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...!
Link to tonight's game recap here.
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.
