Arizona Wildcats 2-1 Overall (0-0 Conference)

This Week’s Score: Iowa 27 – Arizona 17

Next Week’s Opponent: @Oregon State

With the exception of USC, no Pac-10 team had a rougher week than the Arizona Wildcats. Early reports in the week were indicating that Rob Gronkowski could potentially be ready to return for the Iowa game. And then news came that he would miss the Iowa game. Not long afterward, he was shut down for the entire season.

As if losing the superstar and heart and soul of the offense wasn’t heartbreaking enough, Matt Scott’s abysmal effort certainly was. Plenty of credit is due to Iowa’s defense; and they do have a great one. But as bad as the 4/14, 50 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT line looks on paper, it doesn’t even do justice to how flustered and uncomfortable Scott looked through the first three quarters.

Matt Scott won the hotly-contested job right before the season began, and it was his to lose; and he lost it. Now the Wildcats will turn to Nick Foles, and there is little room for error; if Foles struggles in the role as well, Arizona will be in for an extremely long season.

On the bright side, Foles did play well in his limited time on Saturday, going 6/11 for 55 yards and a touchdown, the team’s only offensive TD of the day. It was in the closing minutes of a game Iowa already had locked down, but hey, positive is positive.

And while we are looking at the positives, look no further than Nic Grigsby, who has established himself as a star running back in an offense usually focused on passing. Grigsby had a respectable 75 yards on 11 carries (against a defense that was heavily defending the run thanks to Scott’s poor play), and also led the team in catches with three for 14 yards. Before Foles’ game ending touchdown drive, Grigsby was virtually the only player on offense that wasn’t invisible out there.

With Nick Foles taking over as the starter, it will be up to the wide receivers to step up their games. Not that they had much of a chance to make plays on Saturday, but Gronkowski’s absence is painfully apparent on every passing play, and someone is going to have to step up and give Foles a target he can rely on.

All-in-all, I think the defense played well, and simply tired out in the 4th quarter. They were on the field for most of the game, after all. The defensive line did a pretty good job disrupting Ricky Stanzi (especially in the first half), and CB Trevin Wade was a force all game long, capped off by a Pick-6 in the first quarter.

If Nick Foles can get the passing game on track, it would keep defenses honest, and in turn make Nic Grigsby even more of a threat. If he can’t, the Wildcats will have to keep leaning hard on the defense and running game, which isn’t exactly what they are built to do. This week’s matchup against Oregon State will let us know in a hurry whether Foles is ready to handle the heat.

Coach Mike Stoops says that Matt Scott will also play this Saturday, leaving little doubt that all eyes will be on the QB position.