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Looking ahead (eight days?) to Arizona - fullmetal - 09-08-2011

I caught the second half of the Arizona-Oklahoma State game tonight.  Boy did things look bad for Arizona.  They were missing Juron Criner, true, but aside from that (and the relative disappearance of every other receiver in the Zona WR corps), there was no run game.  Don't get me wrong--Keola Antolin is a serviceable running back, but note that Arizona did not return a single starter from last year's OL, and it showed.  The pass protection was good, and Foles had time to throw, although it wasn't often that receivers got open enough.  The run blocking was sort of abysmal.  Oklahoma State owned both sides of the line, and to the Oklahoma State OL's credit, Randle and Smith had 15 and 11 carries respectively, splitting 186 yards and three TDs between themselves.  Justin Blackmon went for 12 catches, 128 yards, and two scores, while Randle had nine catches for another 99 yards through the air.

Anyway, Arizona can be stymied at the line of scrimmage quite effectively, and Juron Criner's absence was pretty noticeable.  Heralded transfer (from Texas) Dan Buckner failed to impress last week against NAU (who gets shut down against NAU?), and he didn't do very much throughout this game.  Oh sure, he was 10-142-1, but a lot of that, including his score, came in garbage time when Arizona was already down by four scores in the fourth quarter, I think it was.  Buckner is who Texas thought he was.  Hopefully he'll be just as effective in his next game.

Arizona's linebackers suffer from a case of can't-tackle-itis.  Whether it was big hits that don't take down the runner or fly-by arm tackles, their efforts to corral the Oklahoma State RBs were promoted to the fifth most popular definition "ineffective" in the fullmetal Football Dictionary.  Note to Stanford RBs--keep your pad level low, drive hard, and run quickly.  (Can we just admit that fast is an adverb these days?  Run quickly just doesn't roll off the tongue that well.)  Speedy receivers like Blackmon burned through the secondary, and given the one-man wonder of the Oklahoma State receiving corps, Stanford's WRs may pull the same act with Owusu taking Blackmon's place.

I'm feeling better about both games going into the bye week already.


Edit: And here's the reason why Criner was out...!

Quote:The Wildcats (1-1) played without Juron Criner, who was the Pac-10's top receiver last season and tied the school record with 11 touchdown catches. He had an appendectomy on Monday, and it's unclear whether he'll be able to return in time for Arizona's home games the next two weeks against No. 6 Stanford and No. 12 Oregon.

Link to tonight's game recap here.

Re: Looking ahead (eight days?) to Arizona - Hank 91 - 09-09-2011

I'm watching some of the replay right now, and everything you say is correct. It's like watching the varsity against the JV -- Oklahoma State is magnitudes faster. And their quarterback -- Brandon Weeden -- didn't even seem to notice that there was a defense out there. He completed his first 13 passes and finished up 42 for 53 (OSU records) for 397 and 2 TDs. Not a bad night. OSU also ran for 197, so it looks like the Arizona defense leaves a bit to be desired.

Oh, and one more thing. Fast has always been an adverb. It's one of those wonderful words that can be a noun, verb, adjective, or an adverb.

Re: Looking ahead (eight days?) to Arizona - fullmetal - 09-09-2011

I think the real question is whether Oklahoma State looks more like a top 5 team or whether Arizona looks like a rebuilding team.  Those Oklahoma State linemen fired off the snap in a very scary way (c'mon TWU!).  They hit their blocks well and made holes--Randle seemed to reach the second level in about three or four strides from the line of scrimmage. 

Bob Stoops should be very interested in scouting the team that just pantsed his brother.  Oh, and I have a feeling Texas A&M is not going undefeated this season.

NB: I was standing watching the game, while somewhere in front of me was a vocally unhappy man, who I believe was Mr. Foles (and who owned the sports restaurant in which I was watching the game).  It was kind of a sobering experience.  Foles is a great passer and had a close call with an unflagged, low, late hit that looked like it might have taken out his left knee--this season is not going to do him any favors.  He'll probably end up like Jake Locker last season: a future NFL QB in a bad situation, with the bad situation here being no ground game from the OL.  I don't think Criner's presence will really help the ground game directly, but some quick crossing routes from him and the Buckner deep threat might force opposing linebackers to hesitate before engaging run blockers.  Who knows.  I'd be just as happy if Criner didn't play us.

Last season, NFL QB Matt Cassel had an appendectomy and played his next NFL game after 11 days.  Granted, he's a QB and faces less physical punishment in a game than a WR.  I think that means Criner is probably out against Stanford.

Re: Looking ahead (eight days?) to Arizona - stanfan - 09-09-2011

OSU was extremely impressive in all phases of the game.  I don't know who their strength and conditioning coach is, but he is doing a tremendous job....very impressive group of athletes. 

Re: Looking ahead (eight days?) to Arizona - Farm93 - 09-09-2011

And in the span of a few major OOC games the Pac-12 will be burdened with the "down year" stuff.  If Stanford is to challenge for the national title then they will need to now win big over Arizona and Oregon just like other top 10 teams that faced them.  On the brighter side, the "down year" cry was strong in 1999 too.  :)

One piece of good news, during the game the crew covering the game mentioned that STANFORD looked really strong.  I was not following the game closely at that point, but I believe the comments were centered around the idea that Stanford is the best team in a conference full of weak teams.

down year, schmown year! - yvonne - 09-09-2011

If we win the conference and beat the Big Ten champion, will anybody here care whether the rest of the conference is down?

Frankly, I didn't care in 1999. We did what was necessary to go to the Rose Bowl. The rest of the conference didn't. Period.