Washington Football: Arizona Is Lethal On Offense

Just a quick look at the Arizona offense, and just how tough Washington’s task of shutting them down will be. After a sloppy opening win against Toledo, here are the point totals for the Wildcats in the five games since: 59, 56, 0, 35, 48. That big fat zero came on the road against Oregon, and is clearly a bit of an outlier. That last two numbers, 35 and 48, were put up against Oregon State and Stanford, two very talented defenses.

October 6, 2012; Stanford, CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats running back Ka

So, any fans out there that look at Arizona’s 3-3 record and assume the Huskies will have it easy, think again. Arizona scores an average of 37 points a game and 551 total yards a game. Most of that yardage comes straight from the arm of senior quarterback Matt Scott, who has amassed impressive totals of 2099 yards on 64% passing, with 13 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. In case you aren’t a fan of multiplying things by two, that puts him on pace for regular season numbers of 4198 yards, 26 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. Even considering the fact that Rich Rodriguez’s Air Raid offense is crafted specifically around throwing the ball a ton, that is still damn impressive. Although, it is worth mentioning that six of those seven picks have come in the last three games, all losses. Even if he he throws for 300 or 400 yards in the process, Scott can still be forced into making costly mistakes.

Arizona has not abandoned the run in the process of building such a lethal passing game. Starting back Ka’Deem Carey has carried the ball 126 times for 670 yards and 10 touchdowns. He has been particularly effective in the past two games, scoring five touchdowns in the two losses. Carey will serve to keep the Husky defense honest, so that if they attempt to drop back an outrageous number of defensive backs to complicate the picture for Scott, a few quick draws to Carey up the middle may remind them to play the run as well.

I’m not saying that the Husky pass defense, led by a particularly effective Desmond Trufant, isn’t capable of containing this explosive attack. Just don’t be surprised if they struggle. They wouldn’t be the first defense to be victimized by Arizona this season.