Three Offensive Issues That Desperately Need Fixing

There were a lot of firsts in this game: Noah Fifita threw his first interception of the season, the defense gave up its first 30-plus point game, the Wildcats failed to record a rushing touchdown and the offense failed to score over 20 points.

The Wildcats looked way out of sync at times and couldn't move the ball the way that they would have liked to, settling for short passes and not relying enough on a tough running game.

Arizona is playing its second conference game of the season next Saturday and will need to clean up certain parts of its game if it is to look better as a unit.

Third downs

The Wildcats' efficiency was a cause for concern already coming into the game and it showed that the Wildcats still have work to do when converting to a first down when they are faced with a third down.

The Wildcats were an underwhelming 4-13 on third down, which played a huge part in the reason why they weren't able to put as many points on the board and move down the field, despite ending with a high amount of total yards on the day.

Arizona will need to clean its issues on third down up if it wants to be the mostt successful as it can be this year.

Wide receivers

The Arizona Wildcats' wide receivers were completely outmatched by the Iowa State secondary, as they couldn't get any kind of separation from them for most of the game.

There were some drives where the wide receivers were able to get the best of their opponents, but it wasn't nearly enough for it to be a consistent threat.

Arizona has the passing weapons for it to be an elite corps in the Big 12, as 12 different receivers were targeted, but right now, it looks like they will need more work to fully operate at maximum efficiency.

Noah Fifita

Fifita looked like he had a pretty good day on paper with a 32 for 48, two-touchdown day, but that doesn't tell the whole story of what occurred on Saturday.

Two bad interceptions were thrown by Fifita, both of which were when the offense was just gaining a rhythm. The first was after running back Ismail Mahdi ripped off an 18-yard run, the second was when Arizona was driving downfield in an attempt at making a comeback.

Fififta also threw a lot of passes that were behind his receivers or over their heads, showing that he is still struggling with timing.

"At the end of the day, the offense is going to go how I go," Fifita said. "If I'm not getting the ball out of my hands, if I'm not putting the ball in play, We're going to struggle. So, I know Coach Dei came in and said this loss is on him and respectfully, I disagree. I don't think I made him right in any situations. I got to be a lot better for him. Got to be a lot better for the offense."

The Wildcats will look to get back on track, starting with the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Arizona Stadium

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