Arizona Takes Advantage of West Virginia’s Defense to Embarrass Mountaineers

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – While honoring the state’s connection to the coal industry, West Virginia was unable to get back on track against Arizona.

Relying on what’s worked, WVU used to a ground game led by Mike Hawkins and Cam Cook to march up the field on their opening possession. However, the vibes weren’t as high as a 13-play, 58-yard drive would normally create, as the Mountaineers were forced to settle for a 25-yard field.

The Wildcats did what a visiting team needs to during their first opportunity with the ball, take the crowd out of the game with a long scoring possession of their own.

Noah Fifita capped off a 10-play drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass, getting the ball into the end zone for the second time – the first was washed away off an offsides. The bad of allowing a touchdown then quickly became worse when Cook fumbled a pitch, allowing the Wildcats to scoop up the ball and run it back for a defensive touchdown, making the score 14-3.

The subsequent turn of events that would occur following that score would set the tone for the rest of the game. First, West Virginia filed to punch the ball in the red zone again, turning the ball over on downs. WVU’s defense would step up, almost causing a safety and eventually getting the ball to Hawkins to find a hole to pay dirt. And despite allowing 103 yards through the air at that point, the Mountaineer defense, namely the secondary and cornerback Jason Chambers, made a play to stop the Wildcats down deep in WVU territory. A 44-yard field goal made the game 17-10.

Trying to make up for the earlier fumble, Cook used his burst to run 30 yards for a game-tying touchdown, one that included needing to bounce off a defender. The Wildcats answered to reclaim the lead, fending off WVU’s pass rush with a rushing attack. Quincy Craig got by multiple defenders for a 40-yard scamper into the end zone. WVU’s offense flirted with evening the score, but a fumble near the goal line ruined that and kept it at 24-17 at halftime.

Arizona’s momentum rolled over right to the second half, leading to their fourth touchdown of the day. It only took Arizona three plays to rack up 75 yards. A game that was once back and forth was starting to unravel into a blowout for the road team. But West Virginia wasn’t dead yet….

Hawkins led the Mountaineers on a 16-play, 92-yard drive to pull within one score. At this point, Hawkins was 9-for-17 for 180 yards through the air, 68 rushing and Cook had 127 of his own. A a couple solid stops by the WVU defense that created a long second and third down seemed to provide some hope, hope that was quickly squashed when Fifita found Isiah Mizell, who then took the ball 72 yards in front of the closest defender to put the Wildcats back up by two touchdown, 38-24.

To WVU’s credit, they kept fighting. Cook even got up to 141 yards and scored his second touchdown. Still able to find (wide) open receivers, Fifita fired off another 40 plus-yard touchdown pass. Running back Antwan Roberts joined the party, getting the Wildcats’ effort to 52 points as a team with a 30-yard run.

With the loss, the Mountaineers dropped to 3-3 and 0-3 in Big 12 play, leaving more questions than answers about the state of the program moving forward.