Microwave Popcorn
by John Berkowitz on Oct 24, 2008 9:21 AM PDT
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PrintWe start the morning off with my friend Nathan Ware who hosts the Dawgblawg over at the Seattle PI.
There are two truths about the modern era of Husky football:
1. What can go wrong, will go wrong.
2. Just when you think you've got it all figured out, something changes.What you think you've got all figured out is that everything is going wrong. That might be when something good actually happens.
I'm not going to tell you that UW is going to beat Notre Dame this weekend. As a matter of fact, I think they'll lose by two touchdowns. But, I don't think they'll lose by four touchdowns and that's a small piece of comfort to tide you over for the next, oh, three or four months.
I tend to agree with Nathan on this one. I think the Huskies are going to play one of their better games this season on Saturday. This is Notre Dame after all and who hasn't dreamed of playing and beating the Irish in front of a sold out crowd at Husky Stadium? I don't think emotion for once will be the problem.
I also think the health of the team right now is the best it has been since Jake was injured. Having a healthy tandem of Dailey and freeman at running back is going to go a long way in stabilizing the Washington offense on Saturday.
Ronnie Fouch is a good player and he is getting noticeably better every week. He doesn't have the mobility of Locker but he is much better at giving his receivers the space to make big plays deep as we saw last week. If he can start hitting Goodwin, Kearse, and Aguilar in stride we may be able to score more pints than expected on Saturday.
Another advantage that Washington has is that Notre dame is coached by Charlie Weis. Not saying that Tyrone owns wise because he doesn't, but Weis's biggest flaw is his arrogance and that type of attitude can rub off on a football team who is going on the road to play a decided underdog. Weis can't resist slamming Willingham in public and private and that tone of disrespect just may be enough to make his team come out flat.
What Washington really needs to do to win this football game is put some pressure on the Notre Dame QB. If Clausen hits 60% or more of his passes ND should win by three TD's. If the UW crowd can shake him and if the Husky D can put a little pressure on him good things might happen.
Like I said earlier in the week this is a must win game for the Irish if they want to keep their bowl hopes alive. Don't be fooled by that 4-2 record tough games with Navy, Boston College, Pittsburgh, and USC still remain. Pencil in the Irish to possibly only beat Navy, Syracuse, and Washington to finish the season. A loss to UW on Saturday would upset the apple cart and expose Weis.
All this being said I pick the Irish to win 35-17 on Saturday. The Husky defense hasn't proven that they can stop anyone this season and the ND passing attack should be able to take advantage all day. Offensively the red zone struggles don't bode well and it is hard to see UW scoring over 20 points.
Check out the Weisgipper
Weisgipper from the Band of Irish Brothers Blog has felt our pain in the past. He shares some of his mempries form the Tyrone era at Notre Dame.
Quote of the Week
"I don’t make any excuses. I never feel sorry for Tyrone Willingham. But the truth of the matter is, everything is not microwave popcorn."
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Thanks for the memories
Weisgipper is an quaintance of mine who is writing some great stuff about this weeks game from the South Bend perspective.
Nope
Nope, heading to Lake Geneva for the weekend and will watch it on TV.
This will be the first modern ND/UW game I have missed in person.
Count on me to be in the stands in South Bend for the rematch in 2009.
Tyrone quote
It is a quote that Tyrone made that has everyone shaking there head…I guess he is saying everything in life isn’t as easy as making microwave popcorn.
by John Berkowitz on Oct 24, 2008 11:22 AM PDT reply actions
John and Nathan
I applaud you both for finding a way to be positive during these trying times. But I just don’t see our defense, especially our secondary keeping the game that close. We won’t be able to get pressure on Clausen, and our secondary will make Clausen look great.
ND 52 – UW 17
"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
Lear
you already heard my 2-win argument … but I think that you are seriously over rating ND’s capabilities when you give them 52 pts. The key in this game is the Offense to at least match the D’s improvement from last week. If Fouch has 0 turnovers instead of four last week, we can assume that the Dawgs at least save one TD off the board against OSU. So, let’s say that the Huskies have to score 27+ tonight to have a chance to beat ND. To do that, we need a few big plays on offense, max of one turnover and some ball control / field position to give our D a chance.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility by any stretch of the imagination. The line between really bad and “improving” is a very thin one. Who knows when we cross it.?
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Gekko
I couldn’t disagree more, I just finished reading Condotta’s piece in the Seattle Times this morning. Our great pass defense has given up a 72.5 percent pass completion rate. We are 119th in defensive pass efficiency. Notre Dame has continued to improve their passing game, using more one back and no back formations.
Please show me anything that makes you believe Notre Dame won’t continue this trend, spread us out, and light us up. I’ve seen nothing out of our defense to make me believe we can stop them.
Everything you just said about what UW will have to do is nothing more than hopes and dreams. We will need to score far more than 27 points. One turnover, ball control and field position, have we done any of that all year? What makes you think we will start doing all of that today??? OSU came out flat and played poorly, and still beat us bad.
We’ll talk tonight after the game. We’ll see who is seriously over rating a teams capabilities.
"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
As Lou Holtz always says ...
Nothing is as bad as it seems and nothing is as good as it seems.
There are meaningful stats and meaningless stats. Defensive Pass Efficiency is pretty meaningless given the players that we’ve had to shuttle in and out of the safety position all year and the opponents we’ve played. Victor and Nate as starters are different than Tripper and Johri. Clausen is not Hall or Bradford. The teams that have passed well against us had the luxury of having very strong rushing attacks. ND does not have such a thing.
These are all reasons that “make me believe” that the Huskies have something that resembles a chance. If our D-Line can hold the rushing attack in check, our veteran LBs have a little more of a chance to play in coverage. If we make ND one-dimensional, they can be beat.
"Greed is Good."
So is Rudy.
Stats
Agreed, they can mean something, or nothing. Even with Williams and Aiyewa back, they haven’t been playing much, and definitely not much together, I see it as a wash.
By the way, who hasn’t passed well against us? Doesn’t matter about the rushing attack, no pressure equals Stanfords Pritchard looking like a Heisman candidate.
Again, you start listing “ifs”, if our defensive line can hold . . . Have they stopped anybody at anything? IF Willingham can coach, and if Fouch is Brett Favre, and IF our offensive line improves, and IF our defense improves, yes then we might actually have a chance.
"Bow Down to Washington"
"Kick the tires and light the fires!"
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