Arizona seemed to sleep-walk through this one until the break, up 7-0 at the end of the 1st Qtr and 14-3 at the end of two in a half that was riddled with way too many penalties and mistakes including turning the ball over on downs close to the red zone and Wildcat QB Jayden de Laura fumbling the ball inside the Northern Arizona’s 20 yard line. Maybe some of them were thinking about loosing their home opener to the Lumberjacks back in 2021 in head coach Jedd Fisch’s 1st year after taking over for the fired Kevin Sumlin. Whatever the reason, it got straightened out during the break as the Wildcats came back to score 21 points in the 3rd while holding Northern Arizona scoreless the entire second half for a 38-3 win to start the season.
Arizona’s QB Jayden de Laura connected on 75% of his throws for 285 yards, 3 TD’s, and 1 interception while also picking up another score as he rushed 3 times for 47 of the Wildcat’s 186 yards on the ground. For the Lumberjacks QB Kai Millner was 14-of-22 for 166 of the Lumberjacks 186 yards in the air, moving the chains but never hitting pay dirt. Northern Arizona was equally unsuccessful on the ground, rushing 41 times for just 78 yards—an average of less than 2 yards per carry and no points on the scoreboard. The credit for the only points they did get goes to their Place Kicker Marcus Lye who connected on a 49 yard field goal with time expiring before the break.
Although Arizona was certainly never threatened in this game there are a lot of areas to clean up. They did out-pace the Lumberjacks in 1st downs, 22-18, but were only successful on 3rd down 20% of the time and failed on both of their 4th down conversion attempts. They easily out-paced Northern Arizona in total yards of offense 478-264, but lost the time-of-possession by 10 minutes, turned the ball over twice, and had eleven penalties for 91 yards. Lots of work to do before they meet Mississippi State this coming Saturday.