Stanford's Johnson Bademosi breaks up a pass intended for Juron Criner in the fourth quarter. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats receiver Juron Criner narrowly missed making a couple of spectacular plays against Stanford, but, overall, it wasn’t a bad night for a guy 12 days removed from arthroscopic surgery to remove his appendix.

Criner caught six passes for 48 yards and a touchdown in a 37-10 loss to Stanford on Saturday night.

“I thought Juron made some nice plays,” coach Mike Stoops said.

“It’s good to get him back out there, but I think there were some plays that had he been working (in practice), he would have made. He’ll get better. I thought he reacted well and moved around pretty well.”

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It was a tough night for coach Mike Stoops. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats trailed Stanford by 20 points early in the fourth quarter Saturday night. Hope and time were running out as quickly as fans were fleeing the stadium.

The Wildcats had the ball, although in the unenviable position of fourth-and-19 at the Stanford 40 after the Cardinal had sacked Nick Foles for the fifth time.

What to do?

There weren’t any good options.

Punting was the worst of them.

But that’s what coach Mike Stoops did when his team was down 30-10 with less than 12 minutes left.

“You go to the end and you go for it,” Foles said. “If I was the coach, I’d go for it. I’d do anything I could to get that fourth-and-20, I don’t care what he says.”

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Arizona's Nick Foles was sacked five times by Stanford; linebacker Trent Murphy gets him here. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

It’s going to get worse before it gets better for the Arizona football team.

“We just get exposed some times when we play top teams,” coach Mike Stoops said after a 37-10 home loss to Stanford on Saturday night, “and hopefully we’ll be better because of it.”

That might happen at some point. But probably not next Saturday against preseason Pac-12 favorite Oregon. Will this nightmare ever end?

At this point, in Stoops’ eighth season, you would hope that the Cats would be competitive against everybody. That notion has gone flying out of the stadium.

It’s one thing to routinely lose to top 10 teams, it’s quite another to routinely be a chew toy on ESPN, again and again.

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Stanford's Anthony Wilkerson scores on a 24-yard touchdown run ahead of linebacker Paul Vassallo in the first half. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona failed to mount any momentum after halftime, when the Cats were hanging in there, down only 16-10.

Jaime Salazar’s missed field goals at the end of the first half (45 yards) and the beginning of the second half (36 yards) robbed the Wildcats of momentum, but that wasn’t the only problem.

The defense allowed scoring drives of 91, 81, 80, 72, 65, 64, and 57, ineffective against the run and the pass. The offense didn’t score in the second half.

Stanford won 37-10.

* * *

Stanford scores again. It’s 37-10 with 4:27 to go. I thought Arizona had a chance to keep this game close, but the Wildcats can’t compete for 60 minutes against an elite team.

* * *

The Arizona defense can’t use poor field position as an excuse. Stanford has scored on drives of 80, 81, 65, 64, 72 and 57 yards.

* * *

Juron Criner nearly pulls off an 80-yard touchdown. After catching a pass on a bubble screen, he is tackled by CB Harold Bernard and rolls over an Arizona lineman. Criner gets up — no whistle — and continues running for an apparent score.

Replay goes against Arizona, though, as he is ruled — correctly — to have had his elbow down. It ends up being a 9-yard play.

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Stanford's Andrew Luck will be surveying Arizona's shaky secondary this Saturday. Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona and sixth-ranked Stanford will kick off at 7:45 from Arizona Stadium to wrap up the day of college football.

The Wildcats will be trying to end a six-game losing streak to teams from college football’s top division (that excludes the win over NAU to begin the season).

“I feel like we’re just going to go out there and play hard,” said Arizona free safety Robert Golden.

“I’m not making no statements saying we’re going to go out there and dominate those guys. I know we’re going to go out there and challenge them and we’re going to play hard.”

Expanding on something I filed this morning for CBSSports.com’s Rapid Reports — check out the Arizona page — here are five things to watch:

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The Zona Zoo has helped spur the Cats to some big home wins. Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona coach Mike Stoops’ mantra, basically since his first day on the job, has been to compete.

That hasn’t always happened lately — last week’s loss at Oklahoma State being the latest example — but it has happened at home.

The Wildcats are 19-8 at Arizona Stadium in the past four-plus years, and they are not far off from having a better mark — last season’s loss to Arizona State being the latest example.

Arizona hasn’t lost by more than a touchdown at home during the past 27 games, beating No. 2 Oregon, No. 9 Iowa and No. 25 Cal during that stretch. That is competitive.

We’ll see how that works out against sixth-ranked Stanford this Saturday, and then No. 12 Oregon on Sept. 24.

“We want to come home and put on a great show for our fans,” said free safety Robert Golden.

“We want to show them that we can respond. That game last week doesn’t determine the rest of our season. This game is way more important than last week. We know the Pac-12 is still open for us.”

Arizona lost home games last season by one point (ASU), two points (Oregon State) and three points (USC).

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Mark May sees trouble ahead for the Wildcats. Photo by Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE

ESPN college football analyst Mark May was a guest on the Burns and Gambo Show on 620-AM in Phoenix on Wednesday, and the topic turned to Arizona’s game against Stanford on Saturday night.

“They’re going to get rolled. They’re going to get rolled,” May said of the Wildcats.

“I’ll tell you right now, this is a team that I said at the beginning of the season will start off 1-4, 1-5, and they’re going to struggle to make a bowl. And I don’t believe they will. I think all the pressure is going to be on Mike Stoops because I don’t think he’ll survive this. …

“Look at the way that they finished last year. They couldn’t beat an FBS football team. … You’re looking at a team that is trying to raise money to build new facilities down there. If they go out and lay an egg this year, and they’re 5-7 or something like that, do you really think that’s going to help that project?”

Arizona is a 10-point underdog for the game, which will be shown on ESPN, beginning at 7:45 p.m. Carter Blackburn will handle the play-by-play, Brock Huard will be the analyst and Shelley Smith will be the sideline reporter.

Juron Criner could be back in Arizona Stadium on Saturday. Photo by Chris Morrison, US-PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats receiver Juron Criner is questionable for this week’s game against Stanford, although he might not get medical clearance until late in the week as he recovers from an appendectomy on Sept. 5.

“If he’s healthy, he’ll play,” coach Mike Stoops said in his Monday news conference. “That’s as simple as I can make it.”

Stoops said Criner isn’t likely to receive clearance, if at all, until Thursday. That might be in time for the team’s final practice of the week.

If not, that’s not a problem, Stoops said.

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The Pac-10 games are wrapped up for the decade and not even a late surge could save Arizona from the bottom of the 10-year standings. Thanks, John Mackovic.

Arizona’s 4-20 conference record under Mackovic from 2001-03 was the second-worst three-year mark for any team in the Pac-10. Only Washington State in the past three years (4-23 playing a nine-game league schedule) was worse.

What Mackovic razed, Mike Stoops has raised. Perhaps the 2010s will be better for Arizona.

The chart below is the breakdown of how the Pac-10 fared this decade, with only this season’s bowl games to be played.

Pac-10 All-Decade standings

DECADE NOTES
Best travel pair: Not even USC could lift Los Angeles to this title. The Oregon-Oregon State pairing was the decade’s best with a combined 108 conference victories. The Los Angeles schools were next with 105.

Wither the Washingtons? The Washington schools had a combined 42 league victories in the first four years of the decade, then had a measly 22 in the next six seasons. That’s 1.8 conference wins per team for six long seasons. The last winning league record for a Washington school was WSU’s 6-2 mark in 2003.

Tough to stay on top: Only two of the seven teams that had winning conference records in the 1990s followed up with winning Pac-10 marks this decade — USC and Oregon.

TEAM NOTES
Arizona: The Wildcats are 14-8 in conference games dating to late in the 2007 season. Before that, Arizona was a miserable 16-48 in league games this decade.

Arizona State: Finished with a winning conference record just three times, and went only 2-18 in conference games in the state of California.

Cal: Conference record looks like better when starting with the Jeff Tedford era in 2002: 41-27.

Oregon: The Ducks were superb in the first two years of the decade and in the final two years, posting a 29-5 conference record in those four seasons. In the middle, Oregon was fairly average.

Oregon State: It seems almost impossible to believe that this is the same program that went 13-65-1 during the 1990s. From one decade to the next, the Beavers went from having a 17.1 winning percentage to a 60.7 winning percentage.

Stanford: In a six-season span (2002-2007), the Cardinal won only 13 conference games.

UCLA: The Bruins have lost at least four conference games in every season except 2005, when they were 6-2. UCLA can still add to its bowl total as it will be invited to the EagleBank Bowl if Navy beats Army on Saturday, thereby eliminating the Black Knights from bowl eligibility.

USC: The Trojan Decade ended with a thud, but the streak of seven consecutive league titles and seven consecutive seasons with double-digit victories was utter dominance. Those 15 first-round picks are more than twice any other Pac-10 team.

Washington: The far-and-away Pac-10 King of the 1990s (58-21-1) would have tied for last this decade if it hadn’t defeated Cal on the last weekend of the regular season.

Washington State: From 2001 to 2003, no team had more than the Cougars’ 19 conference victories (USC did, too). Those memories will have to keep Wazzu warm; in the seven other seasons, WSU managed a mere 14 league wins.

If you see any corrections, send them to me at anthonygimino (at) gmail.com.

Vote for the top UA football stories of the decade at our sports network partner wildaboutazcats.com

Arizona defensive coordinator Mark Stoops walked into the postgame interview room. He probably didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to sit at the big table, just find a little corner of the room. Maybe no one would notice him.

“I’m not happy,” he started, surrounded by a semi-circle of seven or eight media members with cameras and reporters.

“Let me rephrase that,” he said. “I’m ecstatic we won. But I’m embarrassed.”

Coaching defensive football is his livelihood, so a 43-38 victory in which his unit gives up a staggering 584 yards and six passing plays of at least 30 yards is going to create all kinds of conflicting emotions … which eventually gave way to a smile.

“I hugged all the offensive coaches and kissed them all,” Stoops said.

“I said, ‘I’ve been waiting my whole life to win a game like that.’ We’ve been part of a lot of good defensive efforts on the losing end. That doesn’t feel any better. That feels worse.

“Yeah, I kissed them all. All the offensive coaches and the players. I said, ‘Thank you, thank you.’ And I mean it.

“I don’t want to make it a habit, and I’m not proud of the effort, but I’m proud of the stops at the end and I’m proud the offense put up a lot of points.”

Yeah, about those stops at the end. That was something. The defense made a couple of plays, and got a little bit of luck at the end.

Head coach Mike Stoops said it Monday. Things in life have a way of evening out.

Arizona should have won at Washington. It didn’t. Stanford should have won Saturday night at Arizona Stadium. It didn’t.

The lesson — if you can extrapolate one from two of the craziest games you have ever seen — is that if you’re a visiting team, you better put the home team away when you have a chance.

Stanford didn’t.

For as well as Stanford moved the ball and schemed to get receivers wide open — like by 15 yards or more — the Cardinal didn’t score on any of its last four possessions, propping the door open for Arizona’s comeback.

Arizona, down 38-29, held Stanford to a 36-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter. Wide left. UA forced a punt on the Cardinal’s next possession (Stanford’s only punt of the game). Stanford, after recovering a fumble deep in Arizona’s territory and up only two points, went for it on fourth-and-2 from the UA 8 with less than six minutes left.

Running back Toby Gerhart limped off the field before the play. Game on the line? Stanford dropped a pass for a first down.

Then came the miracle. Third-and-17 … Nic Grigsby takes a handoff … does some shake and bake … does some more shake and bake …

“Just saw daylight,” Grigsby said. “That’s my specialty — daylight.”

Fifty-seven yards later, Arizona had the lead.

But Mark Stoops’ defense needed one more stop. The Cats didn’t get it on fourth-and-5 when Stanford redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck — I won’t be the first to say he’s going to play in the NFL, but let me get it on the record here anyway — scrambled for 5 yards. First down, by less than the length of the football.

Luck then hit a 36-yard pass to the UA 17, and Arizona fans’ hearts were dropping, hopes were drooping. The Cats eventually worked it to fourth-and-10. After blitzing on third down, Arizona sent only four to the quarterback.

“I knew they were coming at me. They were coming at me the whole game,” said sophomore cornerback Trevin Wade. “I just told myself and was praying, ‘I hope they come my way because I want to make a play for the team.’”

Wade was right. Luck lofted a ball toward Chris Owusu in the left corner of the end zone.

“He went outside, so I went outside … I saw his eyes light up, so I turned around quick and jumped,” Wade said.

Wade made the play. He knocked the ball down. Save for the final 23 seconds, game over.

Mike Stoops said after the game that the team didn’t have a productive week of practice. It wasn’t easy to get over the Washington loss. About 12 players were suffering from the flu, and several key guys barely practiced. Starting offensive lineman Mike Diaz didn’t play because of illness, and starting defensive end Brooks Reed (ankle) missed his third consecutive game.

Grigsby? He said his bruised shoulder is still “killing” him, maybe about 60 percent healthy. But, hey, some Wildcat needed to make a play, so …

“It was something that was supposed to be done and needed to be done,” he said of his game-winning run. “Coaches tell me to make the first guy miss, and I made him miss.”

In the end it was just another Arizona game with 1,137 yards of offense (cough, cough), just another game in which its starting quarterback, Nick Foles, goes 40 of 51 for 415 yards and three touchdowns. That’s the eighth-best yardage total in UA history. And still no foles4heisman.com?

Well, at least he got a hug from the defensive coordinator.

Hey, hugs all around. Arizona is 4-2 and has a schedule set up on a platter — UCLA and Washington State at home — to go to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Pac-10. Think about that for a minute. For all week, if you want.

Catch your breath, too. These Cats aren’t boring. Each Pac-10 game has been — and almost certainly will be a heart-stopping — affair. You’re going to win some. You’re going to lose them. Enter Mike Stoops, the philosopher.

“I’d rather play bad and win than play good and lose,” he said with a chuckle. “Believe me.”