It didn't take long for things to go south for Arizona during Friday night's road game against Washington State. On the first defensive play of the game starting middle linebacker Jerry Roberts went down with an injury and had to be carted off the field. From that point on it became difficult for the Wildcats to slow down the Cougars' offense. In the end, WSU poured on 44 points in what ended as a 44-18 victory for the home team.
Arizona (1-10, 1-7 Pac-12) was able to keep the game close through most of the first half, trailing just 7-0 with over five minutes left in the second quarter, but two scores from the Cougars over the final 4:28 would bookend a UA touchdown heading into the locker room.
WSU held a 21-7 lead at halftime.
The Cougars (6-5, 5-3) targeted the middle of Arizona's defense challenging the linebackers and safeties throughout he evening ultimately ending up with 482 yards, including 223 yards on the ground.
Arizona could simply never find any type of comfort level throughout the game as it played from behind throughout the night to ultimately drop its 10th game of the season.
"They really controlled the line of scrimmage today," UA head coach Jedd Fisch said in his postgame radio interview with play-by-play announcer Brian Jeffries. "Wound up having a lot of big runs in the game. There were big plays that could've been had that weren't. The wound up having a couple hundred yards, it felt like, rushing the football, which we won't win doing that against this team."
The two teams had to play through snowfall throughout the evening in addition to heavy fog, but the Wildcats stayed dedicated to throwing the football after falling behind in the first half by two scores.
Quarterback Will Plummer eventually took to the air 42 times throughout the game to finish with 222 yards passing to go with two touchdown throws and an interception. The Wildcats ran for 147 yards as a team, but nearly half those yards came on one run from Drake Anderson.
The Northwestern transfer reeled off a 71-yard carry in the second quarter to set up Arizona's first touchdown of the game. Plummer would ultimately find wide receiver Boobie Curry in the end zone with a jump ball to cap the drive with an 11-yard score.
UA's other touchdown in the game came in the fourth quarter when running back Michael Wiley caught a pass one-handed and took the ball 27 yards into the end zone.
Outside of a handful of big plays, Arizona mostly struggled to find any kind of rhythm offensively throughout the night.
"We didn't throw the ball very well," Fisch said. "We had a lot of guys that we should've hit that we didn't. Will just felt like he was a little bit off on third down in terms of some of the passes, and then I think our receivers didn't catch the ball as well as they should have. I need to do a better job of getting us better third downs."
The Wildcats ended the night by going 4 for 17 in third-down situations against the Cougars.
Arizona will now turn its attention to Arizona State as it heads into the final game of the regular season. The latest loss marks the first time UA has dropped 10 games in one season since 2003, and the Wildcats have never lost 11 games in a single season.
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