Coming into Saturday night’s game I thought Stanford was the better football team. Just by eyeballing the two teams I thought Stanford was a little bit better. Saturday night they showed they were a whole lot better than Arizona.

Although they were better in every facet of the game, where the Cardinal showed they were truly superior was on both lines. Andrew Luck had all night to throw, while Nick Foles was frequently harried.

Don’t get me wrong, the Cardinal were better on Saturday night at nearly every spot, but it was the lines that jumpstarted everything else.

Andrew Luck was good, but there were a lot of people who could have done what he did with the time the offensive line gave him. I still think Luck is the best passing qurterback in the nation, but all he had to do was deliver the ball on Saturday. Only a couple of his throws really saw him doing something special. The rest of the time the line gave him enough time to wait for his receivers t get open.

And they were open. The Arizona defensive backs were exposed on Saturday night. I’ve been saying for some time that the UA DBs cannot hang with fast receivers and that was the case again against the Trees. Not only were they faster, they were smarter. The Wildcat defensive backs played an awful, and frankly, stupid game. They repeatedly made mental error after mental error. I saw DBs fall for fakes, over and over, open the wrong way and totally misread a route. One young players had a receiver run a comeback route to the inside and the Wildcat player opened to the sideline and headed up-field.

It wasn’t just the defensive backs. The front seven got blown off the ball all night long. Rarely were the defensive ends able to put pressure on Luck and although the run game took awhile to get started, once it did, the Cats had no answer.

As well, the defense did not tackle well. They failed to deliver big hits or wrap up. They also took awful pursuit angles all night long.

Offensively the Cats were not much better. Nick Foles looked rusty, but he was not aided by his receivers, who dropped at least six passes on the night. The line had their issues, really struggling against the Stanford 3-4 and letting the Cardinal put a lot of pressure on Foles. Both tackles struggled with outside pass rushers and the running backs struggled to pick-up some blitzes.

The Wildcats left a lot of points into the redzone, twice going for it on fourth down, Foles throwing a terrible interception and an intentional grounding call that took them out of field goal range (though it should have been defensive offsides).

Even with all of that, and injuries to Nic Grigsby, Juron Criner and Greg Nwoko, the Wildcats put up over 480 yards of total offense and had seven trips into the Stanford side of the field.

So what does this mean? Is the season lost? Probably not. While the defensive backfield is a weakness, the team can still put things together. Beating Oregon is doubtful, but they still look like a better team than USC and ASU.

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Matt Scott got off to a fast start in his first start of the season. Scott led the Arizona offense to 356 yards and 30 points in the first 30 minutes of play.

Scott did not look nervous at all. He moved the ball 41 yards on the first drive, breakind off a 21-yard run and completing his first pass. He hit Taimi Tutogi on a 14-yard crossing pattern, but the drive ended when the fullback fumbled the ball.

Scott was hardly done. On the next drive he mixed run and pass, capping the drive with a 17-yard pass to Dave Roberts that saw Scott throw a nice roll-out pass to the possession receiver.

All told Scott was 14-16 for 186 yards and the score.

He was not perfect, he did make an ill-advised throw into double coverage and did hang onto the ball for a long time on several plays, but got some great blocking.

His presence also seemed to spark the running game. The Cats rushed for 170 yards, thanks in large part to a 78-yard run by Keola Antolin. The threat of Scott running, especially out of the read option, seemed to open things up for all the running backs.  Antolin rushed for 82 yards, while Scott ran for 51.

Courtesy Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com

The talk of spring football was that Matt Scott had greatly improved from last year. That’s true, but  the job is still Nick Foles’. While Scott has certainly pushed the junior signal caller, and will see some playing time this season, Foles is the man in Tucson. New quarterbacks coach Frank Scelfo has tweaked both passers’ mechanics and the fine-tuning has suited both players well. Foles had a strong spring, and despite some minor injuries during fall camp, the junior appears ready to improve upon his strong sophomore campaign.

Foles has a great grasp on the offense, fantastic pocket presence and a strong arm. He makes good decisions and is the type of quiet leader players have really gravitated towards. Last year he had some issues when teams made a concerted effort to shut down the middle of the field and had a tendency to check down into conservative plays, but as his confidence grows and his feel for the offense improves, those issues should decrease.

Scott is the better runner of the two and has done a nice job improving his passing acumen. He is showing more patience in the pocket, not taking off on a sprint the moment things bog down, but can still do a lot of damage with his legs and may still be an option in some short yardage situations.

“A lot of times, the third year in the program is when it clicks for guys,” said assistant coach Dave Nichol. “And that’s where Matt is. Our system is not easy for a quarterback. … He has complete understanding of everything that is going on. That’s my opinion.”

Bryson Beirne gives the team a heady back-up with a work ethic that has endeared him to his teammates.

• Week One Depth Chart:
• Nick Foles 6-5, 245, JR*
• Matt Scott 6-3, 195, JR
• Bryson Beirne 6-3, 225, JR*

This story was adapted from the Wildcat Sports Report 2010 Football Preview e-zine. Learn how to get your FREE COPY.

Courtesy Rick Faust/WildcatSportsReport.com

Last Saturday’s scrimmage was not a good one for the defense, but was a great one for the offense. Matt Scott had a great performance, but to me all he did was solidify that Nick Foles is the guy.

Scott threw for 196 yards and two scores, completing 16 of 21 passes (76.1%). Great numbers, but it was the play of another player who makes Scott’s accomplishments seem a little less impressive. Third string quarterback Bryson Beirne had nearly identical numbers. Beirne was 13-18 for 171 yards and two scores. He completed 72.2% of his passes

While I think Beirne is a solid player and could lead the Cats if needed, he is the third stringer for a reason. Had Scott played that well and Beirne struggled, then I’d be very impressed and wonder if Scott needed a longer look. As it stands, it looks like the Cats have three solid quarterbacks but a defense that may be worthy of some concern.

The fact that Foles was very good in the first scrimmage, outplaying Scott (who was good himself), leads me to believe that there is no doubt he’s the guy. In that first scrimmage Foles completed over 66% of his passes and tossed three touchdowns.

The bigger issue is that the defense has now given up seven touchdowns in two scrimmages. While the Wildcat offense projects to be one of the more potent units in the Pac-10, but the defense is clearly behind where they should be.

Right now the coaches are still trying a variety of players and schemes. New co-coordinators Tim Kish and Greg Brown are big on using more man-to-man coverages, while Mike Stoops has always been more of a zone coverage proponent.

It looks as if Robert Golden has been shifted back to cornerback, the position he was originally recruited as, meaning seniors Joseph Perkins and Anthony Wilcox will get the nod at the two safety spots, with Adam Hall becoming the team’s top nickel back. Of course, I would be willing to bet that sooner rather than later freshman Marquis Flowers winds up earning a starting spot.