No. 25 WSU vs. Arizona: Game Thread!

Welcome! We’re glad you were able to find our WSU-Arizona game thread at such an odd hour for college football.

The No. 25 Cougars are good and should win easily over a bad group of Wildcats. Of course, it’s rare that things are that simple for WSU, despite their No. 25 ranking.

Despite being injury depleted, Arizona still possesses some explosive athletes, particularly at quarterback and wide receiver. Brandon Dawkins can bust a long run at any time (which Brian Anderson detailed here), so it will be particularly important for the run defense to maintain its discipline, lest it give up another long run — something that has been a bit of a bugaboo about once a game for the last month.

As for the receivers, the question is really whether Dawkins can even get them the ball, as he is completing just 55 percent of his passes. But when he does, it’s bad news for the defense, as Utah found out when he threw for 243 yards on just 20 attempts.

The interesting thing is that while Arizona is bad at being successful on passing downs, it’s when they tend to hit their explosive plays. So while keeping the Wildcats behind the sticks is important, it’s even more important to follow through and get them off the field on third down.

Of course, this is unlikely to make up for the fact that Arizona’s defense is really awful. If the Cougs do what they do offensively, they should win easily.

Should.

Go Cougs!