TUCSON, Ariz. -- No huddle? No problem.
Points? A problem.
Field-goal kicking? It could be a problem ... again.
But Arizona was just -- emphasis on just -- good enough Saturday night to beat Toledo 24-17 in the season opener and first game of the Rich Rodriguez era.
"This would have been a tough one had we not pulled it out," Rodriguez said.
Tough indeed. And they don’t get any easier, particularly next week when Arizona faces Oklahoma State.
"Thanks for ruining my night," Rodriguez said when reminded of the upcoming schedule.
Toledo almost did it for him, as it took overtime for the Wildcats to get past the Rockets.
"It feels better than the alternative," Rodriguez said when asked how it felt in winning his first game at Arizona. "As coaches, we take the losses way too hard and don’t enjoy the wins so much. As I get older, I’m going to try to enjoy the wins more."
It didn’t come with the expected bang many Arizona fans had hoped for, but it was a win. And the Wildcats will take a win, a surprising first for Rodriguez as a head coach. He had gone 0-4 before Saturday night in season openers.
While the points were hard to come by, it wasn't as if the two teams didn't have their chances. More than 180 plays were called in the 3-hour, 45-minute game.
"These damn late games -- by the time I get home, it’s going to be 1 in the morning," Rodriguez said. "I’m going to be tuckered out and ready to go to bed."
Surprisingly, it was Arizona’s recently criticized defense that saved the game, not allowing Toledo to score when it had the ball in overtime after UA had opened the extra period with a touchdown.
On the Cats' possession, quarterback Matt Scott scrambled toward the sideline on a third-down play, slipped away from a defender just before going out of bounds and threw back toward the middle of the field to receiver Terrance Miller at the goal line for a 10-yard touchdown pass.
"They had my jersey, and at the last second, I caught Terrance in the corner of my eye,’’ said Scott, who passed for 387 yards and the one TD.
"We were on the same page," Miller said.
It went into overtime after Arizona kicker John Bonano missed a 25-yard field goal from the right hash with two seconds left in regulation, his second missed field goal of the game from under 30 yards. Bonano successfully replaced a wildly inconsistent Alex Zendejas at midseason last year.
"John will make those," Rodriguez said. “He’s a good kicker. He’ll bounce back."
Said linebacker Jake Fischer: "Who cares? One play doesn’t define the whole game. ... We didn’t feel we played as well as we should have."
The missed field was just one example of the teams failing to execute when presented with scoring opportunities.
Arizona went without a huddle all game, constantly pressing the pace -- or at least attempting to -- in an attempt to speed up its offense.
Getting the offense going wasn't a problem, as UA racked up 624 total yards to Toledo's 358. But those yards didn't translate into points consistently.
Earlier this summer, Rodriguez spoke about every possession being "like gold."
Arizona
sure didn’t treat them like a high-priced investment Saturday night. Two fumbles and a missed a 24-yard yard field goal by the usually consistent
Bonano kept Arizona’s otherwise-productive offense from scoring a parade
of points.
The most costly mistake might have been Richard
Morrison's fumble on the Toledo 9-yard line after a reception. At the
time, Arizona was up 3-0 and riding some momentum after Toledo had
missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt.
It could have been worse: More people could have shown up to see it in person. Arizona announced a crowd of 48,670, the second-lowest attendance for a home opener since 2003. Consider this: Seven of eight Mike Stoops home openers were better.
The Labor Day weekend, the national television broadcast and the capacity being just above 51,000 because of construction on the stadium’s north end zone all could have played a factor in the small-ish crowd.
Still, Rodriguez applauded the fans, saying the student section “was phenomenal’’ although many "got lost at halftime," he said, referring to those who left early.
Those who stayed deep into the night saw Arizona’s much-criticized defense hold up in the fourth quarter -- most notably getting Toledo to punt with 4:41 left -- and give Arizona a last chance to take the lead late in regulation.
That chance existed in part because of sophomore running back Ka’Deem Carey. After breaking runs for 12 and 18 yards, along with a few short ones here and there, Carey broke loose for a career-high 73-yard run up the middle on a zone-read play to give Arizona a 17-14 lead in the third quarter.
Sure, Carey played some last year, but he played sparingly, rushing for just 425 yards on 91 carries. On Saturday night, he finished with 147 yards on 20 carries.
"He ran pretty hard," Rodriguez said. "Ka’Deem is a good football player. He’s a tough guy."
Wide receiver Austin Hill gave UA the lead at 10-7 with a spectacular diving catch in the end zone early in the second quarter.
Not long after, Hill hauled in a pass and, while trying to bull his way forward for extra yards, fumbled the ball away on a promising drive.
Fumbles weren’t the only problem. A 73-yard touchdown run by Daniel Jenkins was called back after an offensive lineman was penalized for holding. And late in the first half -- a series after Hill fumbled -- Scott missed a wide-open Morrison across the middle on a play that would have put UA inside the 20 yard line.
Arizona’s defense played as admirably as it could have, although it wasn’t good enough to stop Toledo on two big plays that eventually led to points.
Terrance Owens found a wide-open Alonzo Russell for a 59-yard score to give Toledo a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter, and about seven minutes later, an Owens 23-yard completion to Cordale Scott started a 10-play, 64-yard drive that ended with a touchdown that put Toledo up 14-10.
