After their latest 27-3 win at home this past Saturday against Houston the Wildcats, who last year finished at No. 11 nationally with a record of 10-3, now have an overall record of 4-6. With only two games left to play, in order to become bowl eligible they will need to beat both Texas Christian on the road this coming Saturday as well as their in-state rival No. 21 Arizona State back at home on November 30th. With Houston sitting in the bottom 10 teams nationally with regards to total yards of offense and just one step above the bottom in points-per-game at fourteen it wasn’t really a surprise that Arizona had no trouble whatsoever dispensing with the Cougars.
Houston did hold the Wildcats to a three-and-out to start the game and three more in the first half after Arizona got into the end zone on a Noah Fafita 33 yard free play jump ball TD pass to Junior WR Tetairoa McMillan to take an early 7-0 lead. But when they got the ball they just couldn’t do anything with it. A fumble, two turn-overs on downs, an interception and then finally a field goal to make it a 7-3 game with less than a minute left in the half. Arizona would move the ball from their own 25 yard line down to the Houston 44 yard line in 42 seconds where their place kicker Tyler Loop connected on a career best 62 yard field goal to go up 10-3 at the break.
The Cougars wouldn’t score at all in the second half while the Wildcats would put seventeen more points on the board in the 3rd Qtr. The first score came on another Noah Fafita TD pass, this one to Senior RB Quali Conley for 13 yards. One possession later Tyler Loop connected on another long field goal—this one from 51 yards out to go up 20-3. The last score of the quarter and as it turned out the entire game came after a short punt by the Cougars left Arizona at mid-field. On the first play from scrimmage Quali Conley took a handoff from Fafita and ran it 50 yards to the house to extend their lead to 27-3 where it would stay with neither team scoring at all in the 4th Qtr.
For Arizona, Sophomore QB Noah Fafita connected on 20-of-35 for 224 yards, the 2 TD’s to Conley and McMillan and 1 interception. On the ground, Conley led the way with 107 yards on 11 carries and the only rushing TD of the game for the Wildcats. Although the total yards of offense were pretty much even Arizona led in first downs, passing yards, time-of-possession, converted 3rd downs close to 60% of the time compared to 15% for Houston, and had fewer turnovers and half as many penalties.