Nick Foles is an elite quarterback.
Most of the nation already knew this heading into the 2011 season, but if any questions remained unanswered, the senior answered them by tossing for more than 400 yards and five touchdowns in a dominating 41-10 victory.
The Wildcats got on the scoreboard on their first drive of the game. It took three plays; a thirty yard pass to Juron Criner -- who dominated the NAU secondary all night long -- that electrified the crowd of 51,761, a five yard rush from Keola Antolin, and then a perfectly-placed ball to the corner of the end zone that was hauled in by Criner.
After multiple defensive stops by UA, the offense marched down the field and scored their second touchdown of the game. Multiple slant routes that were executed nicely moved the Cats inside the red zone and Taimi Tutogi capped off the drive with a strong five yard rush to the house.
While it appeared the game was about to get out of hand, Northern Arizona showed a lot of heart and battled back to cut the score to 14-10 at the half.
Unfortunately for the Lumberjacks, this would be the last time they would even come close to scoring for the rest of the game.
The second half was the Nick Foles show. SBN Arizona outlined the Wildcats' many options at wide receiver this season and the quarterback targeted just about everyone. Touchdown passes to Keola Antolin, Richard Morrison, Austin Hill, and Gino Crump all-but-sealed the victory for Arizona.
Concerns definitely remain for the team -- we'll touch on those in our next blog update -- but for week one, the team did just about all it could against an inferior opponent.