it. But I think if we converted on some of those (third-down) plays (on offense), that wouldn't have happened.”
Fisch on the team having five false-start penalties: “They stem their front late very often. Right at the last second. when you're in the middle of your cadence, they move. Maybe they make a move call, maybe they don’t, but they they're constantly moving. We just got flinchy. You can't do that. You have to hold your water. We practiced it all week.’
Curry on McCloud: “He's a baller, man. The whole team, we got confidence in him. We move the ball very easily up and down the field. Hopefully we can get him back out there pretty soon.”
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly on the Bruins’ running game: “The offense did a really nice job. Arizona did some different things on the back end coverage-wise. But we felt if they were going to be devoted that much to that, then we needed to run the football. We did what we had to do, and we finished them off. ... Whenever you can go on the road in this league and get a win, that’s a positive and you can build on it.”
Kelly on QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s struggles in the passing game: “I think some of it was coverage-wise and some of it was Arizona’s blitz scheme. They bring a lot of different guys, and we missed a couple protections so Dorian was forced to throw hot when he shouldn’t have been throwing hot. We were just getting the line and quarterback on the same page from a protection standpoint first and foremost. Then he did settle down a little bit. ... Sometimes the game expresses itself in different ways, and today as the game started unfolding, we were going to have to run the football and we did so."
STATS
* Arizona had 27 first downs; UCLA had 22
* UCLA had 411 total yards; Arizona had 362
* UCLA averaged 6.2 yards per play; Arizona averaged 4.5
* Arizona possessed the ball for 30 minutes, 23 seconds; UCLA had it for 29:37
* UCLA converted 5 of 11 third downs; Arizona converted 6 of 14
* UCLA had 3 touchdowns and 1 field goal in 4 trips to the red zone; Arizona had 1 TD and 3 field goals
* UCLA’s average starting field position was its 38-yard line; Arizona’s was its 24
* McCloud completed 21 of 30 passes for 182 yards
* UA receiver Stanley Berryhill III had 7 catches for 59 yards
* UCLA’s Qwantrezz Knight and Stephan Blaylock each had 8 tackles; Knight also had a pass breakup
* UCLA’s Otito Ogbonnia had 5 tackles, 1.5 TFLs, 1 sack, 1 forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery
* Arizona’s Mo Diallo had 4 tackles, including 1.5 TFLs
