Arizona has its second victory over a ranked opponent this season after taking down No. 11 Oregon State at Arizona Stadium, 27-24.

The Wildcats are one win away from bowl eligibility. Before the year, that was the goal, but it looked like a serious challenge to get there given the back half of the season. Now, it seems… likely? Is there another team in the Pac-12 that wants to see this Arizona team the way it is playing?

Michael Wiley finished with 58 receiving yards and two scores. Jonah Coleman had 55 rushing yards while DJ Williams added 51. Tetairoa McMillan had 80 yards receiving. Gunner Maldonado had 10 tackles. Tacario Davis had three pass breakups. Guys made plays everywhere.

Despite allowing four sacks, losing the turnover battle, and getting outgained on a per-play basis (a typical indicator of a loss), Arizona walked away with a win. How? Arizona got key fourth-quarter plays in all three phases of the game.

Here are three takeaways from the win.

Arizona stands up in the fourth

If you hadn’t watched Arizona football this year and just casually tuned into the Wildcats’ Week 9 game against Oregon State, you’d probably be stunned. Two years ago, Arizona struggled mightily just to do the little things right. Last year, Arizona fixed the offense but couldn’t stop anyone on the other side of the football. Now, the Wildcats legitimately have a defense full of dudes.

Oregon State scored on a quick-strike, 75-yard touchdown drive in the game’s final two minutes. Before that possession, the Beavs had four second-half drives and just 115 yards of offense. Three of those four drives ended with punts.

After Arizona took a 20-17 fourth-quarter lead, the Wildcat defense forced the first three-and-out of the night.

How’d Arizona follow that stop up? A touchdown drive that all but iced the game.

Complementary football. Arizona got sound play on offense, it got stout play on defense, and it got a pair of strong punt returns from Jacob Cowing in the fourth.

Noah Fifita does it again

Coach Jedd Fisch kept his starting quarterback under wraps leading up to the game. Fifita nearly engineered upsets against Washington and USC but ultimately fell short. Against Washington State, Fifita threw for 342 yards in a massive victory. But Fisch seemed like he wasn’t ready to publicly declare Fifita the starter this week.

It’s clear now, though. Fifita is the guy for this Arizona team. He completed 25 of his 32 pass attempts for 275 yards and three touchdowns. Fifita had a pick, but he also had a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to Michael Wiley that pushed Arizona over the finish line.

The second-year quarterback just manages things for Arizona. He doesn’t force things. He plays within the framework of what the offense wants to do. And he doesn’t get sped up.

Fifita’s touchdown pass to Tetairoa McMillan — who had 80 yards on eight receptions — said it all. Calm, cool, and collected. That’s doing wonders for Arizona.

A wild call to end the first half

Oregon State lost by three points.

Oregon State also faked a field goal at the end of the first half. Would the Beavers have made the field goal had they attempted it? Who knows. Rather than attempt a field goal from the Arizona 16 with three seconds on the clock, coach Jonathan Smith and the Beavers faked the kick and ran Atticus Sappington up the middle for 9 yards to end the half.

It was a low-possession game. Earlier in the day, USC-Cal featured 34 combined drives. Oregon State and Arizona each only had nine possessions. Maybe Smith decided that, in that kind of setting, he needed to aggressively seek out touchdowns.

That’s fine. Play for touchdowns. But why use a kicker to do so? From 16 yards away, why not put quarterback DJ Uiagalelei on the field and let him throw it into the endzone?

Coaches today are so analytically driven. They look at success rates and trust the math. I don’t know what numbers Oregon State was using, but I have to imagine a 16-yard throw from Uiagalelei has a higher conversion rate than a 16-yard run from a kicker.

Oregon State didn’t lose the game because it faked a field goal at the end of the first half, but when you lose by three points and you turn down three points in the red zone, these questions come up.

But again, it’s not so much the decision to play for a touchdown, it’s more the play call. Coaches are making the right calls when it comes to going vs. kicking. They’re just making crazy play-calls in the process.