slight favorite<\/a> after opening as a small underdog, do in this one? Our staff makes its predictions.<\/p>\nKim Doss \u2014 Houston wins 30-27<\/p>\n
Was the BYU game a sign of something positive or more evidence that Arizona will continue to be a team that almost gets there before falling short? The first quarter and the last few minutes of regulation, when the Wildcats let the other Cougars run all over them and then became penalty-prone, overshadow the positive parts in the middle of the game. They also make it tough to pick UA on the road against another team with a great record.<\/p>\n
Like BYU, Houston\u2019s record looks good but has its share of questionable competition. In this case, even more than BYU\u2019s slate. Victories over 4-2 Stephen F. Austin, which competes in the FCS. A victory over 3-4 Rice. Victories over Colorado (3-4, 1-3), Oklahoma State (1-5, 0-3), and Oregon State (0-7). That\u2019s not a terribly formidable lineup.<\/p>\n
That didn\u2019t matter against BYU despite homefield advantage. It\u2019s just too much to think Arizona will overcome its offensive inconsistency, special teams questions, and defensive errors like the two pass interference calls that helped BYU tie the game last week.<\/p>\n
Ezra Amacher \u2014 Houston wins 27-24<\/p>\n
This Saturday morning matchup against Houston is one of the more significant games of the Brent Brennan era up to this point. Arizona, coming off a disappointing double overtime loss to BYU, can\u2019t afford to let go of the rope like it did last season and let one tough defeat snowball into a bad performance. While I don\u2019t expect Arizona to leave Houston with a victory, I do think this game will be really close and come down to a single possession or two in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Houston, like Arizona, has an experienced quarterback to pair with a durable running attack. Houston\u2019s defense looks better on paper, but the Cougars haven\u2019t faced a challenging schedule outside a 35-11 loss to a great Texas Tech team. The separator in this game may very well come down to special teams. Houston\u2019s Ethan Sanchez ranks second nationally in made field goals and is the only kicker with multiple four field-goal games. Sanchez is 8 of 10 from 40+ yards, whereas Arizona\u2019s Michael Salgado-Medina is 3 of 8. Houston\u2019s edge in the kicking game has me riding with the Cougars for the second week in a row.<\/p>\n
Adam Green \u2014 Arizona wins 31-20<\/p>\n
Arizona should have beaten BYU. The Wildcats will beat Houston.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to look at this weekend\u2019s game and worry because it\u2019s an early kickoff, and those have not been kind over the years. But what happened last season clearly has no impact on what\u2019s going on this year, and what happened years ago certainly doesn\u2019t matter. This Arizona team has shown a level of maturity that\u2019s needed to move on from last week\u2019s disappointment, and this Arizona team has enough talent to win this game, especially against a Houston team that we all know isn\u2019t particularly special.<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s strength of schedule is 97th, and they don\u2019t have a single signature win on their schedule. Arizona\u2019s is 69th and while they also don\u2019t have a great win on their resume, they\u2019ve shown enough to the point where the betting markets see this one going the Cats\u2019 way.<\/p>\n
Will it be easy? Probably not. But lest you think there will be a hangover from last weekend, picture more the \u201823 game at Washington State that followed a disappointing triple OT loss to USC, another game that Arizona left knowing it should have won. That confidence carried over into the next game and the rest of the season, which is a scenario we are likely to repeat here (at least for this game).<\/p>\n
Juan Serrano \u2014 Arizona wins 38-21<\/p>\n
After some questionable offensive play-calling last week, I think Seth Doege and Noah Fifita have something to prove this week. While some plays may not have been executed correctly or might not have worked, there were still plays that did. The final play against BYU was there for the Wildcats. Javin Whatley makes that catch nine out of ten times, and if he does catch the ball the season has a whole different narrative right now. It just so happened that it was the one out of ten times he would drop it. There is still a lot of season left for Arizona and it has put itself in good standing for the second half of the season. The trip to Houston is a \u201cget right\u201d game and I think that will show with the offense. Whether it is on the ground with the running backs or through the air, I think Arizona is able to pick apart the Cougars defense.<\/p>\n
The defense has been the only consistent unit for Arizona this season. Time and time again they have taken the ball away from its opponents or have been able to bend but not break. The Wildcats have held their opponents to under 20 points per game on average. Houston scores around 30 points per game but against opponents who are not so good.<\/p>\n
Last weeks loss lit a fire into Arizona and I think they come out on fire to dominate Houston for a majority of the game to get its first road win of the season.<\/p>\n
Brandon Combs \u2014 Houston wins 27-21<\/p>\n
Last week, I stated that one of the reasons that Arizona would lose to BYU would be a miscue by special teams. Well, I think I nailed that one. One of the plays not being talked about enough is 26-yard punt return that the \u2018Cats gifted the Cougars with under three minutes left to go in the game. This set up BYU at the Arizona 47-yard line and the game-tying touchdown. Again, I think special teams will not be so special this game.<\/p>\n
The offensive issues have been well documented, especially after the heart-breaking loss last weekend. However, I believe the offense can fix itself (it\u2019ll need to in order to win this game). The nagging thing that I keep going back to is the special teams unit. They haven\u2019t really played a clean game all season. And that is worrisome. Due to that, I believe there will be another issue or two that\u2019ll put Houston in a position to capitalize and win the game.<\/p>\n
Brian Pedersen \u2014 Arizona wins 23-21<\/p>\n
Plain and simple, this is a must win for Arizona.<\/p>\n
With four of the last six games on the road, just relying on winning the two remaining home games to get bowl eligible is incredibly risky, especially since the next one isn\u2019t until Nov. 8. The Wildcats need to show they can win away from Arizona Stadium, and this is a great opportunity to do so.<\/p>\n
Houston has more wins already than a year ago but its \u201cbest\u201d win is against Colorado, and its offensive line is probably the worst in the conference. That can easily be exploited by Arizona\u2019s front seven.<\/p>\n
The key will be not falling behind early and taking care of the ball, two things the UA hasn\u2019t managed to do on the road save for once under Brent Brennan.<\/p>\n
(straight up\/against the spread)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 4-2 through one half of the 2025 season, Arizona has matched its win total from a year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4938,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-7893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-arizona-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}