Bear Down Wildcats

Official Rules:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5272" target="_blank

Deadline for submissions:
September 23rd 2018 11:59pm

How to enter:
In THIS THREAD, you need to post your Analysis.
Your analysis can be a post-game analysis.
Your analysis can be a pre-game matchup analysis.
Your analysis can be a season-so-far analysis/discussion only of the UofA and its remaining season.
Your analysis can be a mix of the above, or something else entirely (but does need to be UofA Football related obviously) for example: your favorite UofA Uniform combo.
*If you have posted an analysis in another thread, you can copy and paste it into this one for your official submission, you do not have to write something entirely new.
**You may edit your post at any time you like, up UNTIL the deadline. After the deadline has passed, no more edits!

That's it, it's pretty simple really. A BDW panel of 3 will choose the best submission and the winner gets a pair of tickets to the USC @ UofA game.
Winner will be chosen Monday September 24th 2018.

Good luck to everyone and remember, don't be afraid to enter a submission, as your perspective will add to the message board and if you're the only one who enters you can even win by default

Also as a side note, if I see an interesting post in another thread, I'll copy it over to this thread as well and count it as an entry.

We need more entries

I am more excited for this game than I thought I would be a short two weeks ago.

I liked what I saw in the oregon st game. Speifically I oiked watching the offensive line open up holes and maintain blocks against a school that is in a power conference.
Even if that power conference is the Pac 12.
Even if that team was a bad Oregon st team.

The defense is not good but they looked better than they have all season.

If this were a previous USC team from the glory years I wouldn't give us a snowballs chance in the Tucson summer.

Actually I still dont think we have much of a shot at winning this game.

But if we can manage toget the run game going against USC we at least have somewhat of a chance.

For a team like Arizona I have seen those small chances be all that is needed.

Excitement level is rising.

If we can beat USC the excitement level will raise in more than just the diehard fans.

Bear Down

I'm gonna include this post as eligible:

EVCat wrote:

ByJoveByJingle wrote: 5) People tend to overvalue their ability to predict the future based on their early observations.

And fans are the worst.

From 10-2 to 2-10 based on the very early returns against a BYU team that just beat Wisconsin, and a Houston team that, admittedly, steamrolled us early. We did get within 1 yard of making it a 2 score game with 8 minutes left, but that series was maybe the most disturbing of the game.

The play calling isn't completely dialed in, and Tate coming up hobbling after being tackled certainly left him really only looking to pass and hand off against a poor SUU defense. But SUU's offense is good and was going to put a few on the board...the 17-17 period was concerning, but then we did what we are supposed to do and ran 31 straight against an FCS team.

Oregon State's over/under to start the season was 1.5, and that was with SUU and Nevada on their schedule. They are bad. We know we are not that level of bad, especially with OL more intact. We should know this coaching staff is an upgrade, but 2 games with a battered and missing offensive line against a pretty decent BYU team, as it turns out, and a walk on vs Ed Oliver in Houston at 9am has completely changed that narrative? The overreactions both positive and negative are like a roller coaster. I don't know if people say we are going to be 2-10 to express their anger, or to lessen expectations, or what, but there is no fkn way we lose out. Or even, IMO, fall under 6 wins. The PAC South is garbage. ASU has almost eliminated running as an option and Michigan State is not going to win a lot of games in the Big 10. Utah? Jesus...who knows who they are ever. UCLA looked awful. Worse than us against a less talented squad than either of our losses. USC seems just confused as to what to do. Colorado? Shit, if I wanted to overreact, I'd say they are winning the division based on their bashing of bad teams.

The gut punch happened. BYU. They are better than we thought. Houston was a disaster from the jump. SUU came at a great time. So does Oregon State. Mazzone and Tate will dial in at some point, when Tate isn't throwing against our own subpar defense and giving the OC visions of a pocket passer and there is some real film at game speed. We could already see some shifting of the pocket and read option calls (Tate handed them all off after tweaking his ankle), and Tate, quite simply, throws one of the best off balance deep balls I have seen. Trust will build, the right way to run this offense will become apparent, and we get to tune the dial in vs Oregon State first in a fantastically helpful bit of scheduling. It will be in the mid-70s, not a threat of weather, and our talent beats OSU at nearly every position. And, hopefully, we take what we are given with that advantage and further figure out what works best on offense that can utilize Tate's excellent arm while having him run enough to not get killed but keep defenses honest, and to get big plays.

I think we end up 6-6. We'll be 2-2 after this week. And there are plenty of toss-up games to win. And I think we beat an ASU team that has all but given up on the run and will get Manny Wilkins killed.

I'll include this post as eligible:

OSUCat wrote:That was a nice solid game. It was nice feeling that the defense could make a stop versus thinking that only the opponent offense can stop themselves.

Oh, and a fake field goal was great to see.

I'll include this post as eligible:

ByJoveByJingle wrote:I’ll play Devil’s advocate:

1) Oregon State is marginally a Power 5 school
2) Our defense is no worse than any of the typical RR defenses. In fact, it looks identical to the RR defense, including giving up big plays on 3rd and long.
3) We won a lot of games under RR with those defenses
4) Leaving the question, can we score enough to win games the way we did over the past 6 years? I don’t recall scoring over 60 points a lot of times under RR, even against the patsies on our schedule. Was it an anomaly? Is Southern Utah truly that much worse than the other bad non-con opponents we’ve played? Or, did the offense turn a corner?
5) People tend to overvalue their ability to predict the future based on their early observations.

I think we beat Oregon State. And I think we win a minimum of 4 games this year.

I'll include this post as eligible:

ASUHATER! wrote:They gave up 21 to UNLV, 36 to WSU and 37 to Texas. Won't. E impossible to score on their defense, but our lines will both get smacked around by theirs and the holes we had running the last 2 weeks won't be there. I still probably think a like 41-31 type win for USC is likely.

and this one too:

scumdevils86 wrote:If we lose by less than 20 I'll be blown away

I just realized that I probably missed the cutoff. Keep it up anyway

I figured I would give this a try.

Breakdown of USC Offense:

-Their offensive line has an average size of over 6'2 and 300lbs.
-Their starting QB is a freshman from Mater Dei.
-RB Vavae Malepeai leads the team with 5 TDs.

I have not watched much of USC this year, so take my analysis with a grain of salt.

JT Daniels is coming off of an efficient game against Wazzu where he was 17/26 for 241 yds and 3 TDs. Probably his best game of the season.
Over the first four games of the season, USC's running attack appears to be led by Vavae Malepeai and Stephen Carr, with Maleapeai getting the most touches against Wazzu.
Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyler Vaughns are the Trojan's leading receivers with 21 and 20 receptions a piece. Amon-Ra has 342 yds and two TDs this season. Vaughns has 221 yds and 1 TD.

As usual USC sports a massive offensive line. I don't need to dive too deep into that.


Breakdown of USC Defense:

USC has a massive defensive line and lots of size in both their LB corps and secondary.
USC Defense is giving up an average of 27.75 points per game.
LB Porter Gustin leads the team in Sacks with 5.

The USC defense is large (big surprise). As for their rank. They came in at 93rd with respect to total yards surrendered. It is important to note the level of competition they have faced thus far (Texas, Stanford, WSU). Against both Texas and WSU they surrendered over 30 points. The statistic that stuck out to me is that USC is giving up an average of 179.5 yards on the ground. Perhaps a potential weakness?

As this is an Arizona site, I won't breakdown the Wildcats. Moving on.

Matchups:

Arizona Offense vs. USC Defense:

I expect USC to impose their will on our offensive line. We should be a little better considering that Freikh (sp) seemed to improve our O line play against Oregon St. If we have chances here, I think it will depend on our ability to get our running backs the ball in space, and run plays to the edge. I would not count on Tate using his legs, he has shown a reluctance to run and I expect his legs to be a non factor. As always, if we find success with the run game, the pass game will open up. As much as I would like to see us roll, I think their defense has too much size and will bully us for four quarters.

Advantage USC

Arizona Defense vs. USC Offense:

Our undersized defense will take on the big boys of USC. From my glance at the numbers, USC appears to be better in the passing game than the running game. Which means UofA's opportunity to slow that down will depend on how well they can pressure the QB. Judging by their advantage in size, it will be difficult. Arizona is allowing 218.5 yards through the air to the tune of 10.5 yds/comp.

Advantage: USC

Game Analysis:

Look for the Trojans to jump out to an attack that will feature more passing than run. As they take control of the game, their run attack will increase. UofA will probably put some points up towards the end of the game. With that said, it will not do much but make the score look a little better.

Final Prediction USC 38 UofA 14

Random Predictions:

-JT Daniels will pass for over 300yds.
-Brightwell will out touch Taylor for UofA.
-Tate will throw an interception this game.
-UofA will have a RB go for over 100 yds.

WildcatStunner wrote:I just realized that I probably missed the cutoff. Keep it up anyway

I figured I would give this a try.

Breakdown of USC Offense:

-Their offensive line has an average size of over 6'2 and 300lbs.
-Their starting QB is a freshman from Mater Dei.
-RB Vavae Malepeai leads the team with 5 TDs.

I have not watched much of USC this year, so take my analysis with a grain of salt.

JT Daniels is coming off of an efficient game against Wazzu where he was 17/26 for 241 yds and 3 TDs. Probably his best game of the season.
Over the first four games of the season, USC's running attack appears to be led by Vavae Malepeai and Stephen Carr, with Maleapeai getting the most touches against Wazzu.
Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyler Vaughns are the Trojan's leading receivers with 21 and 20 receptions a piece. Amon-Ra has 342 yds and two TDs this season. Vaughns has 221 yds and 1 TD.

As usual USC sports a massive offensive line. I don't need to dive too deep into that.


Breakdown of USC Defense:

USC has a massive defensive line and lots of size in both their LB corps and secondary.
USC Defense is giving up an average of 27.75 points per game.
LB Porter Gustin leads the team in Sacks with 5.

The USC defense is large (big surprise). As for their rank. They came in at 93rd with respect to total yards surrendered. It is important to note the level of competition they have faced thus far (Texas, Stanford, WSU). Against both Texas and WSU they surrendered over 30 points. The statistic that stuck out to me is that USC is giving up an average of 179.5 yards on the ground. Perhaps a potential weakness?

As this is an Arizona site, I won't breakdown the Wildcats. Moving on.

Matchups:

Arizona Offense vs. USC Defense:

I expect USC to impose their will on our offensive line. We should be a little better considering that Freikh (sp) seemed to improve our O line play against Oregon St. If we have chances here, I think it will depend on our ability to get our running backs the ball in space, and run plays to the edge. I would not count on Tate using his legs, he has shown a reluctance to run and I expect his legs to be a non factor. As always, if we find success with the run game, the pass game will open up. As much as I would like to see us roll, I think their defense has too much size and will bully us for four quarters.

Advantage USC

Arizona Defense vs. USC Offense:

Our undersized defense will take on the big boys of USC. From my glance at the numbers, USC appears to be better in the passing game than the running game. Which means UofA's opportunity to slow that down will depend on how well they can pressure the QB. Judging by their advantage in size, it will be difficult. Arizona is allowing 218.5 yards through the air to the tune of 10.5 yds/comp.

Advantage: USC

Game Analysis:

Look for the Trojans to jump out to an attack that will feature more passing than run. As they take control of the game, their run attack will increase. UofA will probably put some points up towards the end of the game. With that said, it will not do much but make the score look a little better.

Final Prediction USC 38 UofA 14

Random Predictions:

-JT Daniels will pass for over 300yds.
-Brightwell will out touch Taylor for UofA.
-Tate will throw an interception this game.
-UofA will have a RB go for over 100 yds.

WildcatStunner, this was an excellent post and entry for the contest.

You won the tickets

I'll be sending you a PM to get the details on where to send the tickets, please make sure you respond asap

Congrats again!

PieceOfMeat wrote:I'll include this post as eligible:

ASUHATER! wrote:They gave up 21 to UNLV, 36 to WSU and 37 to Texas. Won't. E impossible to score on their defense, but our lines will both get smacked around by theirs and the holes we had running the last 2 weeks won't be there. I still probably think a like 41-31 type win for USC is likely.

and this one too:

scumdevils86 wrote:If we lose by less than 20 I'll be blown away

thanks