The first time the Rockets faced Rich Rodriguez, some
bizarre things transpired in the later stages.
History repeated itself Saturday,
except this time Rodriguez walked away victorious after a wild 24-17 overtime win.
“I was so proud because our kids
played so hard,” said UT head coach Matt Campbell. “Give a lot of credit to Arizona and their kids and their
staff. I think it’s just a matter of us cleaning up and Toledo taking care of
what Toledo does.”
With the game tied at 17, Arizona
(1-0) started a drive at their own 20-yard line with 4:43 remaining in
regulation. Senior quarterback Matt Scott moved the ball with ease against a
Toledo defense that appeared to be overmatched all night, moving the chains on
five consecutive plays at one point.
As the Wildcats crept closer to the
goal line, they started to take as much time as possible off the clock.
On second and goal, Scott took the
snap and fell down right in the middle of the hash marks, setting up a 25-yard
chip shot for kicker John Bonano.
With no timeouts left,
Toledo (0-1) could only watch as Arizona ran the clock down to two seconds
before calling their final timeout to set the stage.
The field goal attempt was nothing
more than an extra point, but a bad snap and hold caused Bonano to
shank it badly to the left, his second miss of the night from inside 30 yards.
The Wildcats possessed the ball
first and UT’s defense forced them into a 3rd and
goal from the 10 and appeared to have come up with a huge defensive stand.
Senior defensive tackle Danny Farr
chased Scott all the way to the right sidelines and had a firm grasp of his
jersey. Farr threw back across his body, letting go of the ball milliseconds
before being pulled to the ground and found an open Terrence Miller for a
touchdown.
The Rockets had a chance to
respond, but nothing went according to plan in their overtime series.
On the first play, senior
quarterback Austin Dantin found an alley only to trip over his
own feet. It wound up as a seven-yard gain, but he may have taken it all the
way into the end zone had he remained upright.
An illegal procedure and delay of
game penalty forced UT into a 3rd and
20 from the 23. An incompletion brought up a decisive 4th and 20, but all Dantin could
do was heave one into the end zone.
None of his receivers appeared to
be open and the ball fell to the ground, ending the hopes of knocking off a
Pacific-12 Conference team on the road.
“It was just execution,” Campbell
said. “A couple little things here and there we just have to clean up
offensively. The noise was a little bit of a factor. We have to make sure we do
a better job next
week.”
Trailing 3-0 in the second quarter,
the Rockets took the lead when junior quarterback Terrance Owens threw a pass towideout Alonzo Russell 59 yards down the
sidelines for a 7-3 lead.
Owens finished the night 11-of-22,
passing for 134 yards and a score. Dantin played the first two possessions, but
Owens finished out the first half.
The Wildcats came right back with
the help of several big pass plays, something UT struggled with all game.
Scott found senior Dan Buckner for
plays of 21 and 22 yards before finding sophomore Austin Hill for a 30-yard
touchdown strike.
Hill got behind the entire Toledo
secondary and made a tremendous diving catch in the end zone.
Scott put on a clinic, completing
30-of-46 passes for 384 yards and two touchdowns. Hill had a game-high 136
receiving yards on seven catches.
“We knew he could throw and he
showed he can definitely do that,” Campbell said.
Arizona had a chance to add on
before halftime, but Hill lost the ball as he stumbled after a nice
catch-and-run into Toledo territory.
Arizona’s three turnovers —
including one in the red zone — and many untimely penalties allowed the Rockets
to stay within striking distance all night.
UT struggled to find the right
formula offensively in the second half, scoring just three points.
“It’s tough, the first game of the
year, you want to go out there and play great,” Dantin said.
“Arizona played their heart out, as did we, but we came up a few plays too
little.”
Campbell stuck with Owens into the
third quarter until he lost a fumble at his own 32. Dantin replaced
him for the rest of the game after sitting on the bench since the team’s second
series.
“I felt good [after sitting so
long],” Dantin said.
“T.O. did a good job when he was in there. We’ve done it for so long now that
it’s really just second nature. We left a couple plays out there that obviously
cost us the game.”
Campbell said he wanted more of run
presence at quarterback, so he kept Dantin in for the majority of the second
half.
“They were blitzing us a lot and
giving us a lot of man pressure,” Campbell said. “I thought some quarterback
run game might loosen things up for us and get us going.”
Trailing 14-10 in the third, Arizona running back Ka’Deem Carey
exploded up the middle with the help of three missed tackles for a 73-yard
touchdown to take a 17-14 lead with 10:44 to play in the third.
Arizona held advantages in nearly
every category. They piled up 623 yards of total offense, nearly doubling UT’s
347 yards.
Russell led all Toledo receivers
with 71 yards on three catches. Bernard Reedy had a career-best nine catches
for 55 yards and also returned a kick 60 yards.
The Rockets will be on the road
again next week as they travel to Wyoming to take on the Cowboys Saturday, Sept.
8 at 4 p.m.
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