UA Football: Washington 36, Arizona 33

It's going to take quite some time for Arizona to shake off this loss.

The story here is going to be Washington's (3-3, 2-1 Pac-10) miracle comeback. The Huskies deserve all the credit in the world for hanging tough and winning this game (36-33). They gave up a bunch of yards to Nick Foles, but they did a terrific job staying strong in the red zone.

They put themselves in position for that wacky Mason Foster interception off of Devin Ross' shoe. They put themselves in position for Jake Locker to continue making plays. He's the best player in this conference. What did Arizona (3-2, 1-1 Pac-10) expect? A team can't leave that many points on the field and expect to beat a guy like Locker in his home stadium.

Truth be told, Arizona lost this game when it couldn't convert that fourth-and-three-inches play just before halftime. Also, had the Cats turned two of those four Alex Zendejas field goals into touchdowns (not an unreasonable effort, considering where Zendejas was kicking those field goals from), the Foster play doesn't even occur.

Make no mistake about it -- the Wildcats won this in every conceivable statistical way. Foles threw for 384 yards, compared to Locker's 140. David Roberts had a spectacular game, hauling in 12 catches for 138 yards and a score. The Wildcats held a 19-minute time-of-possession advantage and outgained the Huskies 461 to 256.

Yet the Wildcats did everything in their power to blow this one.

The Pac-10 is wide open this year, and it would've been huge for this team to open with two straight wins on the road against two of the conference's better opponents.

Oregon is now the only undefeated team in conference play. Arizona drops from "in the mix" to "middle of the pack" in the span of a few minutes. In the topsy-turvy Pac-10, that's all it takes.

It'll be interesting to see what Mike Stoops has to say about this on Monday...

(Editor's note: Due to some internet connectivitiy issues, I've had an impossible time updating the blog in real time. To re-live the biggest moments of the game, keep reading.)

Updated 7 p.m. n Hello and welcome to another exciting (hopefully) Arizona football game. With Stanford losing 38-28 to Oregon State, the Wildcats suddenly find themselves playing for a share of the Pac-10 lead with Oregon.

With inexperience at quarterback and the loss of star tight end Rob Gronkowski, few thought the Wildcats would be in this position in their fifth game of the season, but here they are.

Standing in their way is the Washington Huskies. After an 0-12 campaign last season, Jake Locker has this crew playing much better football this season. The Huskies have played a brutal early season schedule, but have a huge win over USC to their credit.

Locker is talented enough to beat anyone on any given night, but Washington’s defense is among the nation’s worst. If Nick Foles can maintain his composure and a healthy Nic Grigsby can get rolling early, Arizona could come away with its second straight Pac-10 road win.

Arizona is coming off a bye week, while Washington lost at Notre Dame in an overtime shoot-out last Saturday.

Updated 7:30 p.m. n Arizona gets the first break in the game, with Robert Golden picking off Locker on a big third-and-11 play. Locker delivered the ball on target, but his intended wide receiver screwed up badly. The ball got tipped in the air and Golden was in the right place at the right time.

Huge play for Arizona, as Washington has been among the nation’s best at converting third downs.

Updated 7:40 p.m. n Greg Nwoko is a big, strong man. Nwoko capped off an impressive opening drive by running over the Huskies’ safety on his way to the end zone. 7-0 Wildcats.

Benefitting from a bone-headed late hit penalty that kept the drive alive after it looked to have stalled, the Wildcats easily marched the ball down the field once Foles fell into a rhythm. Between Grigsby, Keola Antolin and Nwoko, the Huskies will have their hands full trying to contain the run, which should open up the play-action game for Foles and his wideouts.

Updated 7:45 n That’s what Jake Locker can do for you.

Arizona appeared to have Locker cornered for a sack, but thanks to some poor tackling from Vuna Tuihalamaka (never go high on Locker, ever), Locker was able to break free and sprint into the end zone to tie the game at seven.

Locker is the one player in this conference who can single-handedly change the momentum of a game, which is what his Huskies desperately needed.

But it looks like that play never should’ve happened.

Earlier in the drive, Devin Ross popped the ball loose from Jordan Polk on a wide-receiver screen, and Xavier Kelly recovered the fumble.

However, these increasingly terrible Pac-10 officials reversed the call on the replay. Polk had the ball in his possession, shifted it to the other side, and fumbled it. Mike Stoops didn’t want to comment on those bogus calls that plagued the Oregon State game, and he’s likely going to keep his mouth shut about this one. Yikes.

Updated 8 p.m. n Call this one a missed opportunity.

Alex Zendejas converts a 19-yard field goal to put Arizona ahead 10-7, but those red-zone woes continue for the Wildcats.

But when a team has the ball first-and-10 on the 3-yard line, it needs to convert. The real head-scratcher on that drive was the slow-developing QB-draw play Stoops called for Foles. That seems like a play that needs to be a Matt Scott special. You need to play to your players’ strengths.

Arizona benefitted from some incomprehensibly bone-headed Washington defensive miscues. I swear, this must be the most poorly coached defense in the Pac-10. The Huskies seem to commit a terrible penalty every other play. Outside of that goal-line stand, the defense has struggled mightily. The Fox Sports camera crew keeps cutting to Washington’s super-intense defensive coordinator, who looks like he might snap at any second.

In other news, Washington’s starting tailback Chris Polk is a little dinged up. He took a few plays off, but he’s back in there. He’s been the squad’s best player other than Locker all season.

Updated 8:25 p.m. n Washington seizes momentum, as Locker finds Devin Aguilar for a nifty play-fake touchdown. 14-10, Huskies.

Arizona’s defense took a page out of Washington’s on that drive, helping the Huskies down the field with some disastrous penalties. Between the interference call and the facemask, Locker had more than enough opportunities to make the Wildcats pay on that drive.

Vuna Tuihalamaka is having a terrible game thus far. On a key third down play, he ran right past Chris Polk after getting into the backfield on that screen play. He’s simply not breaking down into a solid tackling position.

Updated 8:40 p.m.: Another trip to the red zone, another goal-line stand for Washington.

That one hurt, Wildcat fans.

On fourth-and-three-inches, Greg Nwoko ran right into the back of his offensive lineman instead of trying to find open territory. Despite his excellent play this first half, the redshirt freshman displayed a jarring lack of vision on that run. That could be the play of the game, if Washington wins it.

The play before, Foles found Delashaun Dean sitting in the open zone right in front of the goal line, but fumbled it before crossing the plane. After a few moments of deliberation, the officials decided Dean recovered his own fumble on the three-inch line.

HALFTIME: Missed opportunities characterized Arizona's performance in that first half against Washington, as the Huskies took a 14-10 lead into halftime.

The Washington defense has struggled mightily against the run early this season, but Arizona's vaunted rushing attack has managed only 40 yards in this first half -- 12 of it on Greg Nwoko's early touchdown run.

Jake Locker has been as good as advertised, making every play for the Huskies and changing the momentum on a 57-yard touchdown run. In addition, Washington's bend-but-don't-break defense has come up with two huge goal-line stands to keep the Huskies in the lead.

Nick Foles has performed well, connecting on 16 of 22 passes for 160 yards, but those red-zone problems have continued to plauge this offense.

Updated 9:20 p.m. n Foles and company wasted no time reclaiming the momentum with an impressive drive to open the second half. Foles fired a strike to David Roberts for the score to put the Wildcats ahead 17-14.

The drive didn’t start out well, as the Cats had to burn a timeout before running a play n something that infuriated Mike Stoops.

But nothing seems to rattle this quarterback. Foles is a keeper.

Updated 9:30 p.m. n After an outstanding defensive stand, things got a little loopy for the Washington special teams.

The UW punter fumbled the ball and attempted an illegal rugby kick, which led to Arizona taking over deep in Washington territory. However, those red-zone issues are still a huge problem for these Wildcats.

Unable to punch it in from six yards out, the Cats settle for another Zendejas field goal. 20-14 Arizona. While no team should ever complain about a lead on the road, Arizona can’t keep giving a player with Locker’s ability this many chances.

Updated 9:40 p.m. n Wow, Foles has no fear throwing that ball into tight spots.

He’s throwing darts all over this field tonight, but Arizona’s offensive line is having an impossible time opening up holes for the rushing game.

Two straight quarterback sneaks from Foles there? Really? But Foles’ naked bootleg on third down was a much better play call. Finally, the Wildcats convert from inside the 5-yard line.

Arizona leads 27-14, as it has completely dominated this third quarter. The Wildcat defense has shut down Locker thus far. Can it continue to keep him under wraps?

Updated 9:50 p.m. n Don’t get comfortable yet, Wildcat fans.

After some dreadful UA special teams (awful kick from Zendejas, terrible coverage, and a dumb 15-yard penalty), Locker hits Aguilar on a perfect post route to get Washington back in this game. Trevin Wade just got burnt badly on that one.

It’s still 27-21 Wildcats, but those missed opportunities might come back to haunt them if Locker keeps getting these opportunities.

Updated 10 p.m. n Alex Zendejas is a busy man, again. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.

The Wildcats take another trip inside Washington’s 20, and come away with a field goal, yet again. Zendejas converts from 29 yards out to put Arizona ahead 30-21.

The good news: Arizona is up two scores. The bad news: Arizona could’ve put this game away already had it been more successful in the red zone.

But outside of that 29-yard Locker-to-Aguilar pass play, Washington’s offense has been dreadful this half. Let’s see if the UA defense is up to the challenge again.

Updated 10:20 p.m. n As Arizona marches the ball down the field on this possession, it looks as if Washington has no answer for these bubble screens and quick outs.

It doesn’t matter who n David Roberts, Delashaun Dean, Terrell Turner, David Douglas n but every wideout is getting open. Foles is up to 330 yards passing, giving UA fans flashbacks of the best games of the Willie Tuitama era. It must be asked, once again: Why wasn’t Foles starting ahead of Matt Scott from day one?

Arizona’s offensive line has given Foles all day to throw, and his numbers reflect that.

We haven’t seen much of Nic Grigsby or Keola Antolin tonight. No word from the FSN crew on whether they’re hurt or if the UA coaching staff simply feels more confident with Greg Nwoko back there.

But with Arizona down to the 15, Stoops and company abandons those plays that worked in order to pound Nwoko up the middle for no gain. Despite a nice pitch and catch from Foles to Roberts, the Wildcats stall yet again in the red zone. Zendejas boots his fourth field goal to put UA ahead 33-21 with 4:22 remaining.

Updated 10:30 p.m. n Well, it’s not over yet.

After what was perhaps the worst defensive series in Arizona’s season (Tuihalamaka’s personal foul being the worst individual defensive play), Locker throws for another impressive touchdown to cut Arizona’s lead to 33-28 with 2:55 left.

I can’t stress this strongly enough n this was a dreadful showing from UA’s defense. Other than Devin Ross’ strong play to break up an earlier TD pass, nobody stepped up to make a play on that series. This will be a game that Tuihalamaka will like to forget.

OH NO!

That had-to-be-seen-to-be-believed interception from Mason Foster off of Delashaun Dean’s foot (terrible throw from Foles) puts Washington ahead 36-33 (2-point conversion good).

I hated harping on all those missed chances earlier, but this is exactly why a team needs to convert on its best chances. You never know when a ball is going to bounce off a wideout’s foot and lead to a TD for the opposing defense.

Arizona still has plenty of time to put together a drive, so all hope is not lost. But after it looked like Arizona had this game sewn up, Washington is in position to steal a win in a game where Arizona out-played them.

Now we’ll see exactly what Foles is made of. It’s time for a clutch drive in the most hostile environment imaginable with absolutely no momentum on his side.

Updated 10:40 p.m. n Well, that's not going to get it done.

The game ends on a disjoined drive and a Foles interception, despite being just a few yards out of field-goal range. 36-33 Washington.

Losses don’t get much more gut-wrenching than that.

Unbelievable.

Recap coming shortly.