Casey Skowron hits game winner, lifts Arizona over Washington

This is why you stay the whole, people. Three of Arizona’s home games have come down to the final play of the game. Anu Solomon’s Hail Mary to Austin Hill for the win against California, Casey Skowron’s missed game-winning field goal against USC, and now, Casey Skowron’s redemption against Washington, nailing the game-winning 47 yard field goal. The Arizona Wildcats are now 8-2 on the season.

Coming in at #14 in the nation, Washington was an opponent Arizona is expected to beat, but the thought of potentially losing plagued all Arizona fans all week. Losing to Washington would have been “a total Arizona Football move” according to most, beating teams like Oregon, but losing against teams like Washington, Washington State, Colorado, etc.

Arizona’s offense doesn’t seem to have much rhythm when matched up against a decent defense. Their best offensive showings have come against UNLV, Nevada, Cal, Oregon, Washington State and Colorado. All teams who have a defense ranked in the bottom half of the nation, four of which are ranked in the bottom 25 in the nation.

Arizona went 3-15 on third down conversions, meanwhile Washington went 13-22 on third down, a frustrating day. Finishing with a quarterback rating of 20.8/100, Anu Solomon continues to struggle with reads and throws. Yes, he’s a freshman and he’s going through some growing pains, but when it comes to playing against some of the top defense’s in the country such as Utah and Arizona State, we’ll see. Arizona has been touted for having one of the top receiving groups in the nation, but they sure drop a few more passes than Arizona fans would like, which doesn’t help Anu.

Nick Wilson was effective, but it seems as if Rich Rod could call better plays for him as he is constantly getting stuffed at the line of scrimmage. Wilson finished with 103 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries. Casey Skowron was also Arizona’s second leading rusher, finishing with one carry for 18 yards and a touchdown on a fake field goal attempt.

All Washington had to do was run the ball three times and run the clock out. They were able to run it one time before fumbling, giving Arizona one last gleam of hope. From there, the offense was able to get it in position for Casey Skowron to lift Arizona, and he did. The final second win continues to give Arizona hope to win the Pac-12 South, but still need a lot to happen. ASU also lost last night.