Despite falling to USC and losing their 20th straight game, the Arizona football team showed a lot of fight in a tough 41-34 loss on the road. Here are a few key stats that stood out in the defeat.
34 points:
The Wildcats offense showed a lot of fight in this game against USC. One of the touchdowns was a pick-6, so we’ll call it 27 points scored by the offense. Either way, this easily was the best performance from the offensive unit all season. The Wildcats ran out a 2-QB system all game between Will Plummer and Jamarye Joiner, with the latter tossing a 73-yard bomb to Tayvian Cunningham for Arizona’s first score of the game. Joiner did not play much late in the game and was seen limping after the game, and has been listed as doubtful for this week’s game against Cal. With Jordan McCloud and Gunner Cruz sidelined for the season, the Wildcats quarterback room has already dwindled down.
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12 penalties:
Arizona committed 12 penalties for 130 yards in this game, with a number of them being mistakes that could have been easily avoided. This is a team that has to play a complete game in all areas, and they were unable to do that in terms of penalties, “shooting themselves in the foot” too many times. That is one aspect that will have to be cleaned up for the Wildcats as they continue to fight on the rest of this season.
204 rushing yards for USC’s Keaontay Ingram:
One of the common mistakes for Arizona all season has been tackling, especially against opposing running backs. That was more of the same in this game against Ingram of USC as he rumbled over Arizona for over 200 yards, and there could have been more damage had multiple of his long runs not been called back. We saw a lot of the same tackling issues against UCLA when they ran for over 300 yards on the ground against Arizona.
The Wildcats will get set to host University of California, Berkeley, next Saturday, Nov. 6.
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