Arizona Delivers

A packed Arizona Staduim on a more then cool Saturday night rocked the campus of the University of Arizona. And before kickoff the already anticipated and only showdown of the week of two ranked programs going head to head had already been soldout. The Cats did there new found polonigian warm up routine and speeches had been said, and now all that was left was to snap the football. To a Red Out crowd sprincled here and there with shades of black ad gold the Wildcats came out to there simily infamous firework display. Undoubtly the Staduim errupted and the ZonaZoo went into a frenzy. Pumped from not only what a win would mean for the program but the student section and thousands of other fans screaming and shaking their keychains, the Arizona football squad had kicked off and the game was already a few seconds old.

From a blocked punt, to an interception taken 85 yards to the house for a score, and the Travis Cobb kickoff return 101 yard score.. the game had become a giant up hill battle for the Iowa Hawkeyes to come up with a W tonight. But a program ranked number 9 in the country would know how to keep there composure and make it a manageable game for the 2nd half. Well that's exactly what they did. I've said it before, the one thing that the Mike Stoops era has been riddled with is his teams shooting themselves in the foot when the game depended on it. In 2008 when less then good play calling couldn't produce a first down the Oregon State Beavers ran out the clock and won by a field goal. In that same year also at home, penalties held the Cats out of the end zone against a top ranked USC team and that game went down the drain. And then we all remember last year where The Cats let a comfortable lead slip away and led the game into double overtime where the Oregon Ducks came up with the victory. After a bad punt recovery that was really a turnover, and a Nick Foles interception for 6, history seemed to be repeating itself once more. Anxiety and memories of a more then embarrassing loss last December started to creep in. For me i could just stare at amazement that the Cats could have let another lead slip away within a 2nd half that was full of Arizona penalties.

With Juron Crinier the Arizona's top receiver on the bench with a hurt ankle and a injured Left Guard that had just played his first start in over a year, the Wildcats hopes for a upset and spot at the national recognition that they wanted was in their hands. This is where i knew Nick Foles the Quarterback everybody knows he can be and the best Quarterback Arizona has seen had the chance to sement his team for a record breaking season. After and interception for a score alot of Quarterbacks would be rattled, but Nick calm as he is just went 76 yrads down the field to diliver the touchdown which was the difference in the game. But there still was 3 minutes on the board for the Iowa offense to get a score. Now all summer and training camp the talk about the team was that the Arizona Defense was the weakest point of the squad. Well turns out that they needed to prove something that night. With 3 concecutive sacks, should have been 4 but one was called off due to a false start penelty, and smart coverage downfield the defense stepped up and did their part to a impressive win over the #9 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes.

Now i have to go back to 2007, late November when the Wildcats took on the #2 ranked Oregon Ducks at home and beat them by 10 points. That was the last time the Cats beat a top 10 ranked opponent. So with this win the Arizona Football program shot up 10 spots in the Associated Press rankings and now stand at #14. Now they have to look to handle bussiness against a strong Pac-10 conference, which all but about 2 games should be a battle. And good luck to Juron Criner and Vaughn Dotsy, hope the injuries are not that serious.