Back in 2016, Arizona football lost at Washington State 69-7. In that game, the Cougars had 38 points at halftime.
In the 2018 battle, Washington State had 55 points at halftime – the most ever allowed by an Arizona team in a single half – and ended up winning 69-28 over Arizona Saturday night in Pullman. You can choose which defeat was worse.
With bowl eligibility on the line, the Wildcats came out flat and paid the price. The Cougars took the opening possession down the field for a TD and ran away with the game. Washington State jumped out to an early 21-7 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
Washington State quarterback Gardner Minshew threw for 473 yards and seven TDs – setting a program record – en route to the 41-point blowout. In five road games, Arizona has allowed a total of 201 points, or 40.2 per game.
Nothing went right for the Wildcats as the defense allowed 605 total yards, while the offense committed four turnovers and scored only 14 points in the first half. Quarterback Khalil Tate threw for 294 yards and four touchdowns, but most of it came when Arizona was down by multiple scores.
The one bright spot in the game for Arizona would be wide receiver Shawn Poindexter. The 6-foot-5 receiver caught his eighth touchdown pass on the last four games to give him 10 on the year, making him shy of tying the school record. The most recent player to tie the mark was Austin Hill in 2012.
With Utah winning earlier in the day, Arizona had already been eliminated from Pac-12 South title contention. However, ASU’s loss to Oregon helped the Utes clinch the Pac-12 South, so the blowout loss isn’t as deflating as it could have been for Arizona.
The ‘Cats can still clinch a bowl appearance with a win over ASU in Tucson a week from now.
Still, coming off a bye, the disappointing performance that took place Saturday is not encouraging going into one of the fiercest rivalries on the West Coast.
Arizona takes the field against ASU next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on FS1.
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