Washington Ranked #24 in Latest AP Poll

The only positive for USC yesterday is that they lost early in the season with a few key players on the sideline. If a one loss team makes it into the championship game, they could still make a run at the title.

I think you pointed out a key to yesterdays game, it was a GREAT win, but 9 out of 10 times USC would have won. We still have a lot of work to do to get back to the top of the conference, we need to bring our A game every week, and we need to work our butts off to get better, especially on defense. A lot fewer teams will be overlooking us now that we beat USC.

… and I’m still befuddled by our inability to generate any kind of pass rush. ND is just two weeks away and that air attack is going to be tough to stop if our guys can’t get in JC’s face. I just watched the replays and I saw a lot of hands on thrown balls that didn’t get sucked in (as opposed to pure drops) … Fogerson had two, Polk had two, Middleton had one, Kearse had one, JJ had one and Aguilar had two (although, to be fair, one was that overthrow in the endzone that would have been an amazing catch if DA’s fingers were a half inch longer). Reeling in a few more of the tough ones in traffic will make this offense very difficult to contend with. Finally, I hate to say it, but the bulk of the pressure that Jake experienced last night was penetration along the left side of the line. Ossai and Christine were not on the same page on a number of plays. We’ll have to watch that.

There, that is my nit list. I can’t believe that we are 9 point dogs going to Stanford. This Vegas local is on his way down to the Green Valley Ranch sports book right now.

That’s one of the cool things about that win, is even though we did a whole lot of things right, there’s still more that can improve. Jake missed a few plays – that pass to the left into coverage that went incomplete when the entire right side of the field was open for him to run for a TD, the overthrow on the run to an open WR; there was the drop of a sure pick by Butler, and the numerous missed tackles by our defense as well as the holes their OL busted open against us early.

I think we all need to enjoy just how much has been accomplished already, and knock on wood that we stay lucky with our health, because there are some areas where we are still very thin on quality depth.

Let’s hope these guys keep up their intensity and play just as good on the road as they have at home. The good news is there probably won’t be a whole lot of people in Stanford Stadium.

It’s funny, I actually felt like the crowd had better energy vs. LSU. There were a lot of times on defense I felt like our crowd was too subdued. I suppose the way USC marched at will on us their first two drives had something to do with it, but even in the 3rd quarter there were times I felt like our fans were lax.

I think part of the blame goes to TV. It sucks to see the defense come on the field and start yelling and clapping and stomping to make noise, only to notice the guy in the red official outfit standing on the field because the TV network has to show more truck and beer ads. Takes some momentum away from the crowd.

We’ll know we’re back as a crowd when every play of every possession by our opponents is met with deafening noise. That hasn’t happened yet, though we’re getting closer than we’ve been in a while.