Pac 12 South Implications On The Line When (19) UCLA Visits Arizona Saturday Night

A key matchup in the Pac 12 South takes shape this Saturday night at 10 pm ET, with the No.19 UCLA Bruins visiting the Arizona Wildcats. This one can be seen nationally on ESPN.

UCLA and Arizona both sit at 3-2 in the Pac 12, meaning that the winner of this one will get a game up on the other plus have the head-to-head tiebreaker. Essentially it’s a two-game shift for whichever team comes out on top.

But both trail Arizona State by one game, and both still have the Sun Devils on the schedule. That means that the Bruins and Wildcats both control their own destiny to get to the Pac 12 Championship game.

UCLA rebounded from the loss to Oregon with a resounding victory over Colorado. If there is ever a time to get over a loss, it’s playing the next game against the Buffaloes, who continue to be one of the worst teams in FBS.

But now things get serious for UCLA, as they cannot afford to drop this one to Arizona should they hope to get another shot at either Stanford or Oregon. But the Bruins managed a combined 24 points in the back-to-back games against the Cardinal and Ducks, which definitely showed their weakness moving the ball on good teams.

Arizona’s defense isn’t bad, surrendering just 21 points per game which ranks 27th in the country. The Wildcats bring a three-game win streak into this matchup, including back-to-back road wins. The home stretch of the schedule for Arizona is tough though, which includes this matchup, a game against Oregon followed by the regular season finale against Arizona State.

The Wildcats will need to exert their rushing attack which ranks 12th in the country. They gain an average of 275 yards per game, which shortens the game and keeps opposing offense off the field. They struggled doing that in their only two losses of the season, but have done a much better job over the last several weeks.