Three Keys to Success on Defense for Arizona
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The Arizona Wildcats handled the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors with ease on last Saturday's 40-6 win. By the end of that game, the Arizona defense had produced five turnovers, including three interceptions, a forced fumble created by Chase Kennedy and scooped by Julian Savaiinaea, and a fourth-down stop.
If there is one thing that Arizona fans can take away from that game and the defensive performance, it's that the players have absolutely bought into the Danny Gonzales scheme. Still, they have much to prove and are not yet satisfied with the win.
"As a football team, we won a football game, but there is so much to clean up across the board on all three phases," Gonzales said.
The Wildcats are now looking to build off the systemic dismantling of Hawaii by carrying the dominance over to the next game.
Arizona now has its eyes set on a hungry Weber State football team that plans on avenging its 45-10 loss to James Madison and correcting the mistakes that were made on the offensive side of the ball.
Here is a collection of three keys to dominance that the defense will be looking to achieve to come out of the Weber State game the same way it did against Hawaii.
Nullify the run game.
James Madison made the run game of Weber State nearly nonexistent, allowing a mere 64 yards on the ground against a mixed formation offense that utilizes the run to its advantage at times.
Arizona has a disciplined front of linemen and backers that allowed just 67 yards of rushing offense to a Hawaii team that attempted to run the ball 29 times, making that an average of 2.3 yards per carry.
Taking away the rushing attack of the Rainbow Warriors is what made Arizona very successful in that game and doing the same to Weber State should entail the same results.
Pressure Jackson Gilkey
The James Madison defense was not able to get a sack on sophomore quarterback Jackson Gilkey, but was able to pressure him enough into making mistakes that led to three interceptions while also throwing a subpar 10-for-24, 84 yards and one touchdown.
Arizona, despite allowing 223 yards through the air, sacked quarterbacks Micah Alejado and Luke Weaver five times and finished with 10 QB hits on the night.
When the pressure was not able ot get to Alejado in the first half, that is where he was able to find his check downs and move the chains. When it did, it caused two of the three interceptions.
Should Arizona's pass rush get to Gilkey and overwhelm him, he is in for a long night against a swarming Arizona defense.
Shut down the receivers
Gilkey found a small amount of success when he was able to find his open receivers in the few drives that worked somewhat effectively.
Arizona's room of talented cornerbacks did a good job in holding wide receivers Pofele Adhlock, Jackson Harris and Tama Uilata to minimal yardage.
Arizona shouldn't have any issue in doing the same to the Weber State receiving corps, as there weren't any players who went over two catches against James Madison.
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Nathaniel Martinez and a set of shoulder pads at 7 years old. He later graduated from Pima Community College in 2023, where he began writing for the Pima Post. He is working to achieve a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication and Media Studies.