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Arizona Wildcats Beat Washington State Cougars, 24-7
The 17th-ranked Arizona Wildcats lost QB Nick Foles, and he is expected to be out two or three weeks after spraining his knee in Saturday's victory over Washington State.
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Wildcats Defeat Cougars, 24-7
Pullman, WA (Sports Network) – Keola Antolin ran 21 times for 92 yards and two touchdowns and Nic Grigsby added 66 rushing yards and a score on 14 touches to carry 17th-ranked Arizona past Washington State, 24-7.
Matt Scott came on in relief of injured starter Nick Foles and completed 14- of-20 passes for 139 yards and was intercepted once for the Wildcats (5-1, 2-1 Pac-10), who bounced back from their only loss of the season last week to Oregon State to beat the Cougars for a fifth straight meeting.
Foles left the game a minute into the second quarter with a right knee injury and did not return after going 6-for-7 for 71 yards.
Jeff Tuel connected on 18-of-32 throws for 257 yards and a score and ran for 33 more, while Marquess Wilson made six catches for 131 yards and a touchdown for the Cougars (1-6, 0-4), who have dropped five in a row.
“I thought our defense got better as the game went along, " Washington State head coach Paul Wulff said. “Offensively, we started the moving the ball. We didn’t convert when we had to make some plays against a very good defense. We needed to make some catches and we left some big plays out there. Two weeks in a row, we have played a very good football team. We need to keep fighting and compete.”
Following a three-and-out, the ’Cats took over at the Washington State 44 and ran just six plays to post the first points of the game on a nine yard-run by Antonlin with 4:48 remaining in the opening stanza.
Antolin’s one-yard scoring run finished off a 15-play drive that covered 95 yards and chewed up 5:44 to give the visitors a 14-0 lead with 11 minutes to go in the half.
Foles was hurt during the march after completing a pass to Travis Cobb. On his first play, Scott hooked up Taimi Tutogi on a 25-yard catch-and-run and directed the remainder of the drive.
Arizona held Washington State to just 56 yards of offense in the first 30 minutes and kept the hosts scoreless in the first half for the first time this season.
The Cougars were forced to punt on their first second half possession. Reid Forrest couldn’t handle the snap and Arizona recovered the loose ball at the seven yard line and needed only one play to cash in. Grigsby found paydirt just 72 seconds into the half to make it a 21-0 game.
WSU finally got on the board with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter on a 23-yard scoring strike from Tuel to Marquess Wilson to polish off a nine-play, 63-yard march.
Alex Zendejas booted a 40-yard field goal with 11:57 to go in the game to account for the final margin.
Arizona leads the all-time series, 25-13…The Wildcats have won 12 of the last 17 meetings, including two straight visits to Pullman…Arizona has won 16 of its last 25 conference games since the middle of the 2007 campaign…The Wildcats played on the road for the first time in 43 days since a visit to Toledo on September 3 to open the season…Grigsby moved past Trung Canidate into third place on the Arizona all-time list with 26 rushing touchdowns…Cobb was Arizona’s leading receiver with seven catches for 62 yards…The Cougars are 9-33 against ranked teams since 2000…Washington State lost earlier this season to Oregon and USC when both teams were ranked…The Cougars recovered an onsides kick to begin the game.
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Wildcats Looks To Recover Against Lowly Cougars
The Arizona Wildcats look to start another winning streak on Saturday afternoon in Pullman, Washington. The Washington State Cougars (1-5, 0-3 Pac-10) are a pass-oriented offense, with quarterback Jeff Tuel averaged 245 yards a game in the air this season.
Tuel may pose issues for the Wildcat defense who gave up 393 passing yards to Ryan Katz in last weekend's upset loss to Oregon State. While the Cougars are not nearly as talented as the Beavers, Arizona must still account for Marquess Wilson, a talented freshman wide receiver who has already caught 515 yards on the season.
The Wildcats need to get back to basics, which is running the ball with Nic Grigsby, playing strong pass defense, and forcing the Cougars into uncomfortable downs - 3rd and 8, 2nd and 13. With an attitude of stopping the big plays and forcing the small ones, the Wildcats will find themselves on the winning side of this matchup.
More concerning, however, is the lethargy that Arizona has been exuding since their victory over Iowa. After pulling out a 10-9 snoozefest against California, it was widely believed that the Wildcats would bounce back. They haven't, and the coaching staff needed to take steps to fix these issues. What occurs on the field today will determine just how successful those steps were.
SB Nation Arizona prediction: Arizona 52, Washington State 21
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Arizona Wildcats Hit Road, Take On Washington State In Pullman, Saturday, 4:30 p.m. AZT
GAME NOTES: The 17th-ranked Arizona Wildcats will attempt to bounce back from their first setback, as they tangle with the Washington State Cougars in a Pac-10 bout this weekend at Martin Stadium.
After opening the season with four straight wins, including an upset of then ninth-ranked Iowa, the Wildcats were handed their first defeat, a 29-27 loss to Oregon State last weekend.
"It's kind of frustrating coming off a bye week. We should have been a lot more on top of things. We prepared for them for two weeks," Arizona defensive end Ricky Elmore said. "I don't know if we were just sluggish from the week off, but something needs to change."
The loss capped a four-game homestand for Arizona, which was playing its first game as a top-10 team since 1999. The Wildcats dropped all the way down to No.17 following the defeat and they are now out for redemption in their first road game since opening the season with a win at Toledo on September 3rd.
The Cougars meanwhile, continued their losing ways under head coach Paul Wulff, falling 43-23 to No.3 Oregon last weekend, though the game was a bit closer than the score would indicate.
"I'm disappointed," said Wulff, who fell to 4-27 at WSU. "We had a lot of opportunities out their today to score more points and play a little better defense."
It was the fourth loss in a row for WSU, which picked up its only win of the season in a 23-22 decision over Montana State, a FCS program.
As far as the all-time series is concerned, Arizona holds a 24-13 advantage over WSU and the Wildcats picked up a 48-7 victory in Tucson last season.
Nick Foles threw for a career-high 440 yards and three TDs, but it wasn't quite enough for Arizona in a narrow loss to OSU this past weekend. Foles, who led two late-game TD drives to beat Iowa and Cal, didn't have enough to overcome OSU despite the big game that included a 35-of-46 effort on pass attempts. Still, Foles has enjoyed a good start to the campaign and he is averaging 305.8 ypg through the air, while completing an efficient 74.9 percent of his tosses.
Juron Criner has been Foles' main target and he too was spectacular last weekend, pulling in 12 balls for 179 yards and a score. The explosive WR is now averaging 106.2 receiving yards per game, with a team-high of three TDs.
Despite some talented backs, the Wildcats haven't gotten much from their ground attack this season, averaging only 116.4 ypg. Keola Antolin's performance stood out the most against OSU, as he ran for 70 yards and a score, while catching four balls for 40 yards and another TD.
Arizona has one of the top pass defenses around heading into last weekend, but that all changed when OSU threw for 393 yards on a successful 30-of-42 pass attempts. Following the performance, Arizona dipped from eighth to 42nd nationally in pass efficiency defense.
The defense, though, continued to prove strong against the run, limiting a good OSU ground attack to just 93 yards on 35 carries. For the season, the Wildcats are permitting just 99.6 ypg on the ground and opponents are averaging a mere 2.8 yards per carry.
Leading the Arizona defense is Paul Vassallo, who has 33 stops and a sack to his credit. Justin Washington has also enjoyed a fast start and he tops the roster in TFLs (seven) and sacks (four), to go with 23 tackles.
WSU hung tough against Oregon last weekend and were about to make things really interesting until QB Jeff Tuel was picked at the goal line with the Cougars trailing 36-23 late in the third quarter. It was a critical mistake, but the only one by Tuel, who passed for 245 yards and a TD on 25-of-40 attempts. Considering WSU's lack of a ground attack, averaging just 86.8 ppg, Tuel has done a rather nice job this season, passing for 246.3 ypg with nine TDs against five INTs.
Jared Karstetter and Marquess Wilson have provided Tuel with some weapons to work with, as Karstetter paces the squad with 33 catches and four TDs, while Wilson is tops with 515 receiving yards. Against Oregon, it was Karstetter who turned in a noteworthy performance, logging 10 catches for 106 yards.
The big problem for the Cougars this season has been their defense, which is allowing a whopping 42.8 ppg and 517.5 total ypg. The unit has been equally as bad versus the run and pass, giving up 254.7 ypg on the ground and 262.8 ypg through the air.
Facing Oregon's potent attack last weekend, the Cougars were shredded for 252 rushing yards and 304 passing. The Ducks completed 21-of-27 pass attempts and averaged 8.3 yards per play against WSU, which tried to keep things close with three forced and recovered fumbles. Alex Hoffman-Ellis had one of those forced fumbles and he finished with eight stops and a sack as well. He currently paces the club with 40 stops, two sack sand a pair of INTs for the season.
The Wildcats are coming off a disappointing result, but they should have no trouble returning to the win column with a rout of a far less talented WSU squad.
Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Arizona 41, Washington State 17
