Grading Arizona football’s performance in win at Washington State

"Pac-12 after dark" energy showed up in Arizona's 34-24 win over Washington State. Despite a slow start, the Wildcats finished the game the right way and left the Palouse to end non-conference play 3-0.

Arizona (3-1, 0-1 Big 12), heads back to Tucson for the home conference opener against unbeaten Cincinnati. Here are the grades for the offense, defense, special teams, and coaching from the win over the Cougars:

A slow start allowed Washington State to gain the early confidence as the underdogs. Noah Fifita was sacked two times between the first two drives, and Fifita did not help cut into the deficit. In fact, he helped add to it when he threw a pick-six on the third drive to put Arizona down 14-0.

Four plays later, the offense found the end zone when Fifita hit Tre Spivey on a short crossing route and he used the open space to fight his way for the score from 28 yards out. The two connected again on the next drive from four yards out to tie the game.

Arizona did not score again until the second half and got into field goal range twice but special teams missed a field goal and another attempt was blocked. It took Fifita finding freshman Caleb Smith on three straight plays for Arizona to take its first lead of the game.

Passes of three, 41, and 38 yards finally got the Wildcats out in front and from there they did not relinquish the lead. Fifita got the offense into field goal range again and got points on the drive, and on the following drive he led it down the field again to connect with Isaiah Mizell from 11 yards to make it a two score game.

The Wildcats put on one more field goal to put the game out of reach, and while it was not always pretty, the offense got the job done. Fifita finished 22-36 for 297 yards and four touchdowns with one interception.

Ismail Mahdi finished as the leading rusher with 63 yards on ten carries. Spivey led the receiver room with 129 yards on seven catches for two touchdowns.

In total, the offense had 447 yards with 297 through the air and 150 yards on the ground. It had 24 first downs, went 7-15 on third down, and probably one of the most important stat as it went 3-3 in the red zone.

Washington State drove down the field and punched Arizons in the mouth with an opening drive touchdown. The Wildcats responded with an interception, this one courtesy of Cam Chapa .

From there on out, the defense had many bend but don't break moments. The Cougars did on a field goal before the half to take the lead into the break.

The Wildcats got their second turnover of the game when Everett Roussaw Jr. forced a fumble and it was recovered by Tre Smith . Towards the end of the game, Arizona was in position to get a stop to have a good chance to put the game away.

Chase Kennedy got a sack to put Washington State behind the sticks but on fourth down a busted coverage allowed the Cougars to score from 46 yards out. Arizona got one last stop to seal the game on a fourth down stop.

Jay'Vion Cole led the day for Arizona with six tackles and half a tackle for loss. Max Harris had half a tackle for loss as well, and Mays Pese , Cooper Blomstrom , Jabari Mann , and Dominic Lolesio all had a tackle for loss. Mann also added in a sack.

The defense gave up 335 total yards with 241 passing yards and 94 rushing yards. Arizona did well on third down holding the Cougars to 4-14 on third down.

Some good and some bad came from the special teams unit in Pullman. The highlight of the day came from Smith's blocked field goal.

Michael Salgado-Medina had an up and down performance, which is pretty on par for him at this point. His first attempt of the day missed wide right from 42 yards out, and his next attempt was blocked from 43 yards.

However, he did respond well with two made attempts from 27 and 51 yards to help extend Arizona's lead. Chase Ridley had three punts that averaged 40 yards per punt, which helped the Wildcats' in the field position battle.

All in all, the special teams unit continues to show that it can make plays to help Arizona take the game flow away from its opponents.

Back to back weeks of slow starts is not ideal but the way the Wildcats have finished these games is going to be a key piece in how they treat the rest of the conference slate. It almost solidifies that regardless of how games start, Arizona will be confident in their ability to finish the job.

This is something that Arizona did not do well against BYU and clearly the Wildcats have learned from that game. Of course, there are things to clean up but Brent Brennan has his players in positions to finish games and have a "never quit" mindset.

Defensively, penalties will need to be cleaned up and the secondary needs to continue to focus on the details. The run game has been solid through four games, outside of BYU, but game by game it continues to improve.

Fifita is connecting more and more with his receivers despite Giovanni Richardson being out with injury. Spivey, Mizell, Smith have all stepped up and are strong targets for Fifita to look for.

The run game needs to continue to improve but Mahdi showed exactly what he brought last season. Explosiveness and a change of pace from the other ball carriers.

It's clear that this team only cares about winning. It does not care about how it gets to the finish line, just as long as it crosses the line with a win. A team that can continue fighting in spite of many mistakes can become very dangerous.