Arizona plays its most complete game yet in upset win over Oregon State
Arizona played perhaps its most complete game of the season Saturday in a 27-24 win over No. 11 Oregon State. Surely it was the most complete second half.
In the fourth quarter, the Beavs had four first downs. Nothing was working until the four-play, 75-yard drive at the very end once Arizona went up 27-17. The Wildcats, on the other side, averaged 6.4 yards per play and just kept it moving. Noah Fifita completed 13 of his 16 passes in the second half.
Jacob Cowing had a 20-yard punt return and a 16-yard punt return in the fourth quarter. Both set up scoring drives for the Cats. Fifita had a 49-yard pooch punt that pinned Oregon State at the 5 and flipped field position. Kyle Ostendorp only punted once and he put his inside the 20 as well. Oregon State’s Silas Bolden got one shot at a kick return.
It was a strong performance in all three phases.
“It’s what we strive to be,” coach Jedd Fisch said after the game. “We strive to be a full team. We don’t want to be just a team that goes out there and focuses on one side of the ball or the other. We’re a team, I believe that’s how you win games. The great teams that I’ve had a privilege to coach on, that’s how we won.
“We didn’t win just by being a great offense or being a great defense or being great at special teams. You really win championships when all three phases work together, and I thought that fourth quarter it kind of all clicked together. We were able to run ball, stop the run, put them in third-and-longs, get off the field on defense, (and) obviously finish the game off on offense.”
Arizona now sits at 5-3 on the season. It has back-to-back wins over ranked opponents (while unranked itself) for the first time since 2006. It has three top-25 wins now under Fisch after going three seasons without a single one prior to Fisch’s arrival.
This group is starting to turn a corner.
“Hats off to our team. I think our team had a fantastic resilience about themselves,” Fisch said. “We always say we don’t win the game in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, alright? We win the game in the fourth quarter and that was a pretty awesome job.”