Evaluating the Arizona Wildcats’ football performance in the loss to Texas Tech

Arizona returned home from its surprising win over Utah to take on Texas Tech in what was expected to be an offensive shootout.

But the offense was virtually impossible to find for Arizona and the Red Raiders left Tucson with a 28-22 win.

Here are our grades for offense, defense, special teams and coaching:

Attack: D+

In the first half, Arizona scored on just one of six drives and four of the six drives went into Texas Tech territory. The second half was better as the offense scored on five of its eight drives but settled for field goals on four drives.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Noah Fifita had problems this evening. He went 28-49 for 301 yards, but his two interceptions were costly. One was thrown into the air and caught by a defensive lineman, but his second interception was thrown into double coverage.

“That’s my job, to get the offense going, get us in the rhythm and keep us in the rhythm,” Fifita said. “So I feel like every time we get something going, I make a mistake or two that stalls a drive, so I take full responsibility.”

Junior wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan had eight catches for 161 yards. McMillan’s big mistake came in the fourth quarter when Texas Tech took a 21-19 lead.

On an 18-yard pass from Fifita, the ball was knocked out of McMillan’s hands from behind and any chance for Arizona to win was all but gone.

There was a bright spot for the offense Quali Conley‘s performance. The senior running back had 14 carries for 97 yards and found the end zone from 3 yards out for his fifth rushing touchdown of the season.

Defense: B+

Arizona’s defense gave the Wildcats a chance to win the game. There were plenty of moments where they could have broken through but held strong as Texas Tech only scored on three of their seven drives in the first half.

The defense shined in the second half, allowing only ten points. They also forced two fumbles. One was forced Dalton Johnson which was restored by Taye Brownand another forced by Stanley Ta’ufo’ou which was restored by Chase Kennedy.

Arizona would have had a third takeout, but both Jacob Manu And Genesis Smith potential interceptions dropped.

“It creates momentum, you know, it creates a spark,” Johnson said of the two turnovers. “That was a focus for Coach B this week, so we tried to chase the ball, you know, and get some takeaway.”

Johnson was the Wildcats’ leading tackler with eight tackles, and Ta’ufo’ou recorded a sack for the second straight game.

Special teams:A

Senior kicker Tyler Loop had another efficient night, going 5-6 on field goals. His field goals made came from 47 yards, 40 yards, 30 yards, 37 yards and 52 yards. The miss came from 48 yards.

“I’m grateful to have Tyler Loop on our team and he definitely kept us alive tonight,” head coach said Brent Brennan said.

Freshman punter Michael Salgado Medina Had three punts for 130 yards, with his longest punt being 45 yards. His kicks hung high and long enough that coverage went down and the returner was forced into a fair catch every time.

Coaching:C

Brent Brennan picked up his first groundbreaking victory last week in Utah. His next focus was to try not to disappoint in this week’s game.

“We had a great workout and talked about all these things,” Brennan said of not having a hangover from last week. “We put Coach Tomey in place, the better team doesn’t win on game day, it’s the team that plays the best that day, and those guys (Texas Tech) played better than us for four quarters.”

However, the Texas Tech game showed that something was wrong on offense. Brennan knows that something needs to be fixed so that they can be successful in the future.

“I think some of these calls have had some people go down the wrong path, which is just saying, this is coaching,” he said. “This is my fault, and we need to take a hard look at this and just figure out, ‘Are we scheming too much?’ I don’t know, but that will be part of the film review.”

Credit goes to the defensive coordinator Duane Akina As for the defensive performance, Brennan was happy even after a loss.

“I think our defense actually played a lot of good football,” Brennan said. “They played great in the NAU game and they played great last weekend too. They played great tonight.”

Things don’t get any easier for Arizona as they now turn their attention to their road trip match against the undefeated BYU Cougars next Saturday in Provo.