Hansen: Too many ‘loafs’ make loss hard to digest

One of the full-time analysts on Rich Rodriguez’s coaching staff documents the most obscure statistic in football — loafs.

When the UA staff broke down all 162 plays of Saturday’s loss to Washington State, it counted about 100 “loafs.”

After you allow 631 yards and 45 points to what is basically seen as a .500 football team, loafing tends to put your head coach in a very bad mood.

If you read about Rodriguez’s epic outbursts in “Three and Out,” a day-to-day account of his three seasons at Michigan, you know that throwing a chair against a wall is part of his repertoire.

On Sunday, after he watched film of his teams dispirited loss to WSU, RichRod went back to his “Three and Out” days. That’s one of any coach’s motivational tools from the Coaching 101 handbook.

Riot act.

“Saturday wasn’t one of my best days as a head coach,” RichRod said Monday.

The Wildcats lost the most winnable game on the back half of their daunting schedule, lost their wiggle room, and a lot of it was because of a bewildering defensive scheme and a lack of hustle.

Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

Years from now, someone combing through Arizona’s football record book will notice that on October 24, 2015, Washington State quarterback Luke Falk threw for 514 yards against the Wildcats.

Of all the great or near-great QBs to play against Arizona the last 100 years, no one has thrown for more yards against the Wildcats. Not John Elway. Not Marcus Mariota. Not Matt Leinart.

The more I thought about Saturday’s game, the more I kept thinking that Luke Falk wasn’t THAT good. At no time did I look down from the press box and say “that guy reminds me of Jake Plummer.”

So I watched and re-watched all 93 of the plays Falk initiated Saturday, and I came up with the same thing RichRod’s analysts and defensive coaches surely came up with: It wasn’t that Falk was good; Arizona succumbed to self-inflicted wounds.

None of Falk’s 62 passes were intercepted. Only two were even touched by a UA defensive player.

Falk was 7 for 7 on the game’s first possession, a 78-yard touchdown drive. All were possession-type throws.

He was 6 for 6 on the game’s clinching touchdown drive; not a deep ball in the series.

He was 16 for 17 during a stretch of the second quarter; none of the 17 passes were more than quick reads.

Falk didn’t put on a downfield-and-deep display to dazzle the six NFL scouts in the press box. Instead, he crippled Arizona with a numbing series of dinks, dunks, dump-offs and quick tosses to receivers and running backs who rarely were contested.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Falk was sacked only on his 18th and 40th attempts of the game. By my count, the UA blitzed just twice on 64 pass plays.

In boxing, it would be like a guy in red trunks saying “hit me with your best shot; let’s see what you got” and then dropping his gloves below his waist.

Minus injured linebackers Scooby Wright, Cody Ippolito and Derrick Turituri, Arizona chose to play mostly without linebackers against WSU. For 90 percent of the game, Arizona used three down linemen and eight safties/cornerbacks.

Many of those in the secondary weren’t expected to play much this season.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of time to get them ‘taught up,’ ” RichRod said.

Without linebackers, Arizona left the middle of the field so open that WSU receiver River Cracraft caught seven passes over the middle in which he was not covered until he had possession and turned upfield.

WSU receivers were rarely jammed at the line of scrimmage, rarely forcing Falk to look for a secondary option, or wait in the pocket as pressure increased.

“They were looking for green grass and they found it,” UA senior safety Will Parks said Monday.

The most game-changing play, one that puts Arizona at a deficit in its attempt to become bowl-eligible, began innocently enough. It was third-and-short at the Arizona 43 with three minutes remaining in the first quarter.

It was a call that changed Arizona’s 2015 trajectory.

WSU coach Mike Leach’s play called for receiver Gabe Marks to line up far to the right, paired against Arizona freshman cornerback Jace Whittaker, who was 10 yards away from scrimmage.

It was an invitation, almost as if to say “throw it here; it’s open.”

At the snap, Falk turned and threw sharply to Marks. Simultaneously, WSU moved 1,100 pounds of beef, without opposition, toward Whittaker and safety Anthony Lopez.

Guards Gunnar Eklund and Edward Middleton, center Riley Sorenson and right tackle Cole Madison did not engage UA linemen at scrimmage and vice-versa. It took them less than three seconds to blot out the sun, a four-lineman, 1,100-pound escort that buried Lopez and late-arriving safety Jamar Allah. WSU receiver Dom Williams had already blocked Whittaker out of the play.

Most of the rest of the UA defense failed to pursue. That’s multiple loafing violations.

Given such blocking, Marks ran without interruption 43 yards for a touchdown. WSU led 14-0. Arizona was never able to make up the difference. One play. Everything changed.

In the official book, those 43 yards are attributed to Falk’s record 514 passing yards. But those numbers are misleading.

The only number that carries on is “one,” a singular, self-inflicted loss that is likely to haunt Arizona into the 2016 season.