A few hours before kickoff, Arizona became the active FBS leader in consecutive wins after defending national champion Michigan lost at home to Texas. The Wildcats almost held that honor for less than 12 hours before pulling their weight.
Arizona, ranked 20th, overcame a four-point halftime deficit to beat NAU 22-10 on Saturday night at Arizona Stadium for its ninth straight victory, tying the school record set in 1974-75 and equaled by 1997-98.
The UA won despite arguably its worst offensive performance since a 10-3 win over Cal in 2021 that ended its school-record 20-game losing streak. The Wildcats gained 361 yards, 188 of them on the ground, including 112 from Quali ConleyBut Noah Fifita His lowest performance as a starter was 173 yards on 18 of 26 passes, one touchdown and one interception.
The UA went 0 of 10 on its third attempt and gained just 147 yards in the first half, 26 fewer than its first two drives in last week’s 61-39 win over New Mexico.
It was Arizona’s defense that avoided a second embarrassing loss to NAU in four years, holding the Lumberjacks to 198 yards and making two big plays in the second half to reverse the momentum. It was the fewest yards the UA has allowed since giving up 122 yards to Cal in 2021.
At halftime, Arizona trailed 10-6, but Arizona made a great defensive stop to turn things around. NAU tried again on the 4th.th and short of his own 34 and was stuffed with Jacob Manu And Chris Kennedy Together they stop the Lumberjacks quarterback Ty Pennington shortly before the first attempt.
The UA was then saved after a Fifita sack was offset by a face mask penalty, and one play later Jeremiah Patterson He broke two tackles on his way to a 17-yard touchdown catch, putting the Wildcats back in the lead 13-10 with 12:06 minutes left in the third quarter.
Arizona had a chance to build a 2-point lead late in the third quarter, but again got stuck in the red zone. Tyler Loop missed a chip shot from 27 yards. The next UA attack came to a halt in the middle of the field, but a great punt by walk-on Jordan Forbes (who started from the beginning Michael Salgado Medina) was defeated at NAU 1 and two games later Chubba Ma’ae run back swallowed Darvon Hubbard in the end zone for a safety and a 15-10 lead with 11:33 left.
It was Arizona’s first safety since the 2022 Territorial Cup and set the stage for Kedrick Reescano to score his first career touchdown with a 56-yard run to make it 22-10 with 9:32 minutes left.
Manu decided the game with a fumble recovery at UA 44 with 1:46 minutes left to play.
Arizona only needed three snaps to get inside the NAU 5, but from there the drive went backwards and after Fifita was sacked for the first time this season Loop scored a 32-yard field goal, but the next two drives were unsuccessful and the Wildcats only led 3-0 after the first quarter.
That lead was gone five minutes into the second half when NAU used a trick play to take a 7-3 lead. Isaiah Eastman took a jet sweep and then threw it over the drawn-in defense to a completely free tight end Xander Werner for a 25-yard touchdown catch.
Fifita was now behind and tried to force a ball on McMillan in double coverage, but threw it too high and the deflected pass was picked up by NAU’s Michael GreerThe ‘Jacks converted that possession into points with a 38-yard field goal and took a 10-3 lead with 6:20 minutes left in the first half.
After forcing another punt, Arizona had its best drive of the game and got to NAU’s 30-yard line, but once again Arizona had to settle for a field goal. Loop converted the 48-yard run to make it 10-6 with 32 seconds left before halftime.
The UA has a short week to prepare for its toughest opponent yet, visiting No. 17 Kansas State on Friday night.
