Someone’s losing streak will come to an end in Corvallis this week as both Arizona and Oregon State have been mired by a stretch of games both teams would like to forget. The Wildcats have dropped seven straight since their week three win over Hawai’i and the Beavers sit at the bottom of the Pac – 12 North with their five game losing streak. Both teams want the win badly, it is just a matter of who can field the better team come Saturday.
Running Around the Clock
The Wildcats will look to lean on their rushing attack again this week as the passing game has been absolutely dreadful. Last week Anu Solomon and Brandon Dawkins combined for just 155 yards through the air but Dawkins was able to add 76 yards on the ground to at least create a little more offense compared to Solomon. Since his return, Solomon has not had the burst of speed needed to create space for himself and take off for a quick scamper to at least make second and third down more manageable for his team. Dawkins should get more of the looks again this week as he has been a big reason as to why Arizona currently ranks second in the conference in rushing with 214 yards per game with around 5 yards a carry on top of that. Samajie Grant has also turned out to be a good replacement as a running back from the wide receiver position with his 113 yard performance last week as well.
Stopping the Bleeding
The Wildcats of this season are the polar opposite of the Operation Desert Swarm defenses of old. In just the last two weeks the team has given up over 110 points and they can’t seem to stop either the pass or the run. The biggest chink in the armor though has been the passing game as they have surrendered 9 touchdowns through the air to three different quarterbacks after Washington State allowed their backup to play for a short portion of the game in a blowout victory over Arizona. This season the Beavers have had Marcus McMaryion showing some signs of impressive play this year as the sophomore has contributed well considering the season his team has had. His main problem at the position has been his accuracy as he sits at 55% going into this game but he has a knack for tossing the deep ball early since he came in as the starter. Getting him off his spot and making him move around should prevent him from getting any deep balls to his wideouts and thus make him a slightly more manageable threat for the rest of the game.
Beaver’s House Blitz
Oregon State has the mindset that due to their lack of talent at the cornerback position they need to blitz often and fast on every play in order to stop passing attacks from gashing them up during the game. This also works as a way to plug up gaps that teams would like to open up for their running games. For Arizona this could be a huge issue as Dawkins and the rest of the Arizona quarterbacks have been sacked quite a bit this season. Thirteen sacks for the sophomore from Oxnard, CA this year and he takes even more abuse as a runner when he uses the option play in Rich Rodriguez’s playbook. Dawkins has not been great at sniffing out the blitzes on his presnap reads and it has made drives for Arizona almost unsustainable at times against defenses with high caliber athletes.The saving grace for Arizona is that Oregon State has been absolutely decimated by injury to their defense so they don’t have their top flight athletes on the field in key positions for their blitz packages. The worry still lingers however that the Wildcats won’t be able to get the proper protection adjustments and leave Dawkins running for his life.
The action will kick off in Corvallis, OR this Saturday at 8:30 PM on the Pac – 12 Networks where you can follow the game.