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Arizona-Toledo game blog: Cats win in overtime

Arizona made a mess of it with all kinds of mistakes, but the Wildcats hold Toledo at the end of the first overtime and escaped with a 24-17 win in the first game under Rich Rodriguez.

On the final play, Toledo threw incomplete into the end zone on fourth-and-20.

Be back with more later …

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Arizona scores first in OT, as Matt Scott scrambles to this right on third-and-goal from the 10, avoids a tackle near the sideline and fires to Terrence Miller at the goal line for the score. And John Bonano made the PAT, too.

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Arizona drives 72 yards late in the game, setting up a 25-yard field goal by John Bonano, who pulls the kick wide left on the final play … and we’re going to OT tied at 17. Bonano earlier missed from 24.

His fall camp competition, Jake Smith, suffered a leg injury a few weeks ago.

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The aggressive RichRod (I like that part) gets burned on a 4th-and-1 call from his own 46 with 11:46 to go. Taimi Tutogi is stuffed behind the line of scrimmage, and now the defense has to go to work in a tie game. (And it’s a nice job by the defense, forcing a three-and-out.)

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UA defense holds on third-and-1 from the 21, and Jeremiah Detmer comes in to kick a 40-yard field goal for Toledo to tie the game at 17 with 14:18 to go.

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Can the UA defense hold up? Toledo has gone to a power running game and is at the UA 21 as the third quarter ends. Arizona leads 17-14.

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Matt Scott, late in the third quarter, has 336 passing yards, a career high.

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Arizona could have extended the lead, but John Bonano bounced a 24-yard FG attempt off the right upright.

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When you’re a two-way player, these kind of things happen: Defensive end Taimi Tutogi recovered a fumble at the Toledo 32, then stayed in the game as UA took over. He was then called for an illegal block on what was a 32-yard reverse to Richard Morrison.

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Ka’Deem Carey strikes. He takes an inside handoff through a hole in the middle, weaves through the Toledo defense, breaking a few tackles and then out-racing DB Chris Dukes into the end zone for a 73-yard score.

Arizona follows that with another momentum boost, as kickoff man John Bonano surprises Toledo with an on-side kick right in front of him. Bonano let the ball go 10 yards and then pounced on it for the recovery. The drive goes nowhere, though, and UA has to punt.

The Cats lead 17-14 with 9:43 to go in the third quarter.

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The internet ate part of this post from early in the game, so, as a reminder, the Arizona defense started two walk-ons — OLB Sir Thomas Jackson and DT Tevin Hood — as well as a former walk-on, S Jared Tevis, who received a scholarship after spring ball.

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Arizona is moving the ball well on offense — 333 yards in the first half — but is making critical mistakes and not winning enough crucial situations.

Not surprisingly, then, Toledo leads 14-10 at halftime.

Arizona’s myriad of mistakes include two lost fumbles — one at the Toledo 6 by Richard Morrison and another in Rockets’ territory by Austin Hill. A holding penalty brought back a 64-yard touchdown run by Daniel Jenkins. Morrison dropped a potential TD pass near the goal line in a drive that ended in a field goal.

Late in the first half, Matt Scott overthrew a wide-open Morrison deep over the middle in Toledo territory.

Cornerback Shaq Richardson bit on a run fake and allowed a wide-open 59-yard touchdown pass.

Toledo converted 10 of 15 third-down opportunities in the first half.

On top of that, Arizona is down to its third-string left guard, after Chris Putton and Cayman Bundage left with injuries. Shane Zink came in during the second quarter.

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And just as I hit send on the post below, Austin Hill loses a fumble at the end of a 32-yard catch. RichRod says Arizona can’t play poorly and beat anyone … and right now they are beating themselves.

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Sorry … computer issues. What did we miss here? Too many UA mistakes, that’s what, including Richard Morrison losing a fumble near the Toledo goal line and a holding penalty on Fabbians Ebbele that negated a 67-yard TD run by Daniel Jenkins.

Toledo just marched 64 yards for a touchdown to take a 14-10 lead with 6:01 to go before half.

On the plus side, Austin Hill did score the first UA touchdown of the season by laying out in the end zone to haul in a 30-yard score. That will show up in the season-ending highlights.

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Arizona’s defense holds, thanks to a big play on third down, stuffing a screen pass for a loss of 7 yards on third-and-10 from the UA 24. Toledo then attempts a 48-yard field goal from Jeremiah Detmer, whose attempt floats wide right.

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Whew. No time to type when Arizona has the ball in its no-huddle offense. Cats look good, though, on the first drive, with a 27-yard catch and run by Terrence Miller and two good runs by Ka’Deem Carey. Richard Morrison lets a third-down pass threw his hands, though. John Bonano kicks a 26-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

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Internet is really slow here at Arizona Stadium. If updates are slow here, I might have more stuff on Twitter — @AGWildcatReport

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Arizona going with the all-blue look — helmets, jerseys, pants.

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Your backup kicker for tonight is redshirt freshman Casey Skowron, who made the team in recent tryouts. He’s a high school soccer player from Brophy Prep.

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[NOTE: Check back at this link before, during and after the game for more news, notes and analysis from Arizona Stadium. Have your say or leave a question in the comments section]

Toledo’s new helmet, shown in gray.

Toledo’s old helmet

We know the Arizona Wildcats will break out their new copper helmets at some point this season.

And, I wouldn’t be surprised if red helmets make an appearance this season, although athletic director Greg Byrne threw some cold water on that idea when a photo of a red helmet hit Twitter in June. Byrne responded by tweeting, “That was a mock-up that we had in the equipment room. At this point, they are not on the radar screen.”

We’ll see.

What we do know for sure is that new helmets will be seen at Arizona Stadium for tonight’s game season-opener against Toledo.

Toledo will introduce a midnight blue helmet, one that prominently features the Rockets logo and drops the word “Toledo” from the side.

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With construction continuing in the north end zone of Arizona Stadium, capacity has been reduced from 57,400 to 51,811. Considering an attractive eight-game home schedule, a boost from the hiring of Rich Rodriguez and attendance figures that averaged better than 52,000 for six consecutive seasons (2005 to 2010), the stadium should be close to full all season.

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If you’re watching from home tonight, check me out at KOLD-13 during the 5:30 newscast. I’ll be talking with sports director Damien Alameda at around 5:50 p.m.

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Some pregame reading:

–Arizona-Toledo: Five things to watch

–Miss any of Javier Morales’ countdown of the top 50 football games in UA history? A recap and all the links are right here.

–A big Friday night for some UA running back recruits (and others).

Greg Hansen’s Mr. Football preview returns to the Arizona Daily Star.

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First-year Toledo coach Matt Campbell, 32, is the youngest head coach in the FBS. He is already 1-0, having coached the Rockets to a bowl victory last season. Here is a season promo from Toledo featuring Campbell and his long-haired offensive linemen:

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If Rodriguez was king of college football, here is one change he would make:

“It’s kind of silly that we play at this level of football and you don’t have any preseason or scrimmage games. I mean, they do it at the small college level, you do in high school and you can do it in the level above us, but you don’t do it on this level,” Rodriguez said.

“They all count. They’re all pretty important, so I wish they would change the rules and let us have a preseason game or a scrimmage game or something. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

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Looking for an Arizona video? If you haven’t already seen this, this is the Haka the Cats will do in front of the Zona Zoo before the game:

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