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New Mexico Bowl 2012: A 12-Pac Of Arizona Football Breaking Bad

How'd the Arizona Wildcats come back to beat the Nevada Wolfpack? We go through our 12-Pac of game recapping.

USA TODAY Sports

1. What a bizarre game. It's pretty easy to make sense of two 7-5 teams putting up a billion yards and a million points the week before Christmas, because come on, does anyone care about the difference between 8-5 and 7-6 all that much? Doubtful.

That being said, there were points to be had, so many points, and it was glorious. Saban-worshippers like David Pollack may be lovers of third down stops and punts in meaningless bowl games, but the rest of us like points, and would like to see more points please.

If you're going to play in a bowl game that has no real impact on anything other than adding another win to the total, there's hardly any reason to do anything other than hope that there are touchdowns for all to have and enjoy.

2. There was internal strife!

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3. Here's the Arizona Desert Swarm recap.

Saturday's bowl effort was indicative of the Wildcats' entire first season under Rich Rodriguez. Depth on defense was a glaring and nearly debilitating issue. And yet, the offense picked up the slack. The Wolf Pack outgained Arizona 658 yards to 576. Nevada also dominated time-of-possession, with over 39 minutes of ball control.

But Rodriguez and staff produced just enough smoke, and had just enough mirrors, to replicate the magic that produced seven wins previously one more time.

4. Bill Connolly recaps the game in his Numerical. The most striking stat has to do with (shockingly) offense.

70. Total first downs. The yardage totals (659 for Nevada, 578 for Arizona, 1,237 total) were gaudy enough, but the first down total (39 for Nevada, 31 for Arizona) is an incredible reminder of how efficient both of these offenses were. Of the 22 combined possessions that did not result in turnovers, 15 resulted in points and 14 resulted in touchdowns. Nevada lost, in part, because the Wolf Pack had to settle for field goals twice.

5. Things David Pollack enjoys in his spare time: Beating homeless people, smashing plates with a frying pan, punts, rewatching the death scene in Matrix Revolutions, and other things that qualify him to be a humorless, smug SEC schill.

6. Spirit animal: Puppy. Everything is fun and exciting and let's go and chase the ball! Oh no I can't get the ball but I'll keep on chasing it if you give me a treat give me a treat please please pretty please!

7. Here are the video highlights.


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