CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Arizona football team fell flat on its face Saturday, giving up 24 points in the first quarter en route to a 31-16 loss to Oregon State at Reser Stadium.
The Wildcats (2-4, 1-2 Pacific 10 Conference) held the Beavers scoreless in the second half, but their offense simply could not turn the game around, failing to score a touchdown the entire game, putting the fate of the season in jeopardy.
The only touchdown came on an Antoine Cason interception return, which he ran back 60 yards toward the tail end of the first half.
This coming just one week after quarterback Willie Tuitama led his offense to six touchdowns and 48 points against Washington State at Arizona Stadium.
“”We’re very disappointed on the way we started and the way we played most of the first half,”” said UA head coach Mike Stoops. “”We got behind and that’s probably the worst scenario with a team like this. Offense, defense and special teams, collectively, it wasn’t a good effort.
“”We played hard in the second half, but the game is pretty much over when you’re down 31-3.””
The Wildcats failed to get any kind of momentum going on offense. Tuitama had his weakest outing of the season, going only 18-for-38 for 222 yards and three interceptions.
Tuitama was also sacked eight times. Through five games previously, he was sacked only seven times.
Running back Nicolas Grigsby was held in check by the No. 3 rush defense in the country, as he totaled only 61 yards on 16 carries. Collectively the Wildcats only had nine rush yards after Tuitama had a combined loss of 75 yards with his sacks.
Grigsby took some of the blame for the high sack total, saying he needs to have better blocking abilities.
Tuitama completed passes to only six different receivers.
“”I really don’t know what happened,”” said center Blake Kerley. “”We’ll have to wait and see it on Monday before we really know. We knew they were going to come out and play hard in the beginning and we didn’t defend like we should against OSU.
“”Then we just weren’t good enough to come back. We have a lot of work to do on offense.””
The Wildcat defense didn’t have an answer for star running back Yvenson Bernard, who had two touchdowns and 140 rushing yards, adding 24 yards and a touchdown as a receiver.
The secondary also didn’t have an answer for quarterback Sean Canfield, who before the game had thrown only six touchdowns with 11 interceptions.
Arizona picked him off twice, but had several other golden opportunities for interceptions and couldn’t capitalize. He finished the day with 139 yards and a touchdown.
“”We haven’t learned how to accept prosperity and we haven’t learned how to accept big wins,”” said linebacker Spencer Larsen. “”We have to realize each week that we have to prepare for the opponent that we’re going to face.
“”I feel like we had a great week of practice and that we were all prepared. You’ve got to come out ready to play and it just didn’t happen.””
