It was the biggest win of the year for Arizona with the Wildcats taking down then-No. 19 Oregon 44-15 in a game that saw everything come together Kevin Sumlin's squad. Surprisingly, it was not the best game of the season for UA when it came to the Pro Football Focus grades, but there were certainly a lot of positives from the company when it evaluated the 'Cats.
Once again I will dive back into the grades and relay the information to you from last Saturday's game as the Wildcats are now just a couple days away from their next game with Colorado coming to town Friday night.
As always, if you want to take a look back at last week's grades from the UCLA game you can view those here to see where the team went up and down during the game with Oregon. Here are this week's grades.
Offense (players who played 40+ snaps)
1. JJ Taylor - 72.4 (67 snaps)
2. Shawn Poindexter - 67.1 (50 snaps)
3. Cody Creason - 66.5 (89 snaps)
4. Shun Brown - 66.2 (72 snaps)
5. Bryson Cain - 62.9 (43 snaps)
6. Josh McCauley - 62.1 (89 snaps)
7. Khalil Tate - 61.2 (89 snaps)
8. Layth Friekh - 59.0 (89 snaps)
9. Donovan Laie - 58.9 (89 snaps)
10. Bryce Wolma - 56.9 (49 snaps)
11. Michael Eletise - 56.0 (47 snaps)
12. Tony Ellison - 55.9 (50 snaps)
13. Cedric Peterson - 51.9 (41 snaps)
Top 3 to date (400+ snaps): Shawn Poindexter - 81.7 (483 snaps), JJ Taylor 73.3 (415 snaps), Cody Creason - 70.9 (674 snaps)
Defense (players who played 45+ snaps)
1. Scottie Young Jr. - 80.6 (63 snaps)
2. Azizi Hearn - 77.6 (63 snaps)
3. Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles - 77.2 (63 snaps)
4. PJ Johnson - 75.6 (51 snaps)
5. Colin Schooler - 72.7 (63 snaps)
6. Dereck Boles - 70.6 (53 snaps)
7. Tony Fields II - 66.5 (49 snaps)
8. Tristan Cooper - 64.8 (63 snaps)
9. Jalen Harris - 62.2 (58 snaps)
10. JB Brown - 61.4 (49 snaps)
Top 3 to date (350+ snaps): PJ Johnson - 81.9 (354 snaps), Colin Schooler 81.6 (631 snaps), Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles - 78.0 (610 snaps)
Takeaways
* Offense: A little bit of a surprise this week as the offensive grades weren't as high as I expected they would be. For the most part they are pretty close to the same grades the offense received against UCLA in what was a completely different type of game. JJ Taylor led the way with players who were on the field for more than 40 snaps with a 72.4 overall. His 84.9 in pass protection was among the best grades of the week. Freshman receiver Thomas Marcus, who had his first catch, was the leader despite playing just three snaps with an 81.1 for his performance.
The best individual grade for a single category went to left tackle Layth Friekh who had an 89.0 for his pass protection grade. The pass protection category is where the Wildcats had their best grades by far this week.
As a team it was the best pass protection grade of the season as the Wildcats earned a 94.6 which was the best since the 96.2 they earned in the game against Southern Utah.
* Defense: Defensively it was a very good week for the Wildcats compared to the rest of the season. That is a little less surprising considering how well the group played against the Ducks. The good thing for UA was there were some new names atop the list this week with Scottie Young Jr. finally getting to the top with his 80.6. It was interesting that many of the players who played the most snaps also had the best grades in Saturday's game which is not something that has happened a lot this year.
Azizi Hearn was one of the new names at the top with his 77.6 which was helped by his coverage grade of 78.8. When he has had a chance to be on the field for an extended period the walk-on cornerback has put together strong performances. Sumlin mentioned this week he thought Saturday's game was the best coverage and tackling game the team has had this year.
Colin Schooler had the best grade in a single category with his tackling grade coming in at an 83.8 It was the best tackling week of the season according to PFF as well with all but one player earning a 72.0 or above with Lorenzo Burns' 27.9 being the only one that didn't make it into that group.
Saturday's game marked the second-best tackling grade (88.8) and the best coverage grade (85.7) of the season. The previous season highs in each category came against Southern Utah and Cal, respectively.
* Here's how Arizona currently stacks up nationally through nine games when it comes to the top categories with last week's positions in parenthesis.
Overall: 82.0 (No. 82 - up from No. 87)
- Offense: 72.7 (No. 75 - down from No. 69)
Pretty standard moves this week. The interesting thing was that while some of the numbers improved Arizona's standing among the rest of the FBS didn't move as much as the actual grades did. Pass blocking stands out as one of the couple categories that moved up for UA with a pretty decent jump up to No. 32 this wek.
On defense there were a few categories that helped Arizona move up the list with the overall defense jumping up a few spots to No. 84 after its showing against Oregon. The run defense received a nice bump up while the tackling grade being good this week helped that spot move up as well. Where the big change came was in the coverage rankings with UA moving up to No. 74 from No. 103 last week after a strong game in that area against the Ducks.
* Now we'll take the weekly look at the quarterback position and the passing chart for Khalil Tate in his return to the field after missing the last game and a half of action with an ankle injury. The stats weren't spectacular, but the grades for Tate looked a little better than when he left meaning there has been some progress for the junior signal caller.
Some progress for Tate with throws over the middle of the field where he has struggled at times. His best two grades of the week came on throws over the middle with his top grade being throws in between the numbers from 10-20 yards as he earned an 84.7 on those throws while going 2 for 2 with 28 yards. His second-best grade came on short throws over the middle as he earned an 80.6 on throws between the numbers from 0-10 yards. He went 6 for 8 on those throws for 66 yards and two touchdowns.
His two lowest grades came on throws down the field with his throws over 20 yards in between the numbers getting him a 41.6 and his throws to the right side of the field outside the numbers coming in with a grade of 45.7. He was 0 for 5 on those throws plus an interception.
Once again I will dive back into the grades and relay the information to you from last Saturday's game as the Wildcats are now just a couple days away from their next game with Colorado coming to town Friday night.
As always, if you want to take a look back at last week's grades from the UCLA game you can view those here to see where the team went up and down during the game with Oregon. Here are this week's grades.
Offense (players who played 40+ snaps)
1. JJ Taylor - 72.4 (67 snaps)
2. Shawn Poindexter - 67.1 (50 snaps)
3. Cody Creason - 66.5 (89 snaps)
4. Shun Brown - 66.2 (72 snaps)
5. Bryson Cain - 62.9 (43 snaps)
6. Josh McCauley - 62.1 (89 snaps)
7. Khalil Tate - 61.2 (89 snaps)
8. Layth Friekh - 59.0 (89 snaps)
9. Donovan Laie - 58.9 (89 snaps)
10. Bryce Wolma - 56.9 (49 snaps)
11. Michael Eletise - 56.0 (47 snaps)
12. Tony Ellison - 55.9 (50 snaps)
13. Cedric Peterson - 51.9 (41 snaps)
Top 3 to date (400+ snaps): Shawn Poindexter - 81.7 (483 snaps), JJ Taylor 73.3 (415 snaps), Cody Creason - 70.9 (674 snaps)
Defense (players who played 45+ snaps)
1. Scottie Young Jr. - 80.6 (63 snaps)
2. Azizi Hearn - 77.6 (63 snaps)
3. Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles - 77.2 (63 snaps)
4. PJ Johnson - 75.6 (51 snaps)
5. Colin Schooler - 72.7 (63 snaps)
6. Dereck Boles - 70.6 (53 snaps)
7. Tony Fields II - 66.5 (49 snaps)
8. Tristan Cooper - 64.8 (63 snaps)
9. Jalen Harris - 62.2 (58 snaps)
10. JB Brown - 61.4 (49 snaps)
Top 3 to date (350+ snaps): PJ Johnson - 81.9 (354 snaps), Colin Schooler 81.6 (631 snaps), Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles - 78.0 (610 snaps)
Takeaways
* Offense: A little bit of a surprise this week as the offensive grades weren't as high as I expected they would be. For the most part they are pretty close to the same grades the offense received against UCLA in what was a completely different type of game. JJ Taylor led the way with players who were on the field for more than 40 snaps with a 72.4 overall. His 84.9 in pass protection was among the best grades of the week. Freshman receiver Thomas Marcus, who had his first catch, was the leader despite playing just three snaps with an 81.1 for his performance.
The best individual grade for a single category went to left tackle Layth Friekh who had an 89.0 for his pass protection grade. The pass protection category is where the Wildcats had their best grades by far this week.
As a team it was the best pass protection grade of the season as the Wildcats earned a 94.6 which was the best since the 96.2 they earned in the game against Southern Utah.
* Defense: Defensively it was a very good week for the Wildcats compared to the rest of the season. That is a little less surprising considering how well the group played against the Ducks. The good thing for UA was there were some new names atop the list this week with Scottie Young Jr. finally getting to the top with his 80.6. It was interesting that many of the players who played the most snaps also had the best grades in Saturday's game which is not something that has happened a lot this year.
Azizi Hearn was one of the new names at the top with his 77.6 which was helped by his coverage grade of 78.8. When he has had a chance to be on the field for an extended period the walk-on cornerback has put together strong performances. Sumlin mentioned this week he thought Saturday's game was the best coverage and tackling game the team has had this year.
Colin Schooler had the best grade in a single category with his tackling grade coming in at an 83.8 It was the best tackling week of the season according to PFF as well with all but one player earning a 72.0 or above with Lorenzo Burns' 27.9 being the only one that didn't make it into that group.
Saturday's game marked the second-best tackling grade (88.8) and the best coverage grade (85.7) of the season. The previous season highs in each category came against Southern Utah and Cal, respectively.
* Here's how Arizona currently stacks up nationally through nine games when it comes to the top categories with last week's positions in parenthesis.
Overall: 82.0 (No. 82 - up from No. 87)
- Offense: 72.7 (No. 75 - down from No. 69)
- Passing: 66.5 (No. 102 - down from No. 95)
- Pass blocking: 84.2 (No. 32 - up from No. 46)
- Receiving: 69.7 (No. 65 - down from No. 59)
- Rushing: 73.4 (No. 66 - down from No. 62)
- Run blocking: 59.2 (No. 112 - up from No. 113)
- Defense: 87.0 (No. 84 - up from No. 92)- Pass blocking: 84.2 (No. 32 - up from No. 46)
- Receiving: 69.7 (No. 65 - down from No. 59)
- Rushing: 73.4 (No. 66 - down from No. 62)
- Run blocking: 59.2 (No. 112 - up from No. 113)
- Run defense: 87.8 (No. 78 - up from No. 88)
- Tackling: 87.7 (No. 37 - up from No. 45)
- Pass rush: 62.6 (No. 123 - down from No. 98)
- Coverage: 85.3 (No. 74 - up from No. 103)
- Special teams: 68.9 (No. 97 - down from No. 96) - Tackling: 87.7 (No. 37 - up from No. 45)
- Pass rush: 62.6 (No. 123 - down from No. 98)
- Coverage: 85.3 (No. 74 - up from No. 103)
Pretty standard moves this week. The interesting thing was that while some of the numbers improved Arizona's standing among the rest of the FBS didn't move as much as the actual grades did. Pass blocking stands out as one of the couple categories that moved up for UA with a pretty decent jump up to No. 32 this wek.
On defense there were a few categories that helped Arizona move up the list with the overall defense jumping up a few spots to No. 84 after its showing against Oregon. The run defense received a nice bump up while the tackling grade being good this week helped that spot move up as well. Where the big change came was in the coverage rankings with UA moving up to No. 74 from No. 103 last week after a strong game in that area against the Ducks.
* Now we'll take the weekly look at the quarterback position and the passing chart for Khalil Tate in his return to the field after missing the last game and a half of action with an ankle injury. The stats weren't spectacular, but the grades for Tate looked a little better than when he left meaning there has been some progress for the junior signal caller.
Some progress for Tate with throws over the middle of the field where he has struggled at times. His best two grades of the week came on throws over the middle with his top grade being throws in between the numbers from 10-20 yards as he earned an 84.7 on those throws while going 2 for 2 with 28 yards. His second-best grade came on short throws over the middle as he earned an 80.6 on throws between the numbers from 0-10 yards. He went 6 for 8 on those throws for 66 yards and two touchdowns.
His two lowest grades came on throws down the field with his throws over 20 yards in between the numbers getting him a 41.6 and his throws to the right side of the field outside the numbers coming in with a grade of 45.7. He was 0 for 5 on those throws plus an interception.
