It's once again time for the Wildcats & Sun Devils to battle it out for the oldest of all the rivalry trophies in college football, the Territorial Cup. Now this year feels a bit like last, as we have two decent teams that have disappointed their fan bases.
Arizona once again blew away hopes of a Rose Bowl, though with the quality of Oregon & Stanford this year (& playing both on the road) such hopes were never quite reasonable. However it is hardly unreasonable to be upset about the two home losses to mediocre Oregon State & USC teams (each of which has lost to a Washington school). In both games the vaunted Arizona defense looked, well… defenseless for much of the game & the offense seemed to forget they were even in a game until late in the fourth quarter.
In the team’s defense they probably expected some sort of home field advantage. Instead Zona Zoo failed to ever come close to filling at the Oregon State game & was half empty entering the fourth quarter of a competitive USC game. Of course even when full the petting Zoo could rarely be bothered to actually manufacture any noise. Outside of the Iowa game the student section of the stadium has failed to live up to its immense potential & coupled with the disgraceful Oregon incident Zona Zoo may be the most overrated student section in all of football. Indeed the next time an opposing team takes a knee on a kickoff & the ignorant masses hold up their hands in the shape of a mock vagina they’d be well advised to consider that such a gesture may well apply to themselves.
Beyond the massive suck that is Zona Zoo (I know I’m beating a dead horse at this point, but it’s either this or I just start punching people who aren’t cheering tonight) Arizona has been plagued with key mistakes at pivotal moments. Nick Foles, as much as I love him, has had a penchant for throwing interceptions near/in the red zone. Then there were the fumbles in the USC game, one close to their end zone, one close to ours. Zendejas seemingly only missing field goals in close games. And most recently we had Ricky Elmore going offside on a missed Oregon field goal attempt that lead to an Oregon touchdown and the beginning of the rout.
In addition two of Arizona’s supposed strengths have proven to be nothing more than average at best. The Wildcats’ all senior offensive line was supposed to clear the way for our talented backs, & give Foles all the time in the world. Instead we’ve had a massively inconsistent run game & Foles missed three games due to injury. On defense under Stoops our defensive backs have been a strong point nearly every season yet this year what was deemed a talented group has somehow regressed. Trevin Wade was a standout last year yet now he’s been shuffling in & out of the starting lineup. Robert Golden was once a four star recruit who found playing time as a freshman, now he can’t defend a comeback route for his life. Crazy as it sounds Adam Hall has somehow become our most impressive DB. As much as I love to make jokes about his inability to read the man brings the pain when he makes tackles & he made more plays than anyone in the Oregon game.
I could also get into the continually uninventive play calling (You’re allowed to blitz on defense! Getting the ball to the backs in space is a good idea!), but I’m tired of picking apart the Cats because there’s still been plenty of good things that have happened this season.
For the first time in over a decade we pulled off a victory over non-conference BCS team. We showed that we our in fact capable of winning games with our backs against the wall. Juron Criner is a complete bad-ass. & despite three losses in a row a win tonight & in the bowl game would give Arizona 9 wins for the first time since 1998.
No this hasn’t been the most fulfilling season in Arizona football history but a win here (& in the bowl game) & this season can be seen as nothing but a success.
As for ASU they have continued to fail to live up to expectations on the way to another bowless season. & ASU fans should indeed be disappointed, if this team were only slightly more disciplined they’d be 7-4 right now & fighting Arizona for a potential Alamo Bowl birth. In fact, the Sun Devils have lost 4 games in each of the last 2 seasons.
Ok I’ve got to go get in line for the game. Expect it to be close & for one team to fuck up big on their way to losing the game. I’ll say it’ll be ASU once again, & Zendejas drills the game winning field goal (No, for real this time).
Arizona 31, ASU 30
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