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The Arizona Wildcats were victorious Saturday against Nevada in a game that was too close for comfort, including another late errant throw by the opposing quarterback that allowed an escape.
Two weeks ago, UTSA’s Tucker Carter threw an interception late in the game as Arizona held on to a 26-23 win. Nevada’s Cody Fajardo, on target most of the night, overthrew an open receiver on fourth down in Arizona territory in the waning minutes of the Wildcats’ 35-28 victory at Arizona Stadium.
Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez was supportive of his team but also sounded critical.
“As I told the team in the locker room after the game, we have to get a whole lot better and have to play our best game next Saturday night (against visiting Cal),” Rodriguez said in the postgame press conference. “It doesn’t start on Saturday night. It starts tomorrow and I think they took that to heart.”
Arizona achieved only four cat-claw helmet stickers, a season-low. Nevada was a 20-point underdog entering the game because of the loss of four starters in the days prior to kickoff.
Three of Arizona’s stickers were a constant through the three non-conference games against UNLV, UTSA and Nevada: For the victories, scoring at least 24 points in the wins and achieving at least 10 plays of 12 yards or more in each game.
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HELMET STICKER RESULTS
HS: Helmet stickers
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Cayleb Jones flips the ball to the official after scoring on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Anu Solomon in the third quarter (YouTube video capture)
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Arizona redshirt freshman Anu Solomon engineered 17 plays of 12 yards or more, including 10 by halftime despite Nevada controlling the time of possession after a 19-play drive to open the game.
The Wildcats failed to achieve a sticker in four categories after earning them against UNLV and UTSA: Win turnover margin (Arizona had one on a Solomon interception while Nevada had none), no turnovers, four drives of at least eight plays and holding the opponent to at least five three-and-outs.
Arizona had only two drives with at least eight plays, although it scored touchdowns on two drives of five plays and another on seven plays. The lack of extended drives forced the defense to be on the field longer, resulting in Nevada having a time-of-possession advantage of 35:48 to 24:12.
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Nevada had four three-and-outs, two in each half, one shy of the defensive goal of five. The Wolf Pack had a significant total offensive play advantage of 79-64. Arizona is most dominant in games in which it has at least 80 plays.
“The third‐and‐14 and the third‐and‐20, they got first downs on both and once and a while that could happen, but that shouldn’t happen twice in one game, in my opinion,” Rodriguez said of Nevada’s prolonged drives.
One positive note: For the first time this season Arizona earned a cat claw for not allowing a sack.
“We’ll take it,” Rodriguez said of the victory, “and try to get better because we have to get better in a hurry and move on.”
HELMET STICKER CRITERIA
The Wildcats earn cat claws for the Arizona helmet if they achieve these following marks. This helmet will be updated weekly as the Wildcats attempt to fill the helmet with the cat claws:
FIRST SIX GAMES
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[table “” not found /]ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.
