Arizona vs. Oregon: Can the Cats Slow Down the Ducks? Is Zendejas the Answer? Will the Pain Finally End?

Juron Criner's scored 5 TDs against Oregon.

Ok… So that wasn’t a great start to the PAC-12 (& thank God, for a number of reasons, we’re not about to be the PAC-16). Yet another beat down against a ranked opponent. In fact in our current 7 game losing streak to D-1 opponents we lost to 2 unranked opponents by a combined 4 points, & to 5 ranked opponents by 120 points. On the plus side we hung with Stanford for most of 3 quarters & if we’d switched back to Zendejas like I’ve been calling for or if Juron Criner’s appendectomy hadn’t also removed his ability to catch touchdowns who knows what might’ve happened. Also after last year’s disappointing finish to my predictions (I correctly called every game in Arizona’s 7-1 start, & then missed 3 of 5 in their 0-5 finish) I’m 3-0 so far this year (I know only one of those is posted on here but I think you can trust I called the NAU & Ok St. games correctly). Now it’s on to #10 Oregon, the third straight top 10 team Arizona has faced, the first team to do so in 3 years. A game that absolutely no one outside of the Wildcat organization thinks they’re going to win.

Alex Zendejas & the State of Wildcat Football

Last night we all had the privilege to watch a classic episode of the Duel in the Desert, though I understand most Wildcat fans wouldn’t quite put it that way. Fact is, however, that last night was the first overtime game in the history of the rivalry (the pre-OT 1987 game ended in a 24-24 tie) and for all the heartbreak there were an equal number of thrills. Of course all anyone is talking about is Alex Zedejas & his blocked extra points, & it’s understandable why (even if I don’t think that’s entirely fair). So let’s go ahead & break down each of Zendejas’s last three kicks, both the quality of the kicks & the decisions that went into them, & what it all means for Arizona Football.