TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona needed one more stop. It got it. It needed an onside kick recovery. Got that, too.
And then it really didn't need a miracle, just a 36-yard field goal from junior Casey Skowron.
But Arizona and Skowron didn't get it … the attempt sailed wide right. Game over as Skowron missed with 12 seconds left, giving USC a 28-26 win over No. 10 Arizona in front of a sellout crowd of 56,754 at Arizona Stadium.
It was the Wildcats' first loss in six games and they missed on a chance to move up again in the polls. But last week's national media darlings couldn't pull off a signature victory two weeks in a row, having beaten then-No. 2 Oregon in their last game. Saturday, the disappointment came after rallying late in the fourth quarter.
"You have to keep believing," UA safety Jared Tevis said. "We never got down on ourselves for a second. We just have to go out there and play every play and only worry about the next play unto the game stops."
It all but stopped with 12 seconds left with Skowron's miss.
But what would a UA season be without kicking issues? It's been a common theme for more seasons than fans would like to remember.
"When you lose on a last-second play it's not easy," said Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, visually upset at many of the postgame questions. "I like the way the guys played hard and competed, (but) we didn't play well at times. Gotta give them some credit. That's a pretty talented team. ... We didn't execute well.
"But we played for 60 minutes, that's what I ask them to do. We just didn't make a play to win it."
Arizona, once again, did everything it could to pull off what seemed like another crazy finish, getting on onside kick recovery on USC's 40-yard line with one minute left. It then drove to the USC 19-yard line to set up for the final kick.
Arizona quickly set up for the field goal and Skowron seemingly hit a game-winner, but not before USC called a timeout to have him think about it. Skowron, who entered the game 11 of 13 on field goal attempts, then missed his third field goal of the game.
"That shouldn't matter," Rodriguez said of USC's attempt at "icing the kicker" to get him rattled. "If nothing else that should get your bearings about you and ready to kick."
Said USC coach Steve Sarkisian: "It's hard to make two kicks in a row, and I'd like to think there is some timing involved."
Skowron, a converted soccer player, was not made available to the media after the game, but in an interview with FoxsportsArizona.com in August, he said he didn't mind the last-second timeouts. He also welcomed the pressure of late-game kicks.
"Nobody's perfect, but as a kicker you have to be," Skowron said in August.
Saturday night, he wasn't. Just as Arizona wasn't for most of the game. Skowron missed a 48-yarder on UA's first drive. A 34-yard field goal was blocked at the end the half. Then there was the kick to end the game.
"When I talked to him I told him he was still my boy and that I loved him," said UA senior receiver Austin Hill. "Kickers feel that all the weight is on them. But we should have never been in that situation in the first place. I tried to calm him down; he was upset. But he's OK and he's still our kicker."
The unsuccessful kick helped USC avoid two late-game meltdowns in consecutive weeks. Sarkisian, whose team lost to Arizona State on a Hail Mary last week, said he figures a higher power has a plan for his team, but he's still not sure what it is.
"Now, we know this is going to be our kind of games for a while," he said. "Every time we take the field, it's all hands on deck, and guys are going to get some action. It's great to be back in first place. Now back to work."
Arizona agreed with the back to work, after falling into a second-place tie with Arizona State in the Pac-12 South. Each is 2-1.
It was a case of missed opportunities for the Cats, who seemed allergic to the end zone, scoring just two touchdowns in eight red zone trips. Senior running back Terris Jones-Grigsby lost a fumble on the 9-yard-line and was injured on the play late in the first half. He didn't return.
"If you finish drives better in the first half instead of trying field goals, and you get touchdowns and you (don't) fumble inside the 10-yard line, you can finish more drives," Rodriguez said, when asked about not having to worry about getting an onside kick to possibly save the game. "You don't want to put yourself in that position."
But Arizona was there again, looking for a last-second win in what would have been its second in three games. Two weeks ago, it had a successful Hail Mary vs. California in a 49-45 win.
Saturday, it wasn’t meant to be. UA was outplayed and yet still had a great chance to win.
"I think the biggest thing is just to forget," Hill said. "People like to live off big victories; it's really bad to live off a loss. We're only halfway through the season and we have lot of big games ahead of us and we still have an opportunity to make a big splash and become the team we know we can be. ... I know we'll all get over it."
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