AP Photo/Ben Margot

 

By Jeremy Harness

SANTA CLARA – Midway through the third quarter, an exasperated Rich Rodriguez was shown letting out an emphatic sigh as his team continued to struggle on both sides of the ball.

Two plays later, the coach had to watch as quarterback Jesse Scroggins III’s deep pass was picked off by Erick Dargan. To add to the misery, senior lineman Steven Gurrola was flagged for fighting and was promptly kicked out of the game.

That gave Oregon the ball on Arizona’s 23-yard line, and quarterback Marcus Mariota punched it in six plays later to give Oregon a commanding 37-point lead.

That pretty much summed up the night for Arizona, as second-ranked Oregon cemented its spot in the inaugural BCS playoff with a dominant 51-13 win over the Wildcats to take the Pac-12 title Friday night at Levi’s Stadium.

In the process, Mariota, already the front-runner for this year’s Heisman trophy, likely put his name on the award with his performance on Friday by throwing for 303 yards and a pair of scores while running for three more.

He did that against an Arizona team that had beaten Oregon each of the previous two head-to-head meetings and ruined the Ducks’ chances of reaching this game last year.

The No. 7 Wildcats entered Saturday with a chance to again thwart Oregon’s title run while crashing the College Football Playoff party themselves.

However, those visions, just like the field at Levi’s Stadium, got soggy very quickly and only got worse as the offense couldn’t make a dent while a tough, resilient but increasingly-fatigued Arizona defense developed cracks that Oregon used to blow the game open in a hurry.

Missed opportunities also handicapped Arizona, as Wildcat defenders had a pair of potential first-half interceptions squirt through their fingers while missing out on a fumble recovery early in the third quarter, all of which had the potential of swinging the momentum in its favor.

Rodriguez said that the key to the Wildcats’ 31-24 win over Oregon in Eugene on Oct. 2 was that they were more physical than the Ducks in all three phases of the game. The physicality was certainly there for Arizona.

The execution, on the other hand, was another story altogether.

“From my vantage point, it was a lack of execution and them playing a little better than us,” Rodriguez said. “It seemed like it was a different reason every time (as to why) this play didn’t work or that play didn’t work.

“We’ll examine it, get better and get ready for the bowl game.”

The four-team playoff bracket will be released Sunday morning, with Oregon fully expected to be one of those teams competing for the national title. Arizona, meanwhile, will have to wait a while longer but are still considered to have an outside shot at getting into one of the BCS bowls, including the Fiesta Bowl.

The Wildcats displayed a bend-but-don’t-break defense in the first quarter. Although Oregon gained yards and benefited from a short field resulting from an early Arizona turnover, the defense did not permit the Ducks to get into the end zone – the Ducks had to settle for field goals on each of their first two trips into the red zone – and even stopped Oregon on a fourth-and-3 at the Arizona 25.

However, the Wildcats could not get anything going on offense, gaining only 25 total yards in the first half and increasing the amount of strain on their defense. Arizona finished with only 224 yards of offense while collecting only 10 first downs, only two of those coming in an opening half that proved to be decisive.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Anu Solomon struggled especially, throwing for only 34 yards on 6-of-12 passing. He was also sacked three times and just could not generate any momentum that carried the Wildcats to this title game.

“I just didn’t execute,” Solomon said. “If we’re not doing well, it all starts with me, and that’s just what happened.”

The field goals were only going to last for so long, and if you give the Ducks enough chances, they will eventually get their rhythm and cash in. That’s what happened midway through the second quarter, as the Arizona defense finally gave way.

Starting yet another drive in Arizona territory, the Ducks took the ball to the Wildcats’ 7 before Mariota beat an Arizona defender to the corner of the end zone to give Oregon a 13-0 lead.

Oregon scored twice more and went into the locker room with a 23-0 halftime lead, while Arizona searched for answers.

Rodriguez attempted to solve one issue by putting the more mobile Scroggins in place of Solomon and threw a 69-yard touchdown to receiver Cayleb Jones early in the third quarter to momentarily stop the bleeding.

That momentum was squashed in a hurry by Mariota and the Ducks, who picked up right where they left off in the first half and left Arizona in their wake.

“Oregon’s the best in our league this year, and I think they have a chance to prove they’re the best in the country,” Rodriguez said. “But any team that makes the four-team playoffs has to be really good.

“I just haven’t seen the other ones on film like I’ve seen Oregon.”