Arizona's offense goes MIA, Wildcats fall to Texas Tech in Big 12 home opener

Arizona nearly rallied back from a two-touchdown deficit to beat Texas Tech in the Wildcats' Big 12 home opener, but the Red Raiders prevailed to beat the UA 28-22 Saturday night in Tucson. 

The Wildcats' (3-2) setback is the first home loss under first-year head coach Brent Brennan — and the first Big 12 loss of the season.

Saturday's loss for Arizona was also its first to an unranked team since the Mississippi State game last season. The last time Arizona fell to an unranked team in Tucson was against Washington State in the 2022 season. 

"I'm disappointed that we were unable to get it done," Brennan said. "I love the way we rallied."

With Texas Tech (5-1) coming in with the highest-scoring offense in the Big 12 and the Wildcats capable of scoring points, Saturday had the makings of an offensive shootout at Arizona Stadium.

It was anything but that.  

Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita had arguably his worst performance as the Wildcats' starter, completing 28 of 49 passes (57%) for 301 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Saturday marked Fifita's first multi-interception game of his career; he's thrown interceptions in seven straight games.

Ten of Arizona's 14 drives ended in Texas Tech territory, but the Wildcats only produced one touchdown and had three turnovers and a turnover on downs. Even though Arizona out-gained Texas Tech 422 yards to 332 and had a season-high 25 first downs to TTU's 14, the Wildcats struggled to find the end zone. Arizona also only converted three of its 14 third-down plays. 

"There were a couple of missed throws there. We had a little bit of an issue with protection," Brennan said. "I think everyone on the field had a piece of that. Everyone on the sideline, too; me, play-callers, all of us. That was a collective — absolutely not good enough."

Brennan suggested Arizona's offense has been "carrying too much scheme" on a weekly basis and is overcomplicating its approach on offense. 

"How many plays are we carrying and that part of it?" Brennan asked. "I don't think that's the case, but it's going to be something that we're going to have to look at it and say, 'Hey, how come we're not executing? Like, why is this guy going the wrong way? That's crazy with the amount of times we run that play.' We need to either not call that play or put another player who can play that."   

Arizona safety Gunner Maldonado suffered an injury near the Texas Tech sideline in the first quarter. Senior nickel back Treydan Stukes, who suffered a leg injury against Utah last week, was held out and replaced with sophomore Genesis Smith, who made his third start this season — all different positions in the secondary; he also started at strong safety and free safety this season. 

With Maldonado out, Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton completed a 38-yard pass over the middle to wide receiver Micah Hudson on busted coverage by the UA's secondary. Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks capped the brief drive with a touchdown run. 

Arizona kicker Tyler Loop kicked a 47-yard field goal near the end of the first quarter to cut the deficit to 7-3. Loop also knocked down a 40-, 30-, 37- and 52-yarder in the second half for a career-high five field goals, which is also a single-game program record. 

Although Arizona's defense surrendered a touchdown in the first quarter, the Wildcats forced Texas Tech to punt three times in the first quarter.

"I think our defense has actually been playing a lot of good football. ... There's a lot of stuff there," Brennan said. 

Arizona's offense, in its second week with passing game coordinator and tight ends coach Matt Adkins calling the plays instead of offensive coordinator Dino Babers, stalled and struggled throughout the night on Saturday.

"I continue to take responsibility for that," Fifita said. "It's my job to get our offense going into a rhythm and keep us in a rhythm. I feel like every time we got something going, I would make a mistake or two that stalled the drive, so I take full responsibility."

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Following Arizona defensive tackle Stanley Ta'ufo'ou's sack on third down to force Texas Tech to punt, the Wildcats got to the Texas Tech 20-yard line after wide receiver Montana Lemonious-Craig drew a passing interference penalty and Tetairoa McMillan's 9-yard reception. The Wildcats ran three rushing plays and couldn't pick up a yard and turned it over on downs. 

Arizona's first big rushing play was a 19-yard gain up the middle by senior running back Quali Conley in the second quarter. Prior to Conley's run, Arizona had 11 rush attempts for 11 yards. Two plays later, Fifita threw his first interception after Texas Tech blitzed. TTU defensive lineman Quincy Ledet batted and intercepted Fifita's pass attempt and returned it 20 yards to the UA 30-yard line. Brooks converted the takeaway into his second touchdown run. With a two-point conversion and a buzzer-beater 30-yard field goal, Texas Tech took an 18-3 lead at halftime.  

Arizona's first-half drives resulted in two punts, a field goal, a turnover on downs and two interceptions. The Wildcats had four drives inside Texas Tech territory in the first half, but only had three points.

Much like Arizona's upset win over 10th-ranked Utah last week, Arizona's defense revived the Wildcats and provided the offense with extra opportunities, but instead of two interceptions, it was two fumbles. UA defensive backs Dalton Johnson and Owen Goss each "peanut-punched" Texas Tech ball carriers, with linebacker Taye Brown and defensive end Chase Kennedy each with fumble recoveries.

After converting a fourth-and-short play, Conley scored Arizona's only touchdown of the night in the third quarter with a 3-yard run. Arizona grabbed its first and only lead, 19-18, following Loop's fourth field goal of the night. Loop's only miss of the night, a 49-yard attempt, ended Arizona's four-drive scoring streak in the second half. 

Despite a 32-yard pass for Texas Tech that put the Red Raiders within striking distance, the Wildcats forced TTU to kick a 31-yard field goal. The Red Raiders went ahead 21-19 with just over two minutes left. 

With a chance to win the game, Arizona wide receiver caught a pass over the middle, Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez punched the ball out his hands to force a fumble. Brooks delivered the knockout punch with a 32-yard touchdown run up the middle to move ahead 28-19.

"No one feels worse about that than he does," Brennan said of McMillan's fumble," because he cares so much."

The Wildcats "were in it and we were playing better football for most of the second half, but in the last five minutes of the game, we didn't," said Brennan. 

"We didn't stop them and we fumbled the ball," Brennan said. "I think that's the hard part about it." 

Loop made a 52-yard field goal, but the Wildcats couldn't convert the onside kick with less than a minute and suffered their second loss of the season.

Arizona faces 17th-ranked BYU (5-0) Saturday afternoon in Provo. 

"I still absolutely believe in our players and this team, and I think this conference is really tough," Brennan said. "We're going to take a look at this and figure out what we need to get right and what we let go from tonight and get ready for the next one, because that's going to be a really tough one at BYU. They're coming off a bye.

"So we have a lot of work to do. ... If we could've answered with touchdowns in the red zone, I think we could've kicked the door down on the game, but we didn't. That's the hard truth."

Extra points:

• Redshirt freshman Alexander Doost started his second straight game at right guard. Redshirt junior Ryan Stewart, who started the first three games at right guard, started at left guard over Wendell Moe, who returned after the first drive. Moe started the previous 17 games. 
• Arizona wore military-inspired decals on its helmets for "military appreciation." The decal was an American flag-printed state of Arizona with a "Block A" in the center. It's the third different helmet for Arizona this season. Besides its usual white helmets, Arizona has also used red helmets with the "Cats" script decal. The UA also has a white version of the "Cats" script helmets. 
• Scouts from the Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers attended the Texas Tech-Arizona game.
• University of Arizona president Suresh Garimella attended the game on Saturday. Garimella, the 23rd president in UA history, officially started his tenure on Tuesday after having the same role at the University of Vermont for five years. 

Photos: Arizona Wildcats fall to Texas Tech 28-22, Big 12 football