Yesterday's Arizona victory over Oregon State was truly remarkable. Let's tally a list of the things the Cats had stacked against them on Saturday evening:
1) First start for a new quarterback
2) First game of the officially Gronk-less season
3) We lost our leading offensive threat in the first quarter
4) We lose our second most potent offensive threat in the 3rd quarter
5) Stoops is typically terrible in close games
6) The referees were clearly tilting the odds in the Beavs favor (3 missed replays??!?)
7) Our recent record against Oregon State
Yet despite all of this, I declared the game over in the third quarter when we took an 11 point lead. I just got a sense watching Foles, Nwoko and Wade that these guys were not going to be phased. Despite the fact that our defense should have forced a turnover on downs by stopping Canfield short on a 4th down scramble, we still made a key interception to salt away the victory. To top it all off, Justin even made money betting on sports when he went to Vegas and went to the sports book and took the Cats plus the 2. Talk about long odds!
Hate that it took two injuries to see some Nwoko action, but I completely loved what I saw.
ReplyDelete9 Carries for 44 yds
4 Receptions for 76 yds
He offers a great change of pace and size to compliment Grigsby/Antolin. Not to mention there wasn't a single touch for him where he lost yards upon contact, he consistently fell forward.
Honestly, how many times do you think Foles has thrown to or handed off to Nwoko EVER, especially at game speed. Foles did a great job of understanding his personnel and taking care of the ball.
On Foles, how awesome was it to see a QB Sneak where our quarterback put his nose down and drove with his legs through the whistle, Tui was more of a fall down and hope to score fellow.
This victory speaks volumes of how far the talent level has come since Stoops' arrival. The quality depth coming off the bench at key positions was huuuge. We were without a DE, OT, OG and two RB's and still pulled out a W.