Sunday morning streamofconsciousness wildcat rant

Charlie Brown probably said it best: “AAAAARRGHHHH!!!!”  While I am not sure he was right, MacIntyre was visibly and audibly frustrated after the loss and thought this was a team they could have beaten, but there were just too many mistakes by everyone in black and pink (helmets were cool, but Oregon’s uniforms are really cool because they actually win games). The defense once again gave up video games numbers to the opposing offense. This was just a frustrating but becoming all too typical Buffs game where the team shows small flashes of hope and then manages to follow it up with a bad play or decision, or just plain give up a huge play.  And it happened all day, at the most inopportune times, again. A few of the many examples: A couple of times the defense made a big third down stop only to give it up easily on 4^th down.  Just as everyone was talking and tweeting about how Parker Orms was playing great, he got toasted.  After Chidera blocked a pass like Dikembe Mutumbo and pounded his chest, he got beat around the end a few plays later.  Arizona was flagged for some really stupid penalties (including a Pac12 ref classic of personal foul for abusive language) but the Buffs rarely were able to take advantage.  When they took a 13-10 lead late in the second quarter, they immediately allow Arizona to easily drive down the field and score a touchdown.  To compound matters the offense then went three and out, and forced the defense back onto the field where they promptly gave two big plays, including a jump ball in the endzone: 24-10 at half, seventeen point swing in just a few minutes.  The end of the second quarter and beginning of the third has generally been terrible for the Buffs and it was no different here as Arizona then easily extended the lead after halftime.  While the Buffs did get a TD to close back within 14 points, and then get the ball back to drive for a 1^st and goal, they came away with squadoosh. Sefo showed some poise and made some nice plays at times, but also showed he was a freshman playing big boy football.  I don’t beileve the Buffs succeeded in any of their keys to the game from anyone’s list. Although the defense “held” Ka’Deem Carey to 119 yards, he did score 4 touchdowns, and while the defense was gang tackling him even when he didn’t have the ball, QB BJ Denker jogged for 192 yards (15 carries at almost 13 yards a clip) and a couple more TDs of his own. The coaches made a ton of questionable calls on fourth down: three times kicking 50+ FGs (going 2-3 but only six points); going for it at 4^th down from the 5 and failing, down only 14 and the defense having stopped Arizona the previous possession; then, the most inexplicable, although Macintyre swears he would call it again, having Darragh O’Neill try to run for five yard from inside his own 20 still only down 14-he gained one yard. I had said they needed to try some risky things but that play was one of the many joke calls on the day, another being P-Rich running the exact same reverse pass he has done before and Arizona sniffing it out like fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies (P-Rich made a nice play to throw the ball away).  Overall, P-Rich got the better of his cousin in the one-on-one battles, but Shaquille has the true bragging rights at Thanksgiving. The offensive and defensive lines are just so overmatched in this league, both terrible in regards to the run, and no better versus the pass, the talent gap is just huge and not sure any help is on the way in recruiting.  There were probably some more positives hidden within that game, but they are hard to sift out.  The next two weeks on the road are going to be bad, very bad, with UCLA and Washington taking out their personal frustrations on a weaker, smaller, slower team.  On top of the schedule, P-Rich sprained an ankle (says he’s fine but we’ll see) and Michael Adkins sustained a concussion.