Over the last two games, Arizona (0-7, 0-4 Pac-12) has totaled 20 penalties for 144 yards costing the team key conversions and critical stops that have helped extend the program's longest losing streak.
Friday night against Washington (3-4, 2-2), those penalties reared their ugly head and came back to haunt the Wildcats in a 21-16 loss to move the longest losing streak in Pac-12 history to 19 games.
"We continue to get in fistfights with our hands tied behind our back. We're in a situation where we have 10 penalties for 73 yards. We're in a situation where it's 1st and 10 on the plus 28-yard line; we call a screen pass, and instead of grounding it, we throw it to the defensive lineman," said head coach Jedd Fisch. "So if we're going to continue to turn the ball over and commit 10 penalties in a game, we're going to be a very disappointed group in the locker room."
Arizona's issues with penalties were on full display as the team racked up 10 for 73 yards. Late in the fourth quarter, with two minutes left in a 21-16 game, the defense needed a stop on third-and-3 to keep the team's hopes alive.
The defense got that stop but, Arizona got hit with an illegal substitution penalty for having 12 men on the field, giving Washington a first down to put the game away.
"It looked like to me that we were aligned, and in the front, we were aligned in it seemed like the linebackers were pointing out that there was a gap open, so L.T. [Leevel Tatum] ran on the field, but we had 11 guys, I mean the linebackers were responsible for those gaps.
"Obviously, that's inexcusable. That's not something that is even remotely, in my mind that could have happened when that happened. So we need to get that cleaned up. We need to get that fixed. We can't have those things," said Fisch.
However, it wasn't just penalties that hurt the Wildcats in the fourth quarter. With the team leading 16-7 and on Washington's 28-yard line, quarterback Will Plummer threw an interception on a screen pass to Huskies' defensive lineman Tuli Letuligasenoa to kill the momentum.
"We spent all this time talking about mindfulness and mental toughness and understanding that every play is its own play. Every play has five seconds of being absolutely focused on your job regardless of what happens to play before the play after," said Fisch. "I understand there's always a game of momentum. What I've loved to have been able to go up 19-7, absolutely, maybe even 23-7. I thought that was going to be an opportunity to do so."
From that point on, Washington outscored Arizona 14-0 to end the game and the Wildcats offense struggled to get back into the groove it established through the first three quarters.
In the first half, Arizona's defense shut out the Huskies and held them to 65 yards for an average of 2.1 yards per play. Then things flipped for the Wildcats as the defense allowed 240 yards of total offense, with 182 yards coming through the air.
It was the "big play" that hurt the Wildcats against Washington in the second half. On just four passes, the Huskies were able to rack up 159 yards to ignite the offense.
In the weeks leading up to Friday's game, Fisch has preached the importance of finishing games and "earning the right to win." With 159 yards on four plays in the second half for Washington and Arizona collecting six penalties for 43 yards, it's clear that the team is working on earning that right.
"So again, self-inflicted wounds, I tell the team you earn the right to win. It doesn't just get given to you, because you play a good half of football, or because of the fact that you feel like you should win, you have to earn that right, and that's exactly what we're going to do, and we're going to find a way to win one of these games moving forward if not more than one.
"I believe we should win all the games that we play, and that will not change our team believes that as well. And we're going to continue to build this thing the right way. So, when the time is right for us to start winning, it'll become contagious and we'll want a lot more than just one," said Fisch.
Arizona will be on the road next week with a test against USC (3-3, 2-3) in hopes of ending the longest losing streak in conference history.
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