Arizona Aftermath: Stats, storylines and quotes from the Wildcats' home loss to West Virginia

The Arizona Wildcats dropped their fourth straight game after falling to the West Virginia Mountaineers 31-26 at Arizona Stadium on Saturday.

The Wildcats nearly pulled off the 18-point comeback, but fell short in their last game in Tucson until Nov. 15.

Here are notable storylines, statistics and quotes from Arizona football’s too-little, too-late home loss to the Mountaineers.

‘Middle eight’ plagues the Cats again

Arizona’s previous coaching regime emphasized the “middle eight” in games, which is the last four minutes of the second quarter and the first four minutes of the third quarter.

In UA’s four-game losing streak, struggling in the middle eight is a reoccurring issue for the Wildcats. Arizona has been outscored 34-0 in the middle eight, a complete 180-degree difference from its 3-1 start, when the Wildcats outscored their opponents 34-0.

In Arizona’s loss to West Virginia, Mountaineers quarterback and Chandler product Nicco Marchiol, who started for the injured Garrett Greene, connected with wide receiver Hudson Clement in the back of the end zone to outscore the Wildcats 7-0 in the middle eight. Arizona had two three-and-out drives, and UA quarterback Noah Fifita nearly threw his 11th interception of the season near the end of the first half, but West Virginia safety Jaheem Joseph dropped the football.

The Wildcats dug themselves a three-possession hole and played catch-up for most of the game. Arizona had one touchdown in its first six possessions of the game; running back Quali Conley fumbled inside the red zone on the opening drive, and the Wildcats had three punts.

“I think there was some lack of efficiency there offensively,” said Arizona head coach Brent Brennan. “Because we weren’t consistently moving the ball, because they were ending up with lots of good field position, they were in some situations where they were able to have short fields and capitalize on those opportunities.”

Trailing 31-13 in the fourth quarter, Arizona’s offense picked up steam with three straight touchdown drives — two passing touchdowns and a rushing score from Fifita. Tight end Sam Olson hauled in a 23-yard touchdown, his first as a Wildcat since transferring from San Jose State. Arizona star wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan also ended his touchdown drought at six games after his 34-yard score in the fourth quarter.

After dropping a throwback pass from McMillan, Fifita brought the Wildcats within a possession with a 3-yard scramble to his right and plowed his way through three West Virginia defenders at the goal line for a touchdown. UA coach Brent Brennan called McMillan and Fifita “total warriors” for their efforts on Saturday.

“When you see Noah make that play and get in, I think that tells you what kind of competitor he is, and that’s what makes him special,” Brennan said.

Arizona scored touchdowns on its final three drives of the game, which Fifita said “was probably the best rhythm we felt in a while.”

“Just trying to carry that on. Still lots to learn from it,” said Fifita. “Gotta be able to start faster and help our defense out. I’ll continue to take responsibility for it.”

Brennan “was really proud of the fight” and “loved how we battled in the fourth quarter.”

Added Brennan: “Everyone is devastated, as you can imagine they would be, because we feel like we had an opportunity to get that done and we didn’t get it done.”

‘Race to maturity’ in Arizona’s defense

Arizona has three team captains out with season-ending leg injuries — and they’re all on defense: linebacker Jacob Manu, safety Gunner Maldonado and nickel back Treydan Stukes.

Rising underclassmen have been thrust into leadership roles, like redshirt freshman free safety Jack Luttrell, sophomore linebacker Taye Brown and sophomore defensive back Genesis Smith, “a bunch of guys that are playing are in this race to maturity,” Brennan said.

“Some of those pieces we’ve counted on for so long here for so long ... aren’t available to us,” said the Arizona head coach. “Those young guys have to continue to accelerate that. Hopefully some of those tough lessons they learned will pay off next weekend.”

West Virginia converted all four of its fourth-down conversions on Saturday. The Mountaineers were 7 for 15 on third-down plays — and one of them was kneel-down to end the game. On two third-and-9 plays, including one on the final drive, WVU had a 15-yard and 17-yard completion to extend drives.

Three of West Virginia’s touchdowns were on fourth-down plays.

“We just gotta get off the field,” said senior defensive back Owen Goss, who finished with six tackles. “Coach always preaches getting off the field and we didn’t do that tonight. Back to the drawing board.”

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The Wildcats also had three offsides penalties after West Virginia “was really creative with their cadence and did a heck of a job with poise in their offensive front,” Brennan said.

“That’s still not OK,” Brennan said. “That’s still crazy. We need to be better than that. We can’t have three offsides penalties in the same game.”

Arizona had 13 missed tackles, according to Pro Football Focus, the most since its loss to Kansas State last month. The Wildcats also surrendered 203 rushing yards to West Virginia, the most since KSU game, and snapped their four-game streak with at least one takeaway.

“In the big picture of things, there is an impact in not having three team captains for a game,” Brennan said. “There is an impact of the injury thing or some of the people not available to us.”

Special teams malfunction

Arizona’s special teams units have also hindered the Wildcats lately. After its onside kick attempt against Colorado last week, the Wildcats were surprised with a trick play during West Virginia’s second field goal attempt in the first quarter, when holder Luke Bechdel took the snap and ran for a 14-yard touchdown. It’s the second special teams touchdown Arizona has allowed this season.

Fellow Big 12 foes Texas Tech and BYU ran successful fake field goals earlier on Saturday.

“They got us on that,” Brennan said of WVU’s fake field goal. “They schemed us. We were going for the heavy block look there and we were short on that side of the formation, so credit to them and their coaching staff.”

Arizona kicker Tyler Loop missed his first-career PAT after Olson’s touchdown in the third quarter. Loop was 119 for 119 in three-plus seasons before the miss Saturday.

By the numbers

74: Arizona’s pass-blocking grade on PFF. The Wildcats had a 43.5 grade last week against Colorado. Right tackle Jonah Savaiinaea moved to left tackle following Rhino Tapa’atoutai’s season-ending leg injury. Left guard Wendell Moe and right guard Alexander Doost switched sides, and redshirt sophomore Michael Wooten made his first start at right tackle.

3: An Arizona receiver has tallied over 200 receiving yards 11 times, and McMillan has three of them, including Saturday. McMillan’s other games with over 200 yards are his record-setting game against New Mexico (304) and last season’s Territorial Cup (266) game. McMillan is 266 yards away from breaking Arizona’s all-time receiving yards record.

13: Arizona safety Dalton Johnson tied a career-high with 13 tackles.

9: Fifita’s interception streak ended at nine games after he didn’t throw one on Saturday. The last time Fifita didn’t throw an interception was against Utah last season.

They said it

Fifita, on targeting McMillan more: “We had some more plays designed for him, and obviously when you have a player of his caliber, he’s able to get a lot of other things opened up.”

Fifita, on the offensive line shake-up: “I think they played fantastic. I think (we had) two sacks and I’ll take the blame for both of them because I held the ball too long. ... O-Line did a great job. The game plan we had to help them out on the edges was fantastic. (Offensive line coach Josh Oglesby) and the O-Line did a great job. I gotta be better to get the offense going.”

Brennan, on Arizona Stadium clearing out in the middle of the third quarter: “I don’t even see it. I’m focused on what’s happening on the field in that moment or what’s happening with our team. It’s too bad, they missed a hell of a fourth quarter.”

Brennan, on if Arizona has made progress this season: “Some of those pieces we were counting on aren’t available to us, and so progress has to be measured a little different. The hard part is we are always measured on wins and losses, and I understand that. When I look at how this team comes to work every day, how much they give to each other, I still believe in this team. And they still believe in each other.”

Looking ahead

Arizona (3-5) now has four games to get three wins to become bowl-eligible. The Wildcats’ upcoming opponents are UCF (3-5), Houston (3-5), TCU (5-3) and Arizona State (5-2).

The Wildcats are 5.5-point underdogs for Saturday’s game against UCF in Orlando, according to DraftKings and FanDuel sportsbooks. Saturday is the Knights’ “Space Game,” a space-themed game to honor the school’s connection to NASA. UCF is 7-0 in Space Games, with an average margin of victory of 28.9 points.

“One week at a time. This is really a one-game season from here on out, one week at a time,” Fifita said. “Just enjoying playing with each other, enjoy being with each other and — God willing — we’ll be able to stack up some wins.”

Photos: University of Arizona Wildcats get edged by West Virginia 31-26, Big 12 football