Key plays from Arizona’s loss against UCLA

Austin Wales

November 29, 2020

Arizona wide receiver Cedric Peterson (18) runs down the field while being chased by UCLA’s Josh Woods (2). The Wildcats defeated the Bruins 20-17.

This weekend’s game for Arizona was another tough one with Arizona losing to UCLA, 27-10, for their 10th loss in a row. Here are some key plays made by UCLA and Arizona that ultimately pushed the Wildcats to a 0-3 start, and tied for last in the Pac-12.

#3 Grant Gunnell goes down on first play of the game

Arizona decided to receive at the beginning of the game because they were looking to start fast and that’s not at all what happened. On the first play from scrimmage for Arizona, quarterback Grant Gunnell had running back Gary Brightwell to his left and upon the snap, UCLA brought pressure.

UCLA’s Bo Calvert was the linebacker that got to Gunnell who was able to dump it off to Brightwell. However, Calvert drove Gunnell straight into the ground on his throwing shoulder. Gunnell was taken out of this game and showed significant pain even lifting the shoulder up and is listed as questionable next week for the game against Colorado. This was not the start that Arizona was hoping for.

Here’s how Arizona QB Grant Gunnell got injured. Took a huge hit from a free rusher and landed hard on his right shoulder. pic.twitter.com/FdVyBVmtPT

— Ryan Kelapire (@RKelapire) November 29, 2020

#2 Chase Griffin 16-yard touchdown to Brittain Brown

Arizona’s defense was absolutely exposed on this play, especially the terrible tackling. On second down and six, UCLA quarterback Chase Griffin faked the handoff to running back Brittain Brown, then dropped back to find Brown who did a three-yard stop route over the middle. The rest was all Brown.

Brown then made true freshman linebacker Derick Mourning and redshirt junior defensive back Rhedi Short miss both of their tackles before dragging defensive back Christian Roland-Wallace into the end zone.

This was another showing of how tackling is so key and missing open-field tackles is not going to help the Wildcats especially in games they need to win against the worse teams in the Pac-12.

🐻 @BrittainBKB gets @UCLAFootball‘s first TD of the game! pic.twitter.com/NkeBxVaRK5

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 29, 2020

#1 Jacob Meeker-Hackett fumbles snap on field goal try

On fourth and goal from the UCLA eight-yard line, Arizona looked to close the deficit to within seven points and lined up for a field goal. The snap was a little low for holder Jacob Meeker-Hackett, and he wasn’t able to pick it up and put it down for Lucas Havrisik, and tried scrambling to his right, where he was met by a swarm of Bruins. This was the last time that Arizona had a chance to score in this game.