5 takeaways from the Arizona Wildcats’ 39-14 loss to No. 14 Iowa State | Michael Lev

Arizona needed to play an almost-perfect game to upset No. 14 Iowa State on Saturday night in Ames.

It was the Cyclones who were almost perfect.

Iowa State did to Arizona what it does to just about everyone it faces. ISU played physically, efficiently and practically mistake-free.

The Wildcats, meanwhile, made far too many mistakes.

The result: Arizona’s first loss of the season — a 39-14 setback at sold-out, whited-out Jack Trice Stadium.

Here are my top five takeaways from the game:

1. Defensive lapses

Arizona entered this week with a top-10 defense. The Wildcats surrendered just two touchdowns in their first three games.

Iowa State presented a different sort of test. The Cyclones have a huge offensive line, and they use multiple tight ends. They also have a savvy, veteran quarterback in Rocco Becht.

Capitalizing on excellent field position — more on that in a bit — Iowa State scored touchdowns on five of its first eight possessions. In reality, it was five of seven; the Cyclones took a knee to end the first half.

The defense’s biggest issue was big plays. Entering Saturday, Arizona had allowed just four pass plays of 20-plus yards in three games. Iowa State had six such plays.

Some came on beautifully thrown deep passes down the sideline against man-to-man coverage. Some came on slant passes where UA defensive backs missed tackles or took poor angles. One came on a trick play — a handoff to and throw by tight end Benjamin Brahmer that fooled the entire defensive backfield.

You’d like to think that a seasoned secondary like Arizona’s would have shown better awareness on that play. Credit to the Cyclones for using the Wildcats’ aggressiveness against them.

Iowa State also ran the ball often enough to complement those big pass plays. The final numbers weren’t overwhelming — Carson Hansen and Abu Sama III combined for 89 yards on 31 rushes — but early success and play-calling patience sufficiently set up those downfield shots.

The shame of it all is that Arizona had its entire defensive rotation healthy for the first time this season — and two of the guys who’ve missed time made an impact.

Linebacker Riley Wilson, who played in only one of the first three games, had a pair of sacks. Treydan Stukes, who’d played only seven defensive snaps, had nine tackles and an interception.

It wasn’t enough to offset the onslaught of big plays.

2. Off the mark

It’s fair to say that Becht outplayed counterpart Noah Fifita.

Circumstance factor into that assessment, of course. Becht and the Cyclones played with the lead for almost the entire game, while Fifita and the Wildcats were playing from behind. Becht also had the benefit of silence when ISU had the ball, while Fifita had to deal with crowd noise.

But Fifita was off the mark on too many plays. He threw the ball behind Chris Hunter at least twice. He overthrew an open Kris Hutson on a post route. He threw behind Javin Whatley on the game-clinching interception.

Fifita was under pressure on that play. No quarterback thrives with defenders bearing down on him. But Fifita has done this long enough to know what’s coming in most situations and adjust accordingly. Or at least he should. A better pass might have resulted in a touchdown.

Fifita threw two interceptions in all — his first two picks of the season — and the first one was more of a great play by the defense than a bad read or decision by Fifita. After a pair of fake handoffs in the backfield, Fifita tried to hit Tre Spivey on a deep hook to the right side. Cornerback Jontez Williams read the play, sunk back and intercepted the pass.

Most of Fifita’s misses were thrown behind receivers. Is that just poor accuracy? Miscommunication? Imprecise route-running? Those are questions to be explored this week.

Whether by design or on scrambles, I liked how Fifita used his legs — five carries for 26 yards after adjusting for sacks. I’d like to see more of that.

Fifita attempted 48 passes in this game, four shy of his career high. Arizona had only 24 running plays — despite averaging a respectable 4.5 yards per rush. That disparity is too great, even accounting for game script.

3. Still not special

Special teams continue to be a sore spot for Arizona — despite the Wildcats devoting more resources to that part of the game.

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Brent Brennan hired a full-time special-teams coordinator in the offseason. Craig Naivar has multiple years of experience in that job. He’s also been a defensive coordinator. He knows ball.

Naivar also impresses just about everyone he meets. He’s detailed and organized. UA athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois sat in on one of Naivar’s special-teams meetings and was so enthralled that she brought her senior staff to a subsequent Naivar-led meeting.

But as Naivar himself would tell you, it’s a bottom-line business. And Arizona’s special teams have been a liability so far.

The Wildcats caught a break on the opening kickoff when Ismail Mahdi’s fumble was overturned. But the drive ended with a missed field goal — a major early momentum swing.

That miss was Michael Salgado-Medina’s third in the past two games from under 50 yards. The snap from Avery Salerno was slightly off to the left — a common occurrence on short snaps from the veteran transfer.

(I have no idea which is harder — short snaps or punt snaps — but Salerno has had no trouble with the latter.)

Arizona then got victimized by a “swinging gate” 2-point conversion. The Cyclones shifted multiple bodies to the left side. The ball was pitched to tight end Gabe Burkle, who ran into the end zone against the outnumbered Wildcats.

Whether that’s a special-teams breakdown or a defensive breakdown is unclear. But Arizona should have suspected Iowa State would try something unusual at some point with its star kicker, Kyle Konrardy, out of the lineup and true freshman Chase Smith taking his place.

Dalton Johnson then got flagged for plowing into a punt returner. Was Johnson pushed? It appeared so. But it was a 15-yard foul nonetheless, setting up Iowa State at the UA 38-yard line.

The Cyclones’ average starting position was their 37. The Wildcats’ was their 22. That’s a massive difference.

4. Decisions, decisions

Brennan made some puzzling decisions in the fourth quarter. “Conflicting” might be a better adjective.

With just under 11 minutes left in the period, Brennan elected to punt on fourth-and-2 from the UA 13-yard line. Arizona trailed by three scores at the time.

It was unlikely that the Wildcats would have three more possessions at that juncture. (They technically did, regaining the ball with 43 seconds left.) As such, I would have gone for it. Why not? So what if the Cyclones take over inside the 15? That was basically Arizona’s last stand.

ESPN announcers Dave Flemming and Brock Osweiler used the term “raising the white flag” when the Wildcats brought the punt team out. Sometimes a one-sided game does get to that point.

But if that were the case, Flemming, Osweiler and many on social media wondered, then why was Brennan calling timeouts when Iowa State had the ball with 2:15 to play?

Pick a lane, Coach.

Brennan has been more aggressive in fourth-down situations this year than last. He wisely decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the UA 44 early in the third quarter with the score 29-7. Iowa State’s Marcus Neal made a terrific play to knock down Fifita’s pass. Arizona didn’t get the result it needed, but the decision-making process was sound.

5. In a good spot

Raise your hand if, before the season, you thought Arizona would be 3-1 through four games?

Most of us figured the UA would lose to Kansas State and Iowa State. Arizona won the battle of the Wildcats as a slight underdog before Saturday’s setback. In a sense, the UA was playing with house money.

That’s not the approach you want to take into any game, and I doubt it was on anyone’s mind in Ames. No Arizona Wildcat got on the plane late Saturday night feeling satisfied.

But the team is in a good spot. Arizona is set to host reeling Oklahoma State this upcoming Saturday. The Cowboys showed some spunk in their first game without Mike Gundy, but they still gave up 45 points against Baylor. They’re vulnerable. The Wildcats have an excellent chance to get to 4-1 heading into another home game against BYU the following week. That would match their win total from last season.

Although the final score was lopsided at ISU, it didn’t feel like the blowout losses at UCF and ASU last season. Arizona got manhandled in those contests. The Wildcats were outclassed.

The Cyclones didn’t dominate them. Yes, they controlled the game. But ISU had only 39 more yards than Arizona (399-360). The Cyclones averaged 5.8 yards per play to the Wildcats’ 5.0. ISU just did all the little things right, including third- and fourth-down conversions (a combined 8 of 15) and red-zone scoring (five touchdowns in seven trips). The Cyclones also had only one penalty for 5 yards.

Arizona ran the ball well. Its offensive line arguably had its best performance of the season. The defense, while mistake-prone, held up relatively well in the run game.

The UA won’t face many opponents like Iowa State the rest of the way. Does any other Big 12 team use as many as four tight ends? Does any have an unstoppable QB sneak play?

If they take care of business vs. OSU, the Wildcats will be in a great position to secure a bowl bid. It’s hard to ask for much more in Year 2 under Brennan.