Week 3: #24 Arizona vs. Iowa

Nick Foles and his Arizona Wildcats got off to a fast start only to hold on late for a major win Saturday night against Iowa in Tucson 34-27. From the very first minutes into the game you could see that Iowa could not match Arizona's intensity and skills, and that they looked like the weaker of the two teams. The Wildats got on the board early with a a 5 yard touchdown pass from Nick Foles to David Douglas less then 4 minutes into the game. On the ensuing possession Iowa's Ricki Stanzi throws a rocket but it goes through the hands of his receiver and into the hands of defender Trevin Wade and he takes it back for a pic 6. Less then 6 minutes into the game Arizona, playing at home has all the momentum and everything that could go wrong for Iowa is. However coach Kirk Ferentz managed to get his team together along with senior quarterback Ricki Stanzi and drove down the field for a score early in the 2nd quarter to make 7-14. But Arizona returned the kickoff 100 yars and add two field goals to take a 27-20 lead. At this point it looked really bad for the Hawkeye's but they came out out of the half like a brand new team. Their defense played very well throwing off the offense and not letting them convert on 3rd downs. Meanwhile on the other side of the ball Ricki Stanzi took charge and threw two touchdown passes that cut the deficit to 20-27. A huge interception return midway through the 4th made it a tie ballgame and set us up for a very tense last 8 minutes. Nick Foles drove down the field, looking very poised in the pocket and going through his reads effectively and threw a touchdown pass for 4 yards to William Wright with 3:57 left. This left Iowa with one final drive and the Wildcat defense rose to the occasion sacking Stanzi three times in a row to seal the victory. This was a huge win for Arizona proving that they are a solid top 25 program and that they will be a tough test for any team this year. This win propelled them 10 spots in this weeks poll to #14 and Iowa fell to #18.

Player of the Game: Nick Foles had a tremendous game, really showing the nation that he is a top quarterback this year. Against a very solid Iowa defense he went 28/39 for 303 yards with 2 touchdowns and one interception. Look for him to have a breakout year this year and the maturity and pocket presence continues to grow look for him to be on a few Heisman ballots next year. The drive which lead to the winning score was impressive and stupid mistakes were not made, he is a fundamentally sound quarterback.

Tune in later this week as i preview this weeks game of the week: #1 Alabama at #10 Arkansas