Hunter Echols, a defensive lineman on the Arizona football team, celebrates after making a tackle on Saturday Sept. 17 in Arizona Stadium. The Wildcats would win the game 31-28 and advance their record to 2-1.
The Arizona football team lost to the University of California, Berkeley by a score of 49-31 to put the Wildcats at .500 with two wins and two losses. Here are the stats that changed the game.
401 passing yards from Jayden de Laura
Quarterback Jayden de Laura went 27-45 for 401 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. The Wildcats offense relied on their passing game while Cal worked with a run-heavy offense. Although passing for 400+ yards is very impressive, the interceptions in crunch time will cloud performance with many bright spots.
354 rush yards for Cal
The Arizona defense let Cal run all over them this Saturday. Cal running back Jaydn Ott ran for 274 yards in just 19 attempts including a 74-yard touchdown run late in the game for his third touchdown.
The Arizona defense seemed to have many holes in their defense leaving wide gaps for the Golden Bears to run freely. The secondary will have to tighten up if they want to give their offense a chance to win games.
The Arizona defense failed to force a turnover for the first time this season. They also allowed 283.3 rushing yards per game and 6.13 yards per carry on the season.
Only 3-for-10 on third down
The Wildcats’ offense only converted on third down three times in 10 attempts. The offense took a step in the wrong direction after a few weeks of consistent third down conversions.
Head coach Jedd Fisch will have to collaborate with offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll and de Laura to make better choices on third down in future games.
3 turnovers for de Laura
Neither side committed a turnover until late in the third quarter, with the Wildcats down 35-24. De Laura was sacked by Cal redshirt junior outside linebacker Orin Patu and fumbled. The ball was recovered by Cal on their 32-yard line.
A good chance to cut their lead to single digits but Arizona couldn’t even attempt a field goal to trim the lead to eight points. After another drive leading the Arizona offense to the Cal 33-yard line, de Laura was intercepted by redshirt senior safety Daniel Scott, which led to Ott’s second 70+ yard touchdown, and third overall of the day for Cal. Only four snaps later after getting the ball back—with Arizona trailing 49-31—de Laura fired into the end zone and was intercepted by junior cornerback Isaiah Young.
14 points off turnovers for Cal
The Golden Bears capitalized by scoring 14 points off of two of Arizona’s three turnovers, which helped them put the ice on their first win against the Wildcats since 2009. With Cal leading by 11 points late in the third quarter, they strip sacked de Laura and went on a six-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a 37-yard touchdown pass by Cal quarterback Jack Plummer to extend the lead to 42-24. Arizona responded with a touchdown to wide receiver Jacob Cowing to make it 42-31.
A de Laura interception with six minutes remaining set up Cal at their 25-yard line, and a 72-yard touchdown run by Ott would put the game out of reach for the Wildcats.
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