Fade Arizona After Their Biggest Win of the Year

The Arizona Wildcats were able to snap a four-game losing streak and end UCLA’s College Football Playoff chances all in one foul swoop last weekend but now I think it’s time to fade them. We’ll go over why you should bet against the Wildcats this weekend and then preview their game as well.

Why Fade Them?

The Wildcats enter this week as +4 point home underdogs against Washington State and despite their big win last week I think the Cougars should be the play here. Arizona is 0-3 after a win this season and after their biggest win in a long time, this game has huge letdown potential.

Washington State has been solid this season and 7-3 ATS on the year. The Cougars enter this week off back-to-back conference wins and have looked stellar on defense. One of the only strengths this Arizona team has is their offense but Washington State’s defense is 18th in the country in average points allowed with only 20.1 points per game.

Arizona’s defense might have been able to come up big last weekend against UCLA but as I mentioned before this could be a big letdown spot for the defense. On the season the Wildcats have allowed an average of 38.2 points per game so if they come out sluggish this week Cougars quarterback Cam Ward will take full advantage.

Wazzu has put up 80 combined points on conference opponents in the last two weeks and Cam Ward is now up to 20 touchdown passes on the season. If Arizona comes out with an upset “hangover” this Cougars team can run up the score very quickly, not to mention their defense's ability to create turnovers. I think the play is Wazzu -4 on the road this weekend to knock Arizona back into reality.

Game Preview

As previously mentioned Arizona is coming off a 34-28 win over UCLA and they enter this week averaging 31.2 points per game on offense. The combination of quarterback Jayden De Laura and wide receiver Jacob Cowing has become one of the most electric duos in the country. De Laura has thrown for 24 touchdowns on the season and Cowing has caught 7 touchdowns and racked up 956 on the season.

Defensively is where Arizona has really struggled this season, the previous four games they played before UCLA the Wildcats' defense allowed 45 or more points in all four of them. The only times they haven’t allowed 39 or more points to be scored is in their four wins. I mentioned it before but this Wazzu offense is no joke and Cam Ward enters this week averaging 264 passing yards a game.

Look out for Cougars wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling as he could very easily take advantage of this lackluster Arizona pass defense. As for the Washington State defense their ability to limit the passing game has been impressive so if they force Arizona to have to run the ball more it sets up a huge advantage for Wazzu.