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Real World

Arizona played Stanford and came from behind to win 43-38 on a long run by Nic Grigsby on third and forever.  Nick Foles tore it up passing going 40 for 51 with 415 yards and 3 TD’s in an old fashioned Pac 10 shootout.

PS2 World

My beloved Cats had a much easier time with Stanford in PS2′ville.  Nick Foles actually makes his first extended appearance for me in this game as I got fed up with interceptions with Scott.  Had to see if I could change something.  Here are the stats for the game.

#22 UA    45                                vs                                Stanford   14

Total Offence                       405                                                298

Rush Yards                             57                                                   -3

Pass Yards                            348                                                301

Turnovers                                 6                                                       6

Matt Scott       12 for 24   243 yards   1 TD   3 picks                                                                                                                                          Nick Foles    11 for 15   105 yards   2 td 0 picks                                                                                                                                                 Grigsby       13 att 47 yards 1 td                                                                                                                                                                              Gronkowski    10 rec 237 yards 3 TD                                                                                                                                                             Ross 3 INT

The Following week Arizona played UCLA.

Real World

The Wildcats had 5 turnovers and still somehow managed to find a way to win the game.  This would have never happened when I attended U of A.  In a game like this they would have been blitzed.  Luckily Stoops has built a program with depth………………………well UCLA also kinda sucks.

PS2 World

(Here are my notes I took while drunk and playing)

UCLA 26 at Arizona 45

Real horseshit game as far as interceptions are concerned  tipped off receivers hands and insane jumps

Player of game

Gronk had over 240 receiving with 1 td  and fumble return for TD

Major computer catch up game

Finally started Foles and he had an awful game with 2 TD’s and 5 picks  will stick with him at QB as before the game he had better TD to INT ratio than Scott.  2 TD’s to 0 int.  Also higher completion percentage.  UCLA game was just ridiculous for picks.

Now 21^st in Coaches and 14^th in Media Poll,  15^th in BCS,  still no love.   Teams I have beat however are 3^rd/4^th and 6^th/9^th.   I have Number 1 SOS and I still can’t crack top 10.  WTF?

I will do a write up on the game play of 2010.  But here is a quick breakdown.  The game is much more fun when playing a friend.  When playing the computer the computer to try to even things out has its defense make insane interceptions (Everyone has Deion Sanders recovery speed with Jerry Rice hands and Michael Jordan hops, even linebackers!).   It is impossible to hit the seams in cover 2 as somehow the first corner jumps up 70 inches on a pass that does not go at a correct angle from where you are in the pocket so somehow it ends up over the first  corners head.  Sneak peak to the future for an example. At one point with Foles in a game I was 25 for 28 with like 3oo some yards 2 TD’s and 3 picks.  That’s right.  Every pass I threw was caught.  Of the 3 interceptions 2 occured when I went deep when I caught them in a blitz only once to have the Corner somehow out run, after he was beat by 3 to 4 yards, Terrell Turner to the ball and pick it off.  And once a Safety catch and pass Gronkowski and out jump him for it when he started 5 yards behind.  The third was on a screen pass where they had the ball hit off a blockers back into the arms of a charging corner for a pick 6 (third straight pick by the way) for their only Touchdown of the game.   Got to love computer catch up and I’m not even getting into what they do to the O line yet.

Real World and PS2 World

Bye Week,   Oregon beats USC (so thats a match)

“For the loser now, Will be later to win, Oh the times they are a-changin”  – Bob Dylan

Those lyrics sum up the UW vs UA game this past Saturday perfectly.  In my recent memory I can not remember a game dominated by one team so single handedly (UA outgained UW by 205 yards and held the ball twice as long) only for that team to lose.

I won’t talk about other games this week as I really did not see any others.  I have been in Seattle and only caught bits and pieces of the other match ups of this weekend at the bar I went to before the UA/UW game.

Instead I will focus on providing you my overall impression of the UA vs UW game.

Stadium-  Husky stadium is set in an absolutely gorgeous location.  Lake Washington, Rainier in the background on a clear day.  Hard to beat.  My seat was in the endzone with Huskies written on it.  The stadium definitely needs remodeling as fans are a good 30 yards away from the action due to the track.  The fan noise was lessened somewhat for the players by how far removed the fans were.  It did get quite chilly during the game and made me long for those nice October, November Tucson games where you still sport shorts and flip flops.

Game -  UA dominated for 57 plus minutes of the game.  They outgained the Huskies by 205 yards and held the ball for almost 40 minutes.  Normally that is a recipe for a blow out.  Tonight  offensive ineptitude in the red zone killed the Wildcats.  The Wildcats kicker had field goals of 18, 23, 24 and 29 yards.

Was the Arizona offensive line just abysmal on the goal line or did the Husky D just step up?  It was probably a combination of the two.  On one instance two straight QB sneak attempts from the 1 failed for the Cats.  On neither did the O line for Arizona get any push and on the second Foles did not get anywhere close to low enough with his shoulders to be effective. It should go without saying that Arizona misses the presence of 6′6″ 270 lbs all universe Rob Gronkowski in the red zone.

After the Huskies scored with 2:55 left (I think UA made a mistake of having the DE’s pin their ears back to attempt to sack locker instead of playing contain as he is very dangerous outside the pocket) the improbable happened, which is often the case for teams who fail to punch in touchdowns in the red zone.  A quick pass which was low and behind Delashaun Dean hit off his foot (debatable from some camera angles but I’ll let the mouth breathers yell about it) and bounced right into the arms of a Husky player who raced for the go ahead TD.  A two point conversion later and Arizona was down 3 with plenty of time to drive the field on the sieve which had all night been the Husky D (well at least until the red zone).  On 2nd and short Foles took a sack.  After an incomplete pass on third down an interception followed on forth and that was all she wrote.

Exciting game, heartbreaking for me (reminds me of 2003 against WSU at home) but kudos to UW for not giving up.

Players of the game:

Washington – Locker, the numbers were not spectacular only 140 passing but he also had 92 rushing yards.  Key stat however was he did throw for 3 TD’s and rushed for 1 more.  This guy IS the Washington offence and from what I have heard is the number 1 QB prospect according to many NFL scouts.  His passing still looks a bit iffy at times but he did have a few balls dropped by his receivers. Opening drive INT did not kill the team.  The guy is big time and should receive some Heisman attention but probably won’t receive much because most are sleeping when his games are on.
Arizona- Foles, another good game from the first year QB.  384 yards passing a passing TD and a rushing TD.  Of the two interceptions one was a fluke and the other was on a fourth and long for the game where he at least gave his receiver a chance to make a play on the ball (I’d rather have my QB get the occasional pick when his receiver lets him down than have a QB who is too chicken to throw it up for his guy to make play).  The kid throws seeds has a confidence in his arm and in his receivers which is great to see  and it is nice to have a quarterback that you can tell goes through his reads.  Overall a fairly mistake free game, only bad mistake was a drive killing delay of game. Did not get much help from his O-line on goal line situations when attempting to sneak (although should have gotten lower on one as I mentioned earlier) or hand the ball off.   I am still very pleased at Arizona’s QB play (Thanks Texas for messing up and overlooking this kid) and look forward to 2 more years of it.

*Additional note, I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Foles dad in a bar before the game.  Had a great time meeting and talking with you.  For the 3 readers we have, don’t worry I wont go soft on Foles if he starts throwing Interceptions by forcing the ball into triple coverage.  His play to this point however has been great and deserving of praise.

Chip