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Arizona-Oklahoma State: The good and the bad for the Wildcats

by on Sep. 09, 2011, under Arizona football

It's been this kind of season of cornerback Shaquille Richardson, not exactly in position to tackle Oklahoma State's Joseph Randle. Photo by Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

There was more bad than good in the Arizona Wildcats’ 37-14 loss at Oklahoma State on Thursday night. Let’s take a look:

Bad: Oklahoma State has attempted 94 passes in the past two games against Arizona, and the only sack the Wildcats registered came Thursday night when Brandon Weeden tripped and fell, tackling himself.

Arizona’s inability to get a sack on its own can be partly attributed to how quickly the Cowboys get rid of the ball, but some of it is just lack of pressure against a good offensive line.

Good: Wide receiver Dan Buckner led the Wildcats with 10 catches for 142 yards, both career highs. He shook himself free down the sideline on a stop-and-go pattern for a 54-yard touchdown.

“Dan showed up, and that was a positive sign,” coach Mike Stoops said. Buckner, a junior, made 42 catches with the Texas Longhorns in 2009 before transferring to Arizona.

Bad: Arizona has lost all eight of its road games against top 10 teams under Stoops.

Worse: Those eight losses have been by a combined score of 328-133.

Good: Redshirt freshman receiver Austin Hill made his first career start because of Juron Criner’s absence, coming up with eight catches for 128 yards. He has a bright future and is one of the reasons why the receiving corps looks good beyond 2011 after seniors Criner, David Douglas and David Roberts depart.

Bad: In its six-game losing streak against Football Bowl Subdivision competition, Arizona has allowed 1,202 rushing yards — 200 per game — emblematic of how the Cats have been pushed around physically. With games against Stanford and Oregon next, that average, sadly, could very well increase.

Bad: That six-game skid has all been televised on the ESPN family of networks, not the kind of exposure the Cats had in mind.

Bad: Arizona ran 21 times for 41 yards against Oklahoma State, and, for the second consecutive game, didn’t use true freshman running back Ka’Deem Carey until the fourth quarter. Stoops said starting running back Keola Antolin isn’t the problem. “We have to block for him,” he said.

Good: Jaime Salazar made both of his extra-point attempts and didn’t attempt a field goal, so at least we won’t be talking about the kicking game heading into the Stanford game on Sept. 17.

Bad: The opposing team successfully targeted sophomore cornerback Shaquille Richardson for the second game in a row. Richardson was beaten twice on fade patterns for touchdowns by Justin Blackmon — which is no great crime, considering Blackmon is the best in the college biz — but it just added to the season of lowlights that must be eating into Richardson’s confidence.

Bad: We question these decisions: Not electing to receive the opening kickoff after winning the coin toss, not playing Carey until the fourth quarter and letting Nick Foles drop back to pass with about a minute to go, when he took a shot to his left knee. (Seems like no harm done on that last thing, but still.)

Good: Foles is moving nicely around the pocket this season; Oklahoma State sacked him only once. Foles went 37 of 51 for 398 yards and one touchdown, and he has not thrown an interception in 93 attempts this season.

“We are very impressed with him,” Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Bill Young was quoted as saying in the Daily Oklahoman. “He did a tremendous job of checking into the right plays. They’re gonna score a lot of points on a lot of people.”

Bad: Arizona’s defense has created only four turnovers in the team’s six-game losing streak to FBS teams. Time to get more aggressive?

Bad: Arizona had five false start penalties Thursday night in the first true road start for the entire starting offensive line. Growing pains, folks. Growing pains.

Related:

Arizona’s loss to Oklahoma State another example of failing to compete

Game blog: Running game is ‘our nemesis,’ Stoops says

Juron Criner underwent appendectomy, eyes return for Stanford on Sept. 17

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9th, 2011 at 1:14 am and is filed under Arizona football. Tags for this post: , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Drew

    Hate to say it,but I must.Stoops is simply not a great coach.He has reached his ceiling as far as coaching.The team made a ton of mental mistakes tonight.That can be attributed to a lack of leadership from the HC.The fact that they only blitzed on a pass play twice in the first two possessions was mind boggling.Also why didn’t they bracket cover Blackmon or place Trevin Wade on him?It seems like Stoops is content to play a bend but don’t break defense.Unfortunately,the defense breaks the majority of the time. Hind site is 20-20 as they say, but 0-8 on the road against top 10 teams  in the Stoop’s era just isn’t getting it done.In addition Stoops has the worst winning percentage of any U of A coach with over 80 games under his belt at the school.I understand that he has taken the program from the toilet and gotten them to three bowl games in a row for the first time in program history.But that still isn’t much of a feat considering they’re  like 50 bowls now.

  • CoachStoops

    So I’m overrated because my name is Stoops. Do you think I care when I’m getting paid and this university can’t see the game I am pulling over them. I’m gonna milk these suckers for all they got.

    • Ray

      I think with the old AD Stoops had that opportunity… But Greg Byrne doesn’t strike me as the kinda AD thats gonna spend millions of dollars on football experiences and scoreboards and allow his time to be a 6-6 7-5 team… Stoops contract is gonna be the only one he sees from ZONA guaranteed

  • Ned

    That game was garbage. I get the fact that we were undermanned, and our start WR was out, and that the line is young. But, the line was clearly doing fine protecting Foles in the pocket. So, the issue seemed to be more the ridiculous play-calling of Stoops (surprise?), who supposedly wants to pass 50-60 times a game, yet chooses to run it WAY too much. The issue is that Stoops’ words and deeds rarely actually match up. If you know the line can’t block for the running game, why run? I also feel like when it comes to the Red Zone, Stoops’ natural evolutionary reaction is to just freeze, and panic, and call whatever comes to mind first.

    • Alan

      Play calling drove me a bit nuts last year as well. This game, 3rd and 16, and they put in a run play with Keola that has not netted 3 yards yet in the game? I get you want to establish the run to open up the pass game, but the pass game did not need to be opened up; Foles 400 yards proved that. It was working.

      And Stoops does not do the play calling. I think however he needs to think about someone else taking over that possition. The writting was on the wall early this game; they just opted not to read it early enough. 

  • Bret

    I’m not calling for Stoops’ head yet, because thrusting the program back into instability is a dangerous proposition. However, it’s hard to figure out exactly what the identity of a Stoops team is nowadays. We were sold on discipline, toughness, and always physically solid defense. Instead we get a tentative team that is prone to frequent mental lapses and breakdowns. A team that waits around for something bad to happen, then loses composure when facing adversity, just like the coach does. A team that starts slow and looks unprepared and big-eyed in important games. I don’t get it, but I sadly I can already see the empty seats at Arizona Stadium the rest of the season.

  • Alan

     I took it this way.  7 points for not playing at home. 7 points for not having Juron play. 7 points for a new offensive line playing against a top 10 team early. The score was just about what it should be for this Arizona game. It was not 62-0.  Foles still passed for almost 400 yards, the defense showed that they can hang with a good team for stretches. A fully healthy AZ Wildcat team playing OK State 5 games in, in my opinion, might be a very realistic match up.   This team has a very good chance to get better quickly. The schedule is unfriendly but the Cats need to be thinking about South bracket conference games. They are no national contender but they can, if they keep their composure and learn quickly as they go, could still pull off the South Division title.   And then there is basketball season of course. 

    • Bret

      Alan, there is some validity in what you’re saying. It’s not shocking that they lost by 20, but what’s discouraging is HOW they lost. I would have absolutely no problem had they competed early before OSU wore them down with talent. However, they came out unprepared and never seriously competed. That has become a trend the past few years in big games. They never once looked like they expected to win that game.

  • Derek

    Alan, 
    Your 21 total points is accurate, but it should never be that way.  The problem with this program is that there is no identity.  The defense has never been great, and there is no offensive plan.  Stoops is a nice guy, who is obviously able to get a program out of a deep hole.  But he’s not able to get it up the mountain.  We MIGHT get 7 wins out of this year, and go back to a bowl game.  But Stoops is way to conservative on offense, and ultimately is not a good leader of an entire organization.  So in good years, we’ll get 8 or 9 wins.  In bad years, like this one looks like it might be, we’ll get 4 or 5.  The question is, is that going to be acceptable.  My gut says, for Greg Byrne, it won’t be; especially with the need to fill the new seats and pay for the new construction.  

  • Carlos J. M.

    Stoops is no more a head coach than Littrell and Kish are coordinators.  Take a look at the offensive and defensive stats, and W-L record, over their tenure.  And then ask yourself: Is it getting better?  The quality of players is arguably improving, but is the coaching?

  • Bill

    Waaaaa!  Get over yourselves. Many a good team has ventured into the home stadium of the Cowboys and been  humiliated.  Losing by a couple of touchdowns with the injuries, new O and D lines and star receiver gone is what every prognosticator in the football world knew.  Every football expert, which you guys are not, picked Arizona to be in the dumper after the first five games.  Back the team rather than whine.  Nothing coach-wise is going to change until the end of the year anyway.  Not that it needs to be.  So give the kids something positive to read instead of fem-whine from a bunch of grown men crying because their emotional neediness wasn’t met. 

    • Drew

      I’m complaining because Stoop’s has lost his team.How can we come out each big game and not play until the second half?It’s like watching the US soccer team play in the World Cup under Bradley.As far as the offensive line,and them being all underclassmen.That’s Stoops fault,this is year eight and you need top be prepared not just for this season but for the next of as well.Stoops obviously wasn’t thinking down the road in this.We replaced five offensive lineman and three defensive lineman with players with no experience to speak of.What a joke.

    • Fraser007

      So what will you say after #6 Stanford comed here next week? It doesnt get better.

  • magistrate

    Stoops is not head coach material. After eight years, this program is still getting pushed around on the lines.

    Time to make a change, or watch the attendance go down with this idiot raising a cain on the headlines.

  • nccat

    Why can’t AZ keep a decent offensive and defensive line? Good teams have good backup players ready to go. Eight years is long enough to keep a good stable of linemen year in, year out regardless of injury or graduation/turning pro. If it can be done with the receivers or def backs, it can be done with the lines. That’s where the game is won or lost. I’m not talking about one game. Look back over the 8 years. With “Stupes” AZ will always be mediocre and that’s an awful label to have in any sport. Mediocre should be paid a mediocre salary. Stoops sideline pouting is still embarassing to watch.

  • nccat

    I hope I’m wrong but before the season even was close to starting I predicted 4 wins this season even with Criner and Hall healthy.

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