Final: 41-2. What did you think?

ESPN’s Rod Gilmore (who had a brutal night with names and pronunciations) said what a great performance it was for Arizona’s offense. Yeah, but that was expected. To me, I’m shocked the defense did not allow any points.

* * *

Matt Scott leads a touchdown drive. Keola Antolin spins out of a tackle after a swing pass and scores on a 5-yard play. Arizona leads 41-2 with 5:51 left.

* * *

Looks like Nick Foles is done for the night: 32 of 37 for 360 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception.

* * *

Nick Foles to Juron Criner: The best pass-catch combo in the Pac-10?

The pass and catch don’t get much better than a 32-yard touchdown pass from Foles, who dropped the ball in stride to Criner, who made an over-the-shoulder catch in the end zone. Criner has 11 catches for 187 yards.

Arizona leads 34-2 with 13:02 left in the game.

* * *

End of third quarter. Arizona has 368 yards. Toledo has 150.

* * *

Best pass of the night: Nick Foles, on third-and-9 from the UA 5-yard line, fires a laser deep over the middle to tight end A.J. Simmons for a 31-yard gain.

Then comes a long pass to Juron Criner, who reaches out with his right hand while falling down, knocks the ball off his leg and catches the ball while on the ground.

That scoring opportunity was wasted though when a high, short pass from Foles goes off the hands of fullback Taimi Tutogi for an interception.

* * *

Can we start thinking of a defensive shutout? Arizona holds after Toledo has a first-and-goal from the 8, but the Wildcats wriggle out of it after the Rockets misfire on third and fourth downs with passes into the end zone.

UA leads 28-2 with about five minutes left in the third quarter.

* * *

Just like the opening possession of the game, Arizona marches with ease on its first drive of the second half. Nick Foles is now 24 of 28 for 203 yards. Nic Grigsby finishes the drive with a 1-yard run for a 28-2 lead with 11:02 left in the third quarter.

Plenty of breathing room now. But will Arizona ever throw the ball down field?

* * *

ESPN’s Rod Gilmore says Nick Foles is already Arizona’s best quarterback ever. It’s not a crowded competition, but let’s not get carried away, Rod.

* * *

Good start to the half. Good finish to the half. In between … eh.

Nick Foles scores on a 1-yard keeper with 17 seconds left — that was a bit of a surprise play call — to give the Wildcats a 21-2 halftime lead.

The offense, expected to be mostly great, has been hit and miss. The defense, expected to be mostly hit and miss, has been mostly great. Go figure.

* * *

Linebacker Derek Earls reaches up with his left hand to knock down a pass, and then he picks it off to give Arizona a chance for some needed breathing room right before halftime.

* * *

A super 36-yard touchdown run by Nic Grigsby, as he cuts outside to avoid traffic and then cuts back inside a defender to find paydirt in the end zone. This kind of make-something-out-of-little play is what the Wildcats missed last season — and was missing for most of the first half.

Arizona needs to have Grigsby at his best for the offense to sing. Keola Antolin is a nice No. 2 back, but I’m not sure why he’s getting equal time in the backfield because he can’t do what Grigsby does.

Arizona leads 14-3 with 3:03 to go before halftime.

* * *

A first down! Arizona had gone without one in three possessions since its touchdown drive. And it helps bail the Cats out of poor field position, as this drive started at the 9-yard line. Why is the Toledo defense looking like Nebraska’s?

* * *

Backup quarterback Matt Scott comes in with Arizona starting a drive at its 4-yard line early in the second quarter. Odd timing … and it ends in disaster.

Not Scott’s fault, but on third-and-11, left guard Conan Amituanai (whose last name announcer Rod Gilmore cannot come close to pronouncing) is called for holding in the end zone. That’s a safety.

Arizona leads 7-2 with 9:19 to go in the second quarter.

Scott had a great camp (and he made a nice play to scramble for what would have been a first down, if not for the holding), but there was little upside to subbing in Scott for Foles at that point.

* * *

End of first quarter; Arizona leads 7-0.

Nothing going for Arizona’s running game. Nic Grigsby and Keola Antolin have combined for five rushes for 12 yards. Add in a loss of 10 yards on a sack of Nick Foles, and UA’s run stats are six carries for 2 yards.

* * *

First career sack by redshirt freshman defensive tackle Justin Washington. He got plenty of playing time in fall camp and looks to have a nice future, even if he hasn’t got a lot of publicity so far. Gotta love good, young defensive tackles — the hardest position to fill.

* * *

Arizona has played a lot of nickel coverage in its first two defensive series. Lots of work for sophomore safety Adam Hall.

* * *

Nice and easy. Junior quarterback Nick Foles completes 5 of 5 passes for 58 yards on Arizona’s opening possession of the game, ending in a 9-yard touchdown pass to David Douglas in the back of the end zone. Foles hit the bull’s-eye on all of his passes, hitting on a variety of short passes and getting the ball to the receivers in stride.

The offensive line didn’t open any big holes in the running game … so that’s something to watch.

Arizona leads Toledo 7-0.

* * *

For what it’s worth, Arizona is wearing blue pants. More on the tonight’s colors: Toledo billed this game as a “Gold-out” for the fans, encouraging them to wear gold in the Glass Bowl, which seats just over 26,000. Toledo was expecting about 25,000.

* * *

The kickoff of Arizona’s college football season. Also known as the moment when major league baseball ceases to exist to me.

* * *

Some of this week’s coverage from TucsonCitizen.com:

Would all-white be all right for the Wildcats?

Meet Arizona’s ‘sleeper’

Center Colin Baxter still has a lot to prove (plus notes)

Matt Minkus’ podcast with coach Mike Stoops

Arizona Wildcats football and the Curse of Davy Crockett

Seven crucial questions for the Wildcats

This Week in the Pac-10

Few worries about co-coordinators

The best play in the Arizona football in the the last 40 years is …

Inside the depth chart: Running backs

Inside the depth chart: Quarterbacks

This entry was posted on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.