The Arizona Wildcats lost to No. 10 USC 45-37 on Saturday at Arizona Stadium. Here are some pertinent notes, quotes and statistics from the UA’s defeat:
NOTES
* Arizona lost its third consecutive game. It’s the Wildcats’ longest losing streak since they dropped the final three games of last season. They lost 20 games in a row between 2019 and ’21.
* Arizona lost for the 10th straight time against USC. Seven of the 10, including the past three, have been decided by eight or fewer points.
* The Wildcats allowed 40-plus points for the fourth time in the past five games. They also surrendered 500-plus yards in each of those contests. USC became the first UA opponent to top 600 yards since Washington State had 605 on Nov. 17, 2018.
* Arizona had more than 500 yards of offense for the fourth time this season. The Wildcats are 1-3 in those games.
* Arizona failed to record a sack for the third straight game. The Wildcats have three sacks in five Pac-12 contests – all against Colorado.
* Arizona’s 6.3-yard rushing average was its best of the season. The Wildcats’ sack-adjusted rushing average was 7.7 yards.
* USC converted 11 of 17 third downs – the most conversions and attempts by a UA opponent this season.
* Dorian Singer caught seven passes for 141 yards and a career-best three touchdowns. The three TD catches matched the school record. Jacob Cowing also equaled it this season.
* Cowing extended his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 40, the third-longest streak among FBS players. He finished with seven receptions for 80 yards – the sixth time this season he’s had at least seven catches.
* Arizona QB Jayden de Laura passed for 380 yards, the fourth time in the past five games that he has thrown for 380 or more. Has 14 touchdown passes and two interceptions in his past three games.
* De Laura’s 73-yard pass to Singer marked the Wildcats’ longest play from scrimmage this season, surpassing DJ Williams’ 52-yard touchdown run vs. Oregon on Oct. 8. It was the longest catch of Singer’s career and the second-longest completion of de Laura’s.
* De Laura’s 54 net rushing yards were also a career high, surpassing his previous high-water mark of 50 vs. North Dakota State on Sept. 17.
* USC’s Caleb Williams (31 of 45, 411 yards, five touchdowns) became the second straight quarterback to pass for more than 400 yards against Arizona. Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. had 516 yards vs. the Wildcats on Oct. 15.
* Two UA freshmen, defensive lineman Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei and cornerback Ephesians Prysock, made their first career starts. Arizona started six true freshmen in all.
QUOTES
UA coach Jedd Fisch on whether the result was a moral victory: “No. I'm a believer in the concept of getting better. As I said to our team, you're not going to win every battle to win a war. But we're going to fight in every battle, and we'll win enough of them here as we continue on (with) this process. The term ‘moral victory,’ not really for me. It's just a matter for us. It’s, how did Arizona football play today? I thought we played well.”
Fisch on de Laura: “(He’s) the best quarterback that I've ever been around in college football. I love the fact that he's a sophomore. ... He's making really, really good decisions. He's learning our offense better and better. Sometimes I feel like we have like this pitcher-catcher (relationship where) I give him a signal and he shakes me off, give him another signal. He would never have done that early on. But now he's feeling more comfortable in what we want to get done. And I feel more comfortable. ... He's just getting better each week. I want him to get better every week for as long as he's a Wildcat, just get better every single week, and I think we'll be very happy with where he'll be over these next few years.”
Fisch on USC running out of time at the end of the first half: “It was clear when they went to zeroes, there was no play at that point in time. It's always the biggest issue as a play-caller when you have that, like, 11-second mark with no timeouts and you're trying to figure out, can I get a play called? Get a spike? That's always the trickiest deal. They hit a deep one. When you hit a deep pass, now you’ve got to get everybody down there and try to get your spike. It would up that they couldn't get it done.”
DT Kyon Barrs on Arizona being 3-5: “We just gotta keep going. We can’t get down on ourselves and think about our record. Just come in every week and be ready to go. Anything can happen in college football.”
Singer on the idea of a moral victory: “I know all the guys hate losing. I felt like as a team that we played a great game. Just some tweaks here and there and we can win more games down the stretch.”
USC coach Lincoln Riley on the win: “It was an awesome, gutsy win. With the way the last few weeks have gone for our guys (in terms of injuries), to come in here and overcome a lot of things that are out of our control ... there were so many guys stepping up and making big contributions from all sides. We knew it was going to be a tough matchup and an emotional game. Arizona has some explosive players that made some really tremendous one-on-one plays, and we knew they had that capability. Our team came in here very poised and very determined. I'm really thrilled with this win. As we see in college football across the country, wins on the roads are very, very hard. And to overcome all the stuff we did tonight was pretty cool.”
Riley on the clock situation at the end of the half: "It was a little scrambled. I honestly didn't give them a lot of time for an explanation. Then after, we talked. They admitted it. They messed it up. My question was, if you messed it up, why wasn't it, 'Stop play and review it'? The explanation given to me at the beginning of the third quarter was they obviously didn't handle it properly. But anybody knows that watching it."
Williams on playing without top receivers Jordan Addison and Mario Williams: “Coach said to me before we walked out, ‘Sometimes when you don't have your top guy, you get to spread the ball around a little bit more. The other team can't key in on anybody.’ Like coach said, those guys stepped up. I put the ball where I thought was best, and those guys went and made somegood catches.”
USC defensive back Bryson Shaw on his interception of de Laura: “Coach Grinch (Alex Grinch, USC’s defensive coordinator) does an awesome job getting us ready. He told me that that play was coming all night. We were running a specific cover. He just told me to look for that play. I saw the formation, remembered what Coach told me and I made the play.”
STATS
* Arizona had 28 first downs; USC had 26
* USC had 210 net rushing yards; Arizona had 163
* USC averaged 8.1 yards per play; Arizona averaged 7.9
* Arizona had 8 penalties for 76 yards; USC had 5 for 51
* USC possessed the ball for 30 minutes, 51 seconds; Arizona had it for 29:09
* USC scored touchdowns on 5 of 5 trips into the red zone; Arizona went 3 of 5
* USC’s Travis Dye had 20 rushes for 113 yards and 1 TD
* USC’s Tahj Washington had 7 catches for 118 yards and 2 TDs
* USC’s Kyle Ford had 6 catches for 114 yards and 1 TD
* Arizona’s Tyler Loop went 3 of 3 on field goals (42, 25, 29)
* USC’s Max Williams had 9 tackles and 1 pass breakup
* Shaw had 7 tackles, 1 TFL and 1 INT
* USC’s Calen Bullock had 7 tackles and 2 PBUs
* Arizona’s Christian Roland-Wallace had 8 tackles and 1 PBU
* Arizona’s Jalen Harris had 4 tackles, 1 TFL and 1 PBU
