3 Players Arizona Needs to Shine Against Cincinnati
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Arizona is coming off an emotional win over Kansas to capture bowl eligibility. That's one big milestone that the Wildcats have aimed for this season.
The next would be to win on the road and shake up the Big 12. Taking down a Cincinnati team with just one conference loss would do just that.
Oddly enough, two of the relatively new additions to the conference have never played against each other before on the gridiron. In their first matchup, both teams really need this game for different reasons. Arizona still needs to prove it can take down teams atop the standings, while the Bearcats are coming off a bye after a humbling loss at Utah.
Arizona has come close this season to shaking up the standings. They narrowly lost at home to BYU and on the road at Houston. Had those games swung the other way, the narrative would be much different. Finally, however, the Wildcats closed a tight game strongly last week.
Trailing and needing a two-minute drive to win, the Wildcats stuck to the ground game and capped the game with a 24-yard touchdown run by Quincy Craig, who won Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week for his performance.
Brent Brennan has said the team isn't satisfied with just a bowl bid, and now is Arizona's chance to prove it. Facing an offense scoring 35.6 points per game (third in the Big 12), Arizona will have to play more complementary football. Here are three Wildcats who could make a difference on Saturday.
DB Treydan Stukes
Stukes has been all season for the Wildcats. He has 33 tackles and one sack alongside two interceptions and five pass breakups this season.
The senior defensive back came up with a huge play at the end of the third quarter against Kansas. Stukes had a late recovery and dove to knock away a pass in the corner of the end zone to keep the Jayhawks off the scoreboard. Looking back, it might have been a game-saving play.
Stukes will need to play like that again this weekend on the road. As the primary slot defender, he will line up against Cincinnati's leading receiver, Cyrus Allen. Arizona has played more men lately, but it's unlikely they'll ask Stukes to keep up with Allen all day.
Allen has 36 catches for 514 yards and ten touchdowns, taking the top off of defenses all year long. Brennan said this week that Allen is the best receiver Arizona has seen this season. Stukes will need to get his hands on the 5-foot-11 speedster and get him off his line, disrupting the flow of the offense.
LT Matthew Lado
After Ty Buchanan exited the game against Kansas, Lado saw more snaps from Noah Fifita's blindside and impressed. After allowing a sack, Lado only allowed one more pressure and was fierce in the run game. He helped open rushing lanes for Craig on the final series that led to the game-winning score.
Cincinnati's defensive line is not much to write home about. The Bearcats allow 155.6 rushing yards per game and they only have 16 sacks this season, both of which are toward the bottom of the Big 12.
Depending on the status of Buchanan for Saturday, Lado could get more playing time and have to anchor the left side of the offensive line. Fifita struggled with some of the pressure he was under against Kansas, but this should be a week where he can keep his eyes downfield more and move the chains.
LB Taye Brown
While the Bearcats are capable of big plays in the air with Allen catching passes from quarterback Brendan Sorsby, Cincinnati has a committee approach to running the ball.
Tawee Walker is Cincinnati's main threat on the ground. The Oklahoma transfer has 533 yards and four touchdowns this season, averaging 5.5 yards per carry. Evan Pryor missed Cincinnati's last game against Utah with an injury and is up in the air for this week. But if he plays, he is a problem as well, rushing for 478 yards and three touchdowns this year.
Sorsby is also known to run, which has given Arizona trouble this season. He's run for 453 yards and eight touchdowns. It all circles back to Arizona's front seven, with Brown being a key piece in the middle.
We saw Brown used as a spy at times on Jalon Daniels last week, and he got his nose in between the tackles to stuff the run. He stood out, making nine tackles in the game and boosting his season total to 63.
If the Wildcats have a chance to stop the Bearcats on the ground this week, Brown is a huge reason why. Cincinnati rushes for 195 yards per game, while Arizona allows 141.9 yards on the ground per game, much of which has come from quarterbacks.
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Logan Brown is an alumnus of the prestigious Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He currently works as a General College Sports Reporter On SI. Logan has an extensive background in writing and has contributed to Cronkite Sports, PHNX Sports, and Motion Graphics.
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