I drove down to Tucson Saturday to see Oregon, my alma mater, play the Arizona Wildcats.
$62 a ticket and they had us way up in the stands at Arizona Stadium. Didn’t matter. Just a more panoramic view of Oregon’s offense, which scored eight touchdowns in the Ducks’ 56-31 dismantling of the ’Cats.
Five observations from the game, from the upper deck:
1. U of A has no defense. When Oregon faltered on offense it was because of the Ducks’ own mistakes, not really anything the Cats did.
2. Way too many dropped passes by Arizona. It cost them first downs and maybe touchdowns. I was pretty impressed with QB Nick Foles’ accuracy and ability to escape and make plays on the run downfield, especially since he was facing blitzes a lot. But his receivers didn’t help him enough, and he needed all the help he could get.
3. Juron Criner is impressive. I’m not sure anyone in the Pac-12 can cover him. He had a key drop, though.
4. Mike Stoops needs to take chill pill. Seriously. He gets mad at EVERYTHING and no one is safe from his ranting. Officials, players, his own coaches, the fans in the first row… That can’t be easy for a lot of people to deal with. Yelling and screaming won’t help him save his job. Wins will.
5. The Wildcats have a pretty good offense, even better when the running game is going well. Arizona had some good runs and consequently were pretty effective moving the ball on an Oregon defense that can only slow teams down, never stop them. Too bad Arizona's defense parts like the Red Sea, it's going to be a long season if they can't beat USC next week.
It was a pretty good night for me. Always nice to see the other team’s fans heading for the exits early.