Arizona’s best defense over the second half of the season might be its offense.
That’s the reality the Wildcats face as they struggle to get stops. It’s a reversal from a year ago, when the defense fought to keep Arizona competitive while its offense sputtered.
Jedd Fisch and his staff made major changes on the offensive side of the ball during the offseason, adding quarterback Jayden de Laura and receiver Jacob Cowing, among others. Their attempts to upgrade the defense haven’t been as successful.
Arizona has fallen to 110th in the nation in total defense, yielding 430.7 yards per game. In the Pac-12, only Colorado (507.6) is worse.
In-house personnel solutions are limited. Freshman Jacob Manu was elevated to the first team at “Will” linebacker on this week’s depth chart. Other minor changes are possible.
But whether it’s Washington this week or USC after the bye, the Wildcats’ best chance to win likely will be to outgun the opposition in a shootout.
That being said, UA coach Jedd Fisch doesn’t want to put undue pressure on one side of the ball just because the other side is scuffling.
“I talked to our offense about this yesterday,” Fisch said Monday. “The expectation is to score every time. (But) when you’re an offensive player, you should only worry about and only control the offense. So it does not matter what’s going on on the other side of the ball; it does not matter if they score or if they don’t.
“On offense, we expect to be able to move the ball and score. We’re going to do everything we can to not raise the anxiety level of having to score and just talk to them about: If you are doing your job and executing, not turning the ball over, then you should be able to move the football. I think our skill players have proven that they can do that.”
Defensive plays like this one against Oregon have been rare in recent weeks for Arizona, which has fallen to 11th in the conference in yards allowed.
Fisch said he was “pretty happy” with the way the offense moved the ball in last week’s 49-22 loss to Oregon but “disappointed that we didn’t score.” Arizona turned the ball over twice inside Oregon’s 15-yard line. The Wildcats managed only one touchdown in five trips inside the red zone, easily their worst performance of the season.
Fisch said Arizona could have had 20 or 27 points in the first half. Instead, the Wildcats trailed the Ducks 28-13 at halftime.
Oregon scored touchdowns on its first three possessions of the third quarter. Arizona’s drives ended in an interception (on a tipped ball), a sack-fumble and a punt. Just like that, Oregon’s lead swelled to 49-13.
“Overall, we can be much better than that,” said Fisch, who’s in charge of the offense. “I expect us to be able to finish those drives.”
Fisch also expects better play from quarterback Jayden de Laura, whose inconsistencies have mirrored the team’s. In Arizona’s three wins, de Laura has completed 68.8% of his passes with an 11-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. In its three losses, those numbers are 56.1% and 4-6.
Against Oregon, de Laura misfired on a handful of throws that he has made routinely this season. Fisch cited two overthrows on the Wildcats’ final possession of the first quarter. They had a chance to retake the lead. Instead, Oregon went up 14-3 and then 21-3.
“We started rushing passes,” Fisch said of de Laura’s miscues. “We started half-rolling when we didn’t need to half-roll. We hurried on some balls that we threw to the running backs, which were really unnecessary hurries. We let a ball fly to Dorian (Singer); we overstrided and pushed up in the pocket and took a huge, almost crow-hop into the throw rather than throw with the balance that he normally throws with.
“Fundamentally he wasn’t as sharp as normal. I think the rush started affecting him a little bit more than it needed to. I’m looking forward to him bouncing back and having a great game this week.”
It’ll be a must against the Huskies, who rank third in the Pac-12 in scoring (41.0 ppg) and total offense (498.5 ypg).
Speed break, bad break
Arizona’s first turnover occurred on a play where the Wildcats used a “speed break” — huddling before hurrying to the line of scrimmage. It’s a tactic used by many teams to try catch the defense off guard. In this particular case, Jacob Cowing mishandled a handoff from de Laura, resulting in a fumble.
“We probably speed-break six to eight plays a game,” Fisch said. “We’ve done that (like) the Rams. You’ll see the Packers do it, you can see the 49ers do it, you can see the Bengals do it. We’ve done it. Every game we do it.”
Fisch said he first learned about speed breaks when he visited Gus Malzahn at Arkansas State in 2012. Malzahn is currently the coach at UCF, and he still uses speed breaks at times.
“It’s a way to have a different tempo of breaking a huddle where you don’t have to go on the line of scrimmage fast but you’re still able to play fast,” Fisch said. “It gives you some alignment issues. We were in an unbalanced formation when we broke the huddle. (Tackle) Jordan (Morgan) was on the right side, not on the left side. We had a wonderful opportunity to run the ball in on that play. But the exchange wasn’t clean.”
Extra points
Tailback Michael Wiley was a limited participant in Sunday evening’s light practice, Fisch said. Wiley missed the second half of the Oregon game because of an oblique injury. Regarding Wiley’s status for UW, Fisch said: “We’ll have to see where he’s at. I’m hopeful on Mike.”
Arizona’s Kyle Ostendorp was named one of the Ray Guy Award’s top eight punters of the week after averaging 46.8 yards and dropping three punts inside the 20. Fans can vote for the Punter of the Week at RayGuyAward.com.
Arizona receiver Tetairoa McMillan was named to On3’s Midseason True Freshman All-American Team. McMillan has 21 catches for 338 yards and four touchdowns.
UW coach Kalen DeBoer can relate to what Fisch and the Wildcats are going through. While the Huskies have been thriving on offense, they also have been struggling on defense. Washington has allowed 40-plus points in back-to-back games. “I’m still proud of the way we continued to battle,” DeBoer told reporters regarding UW’s 45-38 upset loss at Arizona State. “It’s not what we want to be known as: a team that’s battling because we’re behind and didn’t get the job done and put ourselves in a hole.”
Washington (4-2, 1-2 Pac-12) opened as a 17-point favorite over Arizona (3-3, 1-2). The line had dropped to 15.5 as of Monday afternoon.
