Week 12 of the college football season is here and despite there not being a ranked matchup this weekend in the Big 12, there is still plenty on the line with conference play in full swing. One of the most underrated games of the weekend took place in Tucson, Arizona as the Arizona Wildcats hosted the Houston Cougars.
Both teams are fresh off a bye week and both teams are still trying to keep their bowl hopes alive. While I thought this would be a close one, Arizona ended up winning with ease. Here are my top three takeaways from the game.
Arizona’s Defense Stepped Up
Coming into this game, Arizona had the third worst scoring defense in the Big 12. They were giving up an average of over 30 points per game and their run defense was in the bottom four as well. The one thing Houston could do offensively was run the football and Arizona did a nice job of slowing them down. They held the Cougars to just 135 yards on the ground and only allowed two runs over ten yards.
The Wildcats made the Cougars work for every single yard and held their own. Perhaps the most impressive stat of the night was their third down defense. Houston ended up converting just two of their 13 third down attempts and didn’t convert a single one of their fourth down attempts. Plus, Arizona’s defense was also able to come up with three takeaways which helped the offense put some points on the board. I know people like to talk about Arizona’s offense with Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan, but this game was all about the defense.
Houston’s Letdown
There’s no other way to describe this game for Houston other than a complete disappointment. Coming into Friday night, the Cougars had won three out of their last four games after a 1-4 start to the season. The big reason behind their recent success was their ability to run the football and play great defense. Well, neither one of those things happened against Arizona. The Cougars struggled to establish any sort of consistent run game despite Arizona having one of the worst run defenses in the Big 12.
When the offense couldn’t get going, the defense was put in some tough situations between the turnovers and failure to convert on third and fourth down. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this team after back-to-back big wins, but I certainly didn’t see this poor performance coming. It’s back to the drawing board for head coach Willie Fritz.
Who Wants to Go Bowling?
As crazy as it may sound, both teams are still in the hunt for a bowl game. The Wildcats move to 4-6 on the season after their win on Friday night. Their final two games are against TCU and Arizona State, and they will have to win both of those to become bowl eligible. There have been some rumblings about Brent Brennan despite this being his first season in Tucson. But if he can get to a bowl game, those rumors would go away very quickly.
Meanwhile, the Cougars are still in the bowl conversation despite losing to Arizona. Houston is now 4-6 on the season and will have to win their final two games against Baylor and BYU. I know those are two tough games but if the Cougars can pull off back-to-back upsets and get to a bowl game, which would be massive for head coach Willie Fritz.
