The road to Santa Clara, the site of this year’s Pac-12 championship game, is currently congested with contenders, particularly in the South Division. Among those teams are the Arizona Wildcats, who desperately need a win if they are to keep their hopes alive in the conference. Meanwhile, the Utah Utes, are virtually out of contention but a win over the Wildcats would give them a .500 conference record.
This matchup is an interesting one given its potential implications in the Pac-12 South. Does this game make it to our list of five best college football games to watch in Week 13? See for yourself here.
The Wildcats remained in contention for a spot in the Pac-12 championship game after recording a close 27-26 win over the Washington Huskies on November 15. Arizona now has a 5-2 conference record, tied for second in the Pac-12 South division with UCLA and Arizona State. For them to reach the conference championship, the Wildcats would have to rely on a combination of wins and losses by those other teams. For now, the best the Wildcats can do is beat the Utes on the road this coming Saturday.
[sc:NCAA240banner ]Against the Huskies, Arizona’s passing game was visibly contained. Wildcats quarterback Anu Solomon only had 242 passing yards (way below the team’s season average of 306.7 per game) with no touchdowns. He also had two interceptions, which doesn’t look too promising as the Wildcats are about to face Utah – one of the best defensive teams in the conference.
With Solomon and top wideout Cayleb Jones (788 receiving yards, 8 touchdowns) grounded, the Wildcats had to turn to their kicker Casey Skowron, who made both his field goal attempts and even ran for an 18-yard rushing touchdown run off a fake field goal.
Aside from getting their passing offense back in form against Utah, the Wildcats must also find a way to fix their leaky defense that allowed Washington to compile 504 total yards as against their 375.
Utah isn’t that big on passing (99th in the nation with only 189.9 passing yards per game) but the Wildcats have a tall task of bottling up the Utes’ rushing attack that ranks 54th in the nation with 177.5 yards per game. With that said, linebacker Scooby Wright should be a big factor for Arizona on defense. Wright is second in the nation in tackles for loss (22.0) and first in tackles for l0ss per game (2.20).
The Wildcats are 2-1 ATS in their last three games.
After suffering back-to-back losses to ranked teams in Arizona State (19-16) and Oregon (51-17), the Utes finally ended their slide with a 20-17 victory over the Stanford Cardinal on November 15. With nnew-found momentum, the No. 17 Utes will look to finish their season strong, beginning with a Saturday showdown with No. 15 Arizona, the last ranked opponent in their regular season schedule.
Utah’s win over the Cardinal was characteristic of every win by the Utes: do just enough on offense and let the defense take care of the rest. Of the Utes’ seven games, four were decided by a touchdown or less. The Utes limited Stanford to just 294 total yards, the first time the Cardinal were held to below 300 this season.
The Utes are giving up just 388.4 total yards per game, third best in the conference. Their success on defense has a lot to do with the havoc of defensive end Nate Orchard. Orchard had 3.5 sacks against Stanford and is the nation’s leader in sacks with 16.5.
Quarterback Travis Wilson played efficiently against a Stanford defense ranked No. 1 in passing yards allowed in the conference (171.5 yards per game). Wilson completed 21 of 28 passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Wilson will look to build on that performance when he faces a less imposing Wildcats pass defense that surrenders 286.4 yards per game.
However, Utah’s offense is more dependent on its backfield led by running back Devontae Booker. Booker is the team’s leader in rushing yards with 1,113 yards thus far this season to go along with eight touchdowns. Booker has seen his production slip lately, and has been held down to under 70 rushing yards in each of Utah’s last two games.
Utah is 3-2 ATS in its last five games as the home team.
