Washington at USC Preview
by John Berkowitz on Oct 1, 2010 7:00 AM PDT
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PrintWhen Washington has the ball:
Is Jake Locker a winner or is he the seasoned loser that one national pundit called him after the Nebraska game? We start to find out on Saturday because I believe the QB who does the best job on Saturday will win the game for his team.
I predict Jake is going to have a big game against the Trojan defense. He had success against it last season and he is used to seeing it in practice every day. Familiarity breeds comfort and Jake could use some comforting coming off the worst performance of his career against Nebraska.
The USC defense is talented and like Sark says has depth but they aren't playing well together as a unit at the moment. WSU moved the ball for 323 yards against them last weekend. Jeff Tuel was 26-41 against them last week for 256 yards. So that is proof that you can attack the USC secondary even though Tuel also tossed three interceptions.
The Huskies ran the ball well against the Trojans last season and there is no reason to think that won't continue this season since most of the same participants return. As usual expect Chris Polk to be near the century mark by the end of the game with some quality carries also coming from Jessie Callier.
The big question most have going into this one is how much will Jake run this week? We haven't seen him unleashed yet this season and it would seem the conference opener would be a good time to start exploiting that part of his skill set. USC has had trouble containing mobile QB's this season.
Look for USC to put a spy on Locker the entire game. That spy will likely be LB Michael Morgan who starts on the SC strong side. Morgan has really good speed so this will be one of the game most intriguing match-ups.
When USC has the ball:
Matt Barkley sat out last years game with a sore shoulder and Washington pulled off a 16-13 upset over the Trojans. Barkley is a real good pocket passer who uses all of his receivers. He also checks off well if they are covered. When that happens FB Stan Havilli is an excellent option who catches a lot of opponents off guard for big gains catching the ball out of the backfield.
Barkley has four interceptions in the last two games (Minnesota / WSU) so there will be opportunities for the Huskies to pick up some turnovers. One of the reason UW won last years game was because of USC turnovers which erased scoring opportunities.
As usual the Trojans are loaded at running back. They ran the ball all day against WSU and will attempt to do the same thing to Washington to establish early control of the game. Marc Tyler, Alan Bradford, and Dillon Baxter are all dangerous RB's who can take it to the house at anytime. The Trojans are averaging 218 yards per game on the ground. They are also averaging over 6 yards per carry which is near their historical high.
Speaking of Dillon Baxter UW coach Steve Sarkisian has his team prepared for the Wildcat formation. Sark is either screwing with Kiffin's head or he really believes the possibility exists they will run it. Baxter has been in the dog house over the first third of the season but this may be the game they unleash his considerable abilities.
Another surprise the Trojans may have in store for the Huskies is a no huddle offense. USC used it a bit against WSU last week and we could see quite a bit of it on Saturday. Kiffin has hinted that he has been holding back on using some offensive schemes until conference play begins.
Special Teams:
What has hurt Washington on special teams has been sloppy play on the coverage and return units. It simply breaks down to blocking and tackling better if they want to beat USC. The kicking and punting have been solid.
The Trojans have had a problem kicking field goals. They have had two touchdown returns, and have blocked three kicks over the first four games. That tells you that they have some guys that can move.
Intangibles:
The thermometer has gotten as high as 120 degrees this week in the Los Angeles area. The forecast calls for it to cool down by game time but heat may still be an issue by game time.
Turnovers were a big key for last years game and it will also be a factor in this one.
Washington is the best team on paper that USC has played so far this season.
Washington has started slow in their past three games. It crippled them against BYU and Nebraska but they were able to overcome it against Syracuse. If UW wants to win this game they need to start fast and play mistake free.
USC DE Armond Armstead missed the WSU game because of injury but will be back for Washington. DE Wes Horton is listed as doubtful. DE Nick Perry has been in and out of the line-up this season with injuries as well.
The Trojans are not eligible for postseason play and have looked lackadaisical under Lane Kiffin at times this season.
Position Matchups:
Quarterback: Washington
Running Backs: Even
Receivers: Washington
Offensive Line: USC
Defensive Line: USC
Linebackers: USC
Defensive Backs: Even
Special Teams : USC
Steve Sarkisian quotes:
"The game isn't about Lane Kiffin or myself, it's about our players and their ability to go out and play in a big-time Pac-10 atmosphere at an extremely high level.''
"They've got an extreme amount of depth. They've got so much depth, which is so different than most of the teams in our conference. Oregon and Stanford are good football teams, that's not a knock on those guys, trust me. What SC has that is different is the overall depth. They can sustain injuries and replace them with players just as good. That's what makes them unique.''
"We have a horrible taste in our mouth from that last ball game(Nebraska). We just want to get rid of it."
Lane Kiffin quotes:
"I don't think that motivation will be a factor or trying to motivate. They are coming home, not very happy with the way we played in our home opener, and they are very motivated to play a team that beat them last year.''
"There was a lot of focus on game five (UW) in the off-season. We'll see if it pays off because we've spent a ton of time on these guys."
"That's a trick he learned from Lou Holtz or something,'' Kiffin said, a reference to Holtz's reputation for inflating the strength of his opponent each week. "They are really, really good and people who follow us know we are not very deep.''
"We can barely find enough guys to practice. Our service team is made up of some kids from science class. Half of them never played football before."
"Besides our freshmen, he (Sark) knows this whole team. … It’ll still be an advantage for them for the next two years."
Bulletin Board Material:
USC DE Wes Horton - "I just want to get back at them so bad. It was an embarrassing loss last year. We have a lot of fuel. We have a lot of fire built up. We're really going to let it loose on them next week."
USC LB Michael Morgan -"He's a great athlete (Locker), and we understand that, but he has a hell of an arm, that's for sure. We know we've gotta respect his passing game as well, but we know we've gotta focus on the run because in the past few games, like in Hawaii, the quarterbacks have scrambled on us a little bit."
UW QB Jake Locker - "I think it will make me better go forward. It wasn't anywhere near where I wanted to play individual and where we wanted to play as a football team. Learning how to put that behind you and have a good productive week of practice and coming out this week and having another and preparing for a very good SC football team is really important in your growth as a football player. It's not always going to go as you want to and you've got to learn how to bounce back and how to deal with situations like that.''
UW LB Cort Dennison - "Last year was last year. We've got to worry about this year. They are undefeated and we are 1-2, so we've just got to worry about doing all we can to win and getting at them as fast as we possibly can. We can't wait to get hit. We have to hit them first. I'm sure they are going to have a chip on their shoulder from what happened last year but that doesn't affect us in any way."
Factoids
Kickoff Saturday is set for 5:00 p.m. and the game will air live nationwide on ESPN2 television.
Husky coach Steve Sarkisian and first-year Trojans head man Lane Kiffin spent five seasons together on Pete Carroll’s staff at USC.
Washington is 27-49-4 all time against USC.
USC has a 32-game winning streak in home night games.
Washington beat USC 16-13 last season in Seattle.
Two years ago in L.A. USC blanked the Dawgs 56-0.
Washington is 10-30 all time at the Coliseum.
The Trojans are scoring 37 points per game.
The Trojans are giving up 21.8 points per game.
Washington has given up 213.67 yards per game on the ground.
The Trojans are averaging 218 yards per game on the ground.
All five of USC's tailbacks who have carried the ball this season are averaging at least 4.1 yards per carry.
Huskies Fan Confidence Poll
Last tallied on 09/29.
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Comments
This game will go a long way in shaping my overall opinion of this coaching staff. It’s not necessarily a win or loss thing but more of the ability to coach this team up. There is absolutely NO reason for this team to play sloppy four games into the season after a bye week. We’ll see what happens….
I think it is pretty tough to say that this one game would shape anyone’s realistic opinion of where this program is headed. I thinkit is way to early to go there.
We all know what we have seen this year so far and we can all agree on one thing…it wasn’t very pretty.
UW Dawg Pound - SBN Seattle
by John Berkowitz on Oct 1, 2010 10:16 AM PDT up reply actions
The sloppiness is what bothers me. I get that we’re a young team with some talent issues on the lines but, in my opinion, being sloppy is all about coaching. We have been pretty sloppy the first three games (more so then last year). This staff has had two weeks to clean it up. If we play well and don’t win I’m okay because USC still has more talent and we are on the road but if we go out and pull a bunch of blunders I’ll be pissed and to me, that falls on this staff and their ability to coach.
I agree on that.
Not sure if you can blame it all on coaching. Have you been to a practice and watched this staff work? The coaches really get after that and really have a fine eye for detail. I really don’t know what else they can do,
I have been to practices for JO, DJ, JL, RN, KG, TW, and SS. Have to say DJ, JL and SS were the best organized and most effectice. That being said I wasn’t around in 1957 for JO…big difference between the 1957 and 1970.
UW Dawg Pound - SBN Seattle
by John Berkowitz on Oct 1, 2010 10:34 AM PDT up reply actions
I'm not so sure that it was sloppiness as much as it was that the Huskies were outplayed.
Were there some sloppiness? Yes, absolutely. But were the Huskies outplayed? In two games, yes, they absolutely were.
Golden!
by Carl Shinyama on Oct 2, 2010 1:44 AM PDT up reply actions
Though, I am sure that people will debate whether or not that the Huskies were outplayed by BYU
Golden!
by Carl Shinyama on Oct 2, 2010 1:45 AM PDT up reply actions
we were absolutely outplayed by BYU ... I'm not sure that is debatable.
… what’s also not debatable is that BYU is not a good team much to the chagrin of many on this blog. The beating that Utah St laid on them last night, I think, cements that notion.
Damn, my eyeball tastes good.
Please say your pulling my leg
Tell me they didn’t lose to Utah State.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
&#*#(@)#
Utah State 31, BYU 16. Wow. How the hell did we lose to BYU?? It’s the loss that just keeps getting worse.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
Disagree: Bad tackleing, horrible kick off coverage, hiking the ball over the punters head, WR’s dropping VERY catchable balls, not picking up blitzes, OL not knowing the correct blocking assignment, throwing the ball into obvious double coverage all equal sloppy football. If you do you job correctly and still get beat then the other team outplayed you but if you do the above things then you beat yourself.
What scares me:
USC has been doing very, very good on special teams. They’ve returned kicks/punts for touchdowns and they’ve blocked at least one field goal, PAT, and punt. Needless to say, it spells big trouble for us.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
Part of outplaying someone is making less mistakes than the other team.
UW was ouptlayed.
Golden!
by Carl Shinyama on Oct 2, 2010 1:43 PM PDT up reply actions
What you just said makes zero sense.
but I also think Carl is being a little argumentative. I think your point is that your definition of being “outplayed” is when two teams have equal quality of execution and team a still beats team b, thus outplaying them. That is fine. However, one could argue that very rarely do teams have the same quality of execution and therein lies the challenge.
Damn, my eyeball tastes good.
It makes perfect sense. In his first post he says “I’m not so sure that it was sloppiness as much as it was that the Huskies were outplayed.” indicating that the two are different. In his last post hesays “Part of outplaying someone is making less mistakes than the other team.” Indicating that the two are mutual. Which is it?
I’ll spell out my point:
1) The opposing QB drops back and throws a nice pass to a pretty well covered WR and he makes the catch = outplayed
2) The opposing QB drops back and throws to an uncovered (see BYU) back running a seam route = sloppy
I see games every weekend where critical mental errors aren’t consistantly made. One team just makes more great plays than the other and wins. Watch two top 20 teams play each other and you rarely see the thingsI listed on my previous post…..that’s why they’re top 20 teams.
No.
I see I have to employ some Socratic reasoning:
My statements aren’t an either/or proposition or a contradiction. They are both.
The term, “mutual” indicates that two objects or beings have a commonality, a reciprocity, or relation. It doesn’t mean that the two are one and the same.
I have said that I “wasn’t sure that it was sloppiness as much as it was that the Huskies were outplayed,” and that “part of outplaying someone is making less mistakes than the other team.”
You are correct that the first statement implies a difference, and that the second statement indicates a mutuality. However, the kind of mutuality matters. We know they don’t have a commonality and they don’t reciprocate one another, but that they are related to each other because one is the component of another. However, mutuality doesn’t exclude the two being different. Being a part of something indicates a component. My second statement, I say that part of outplaying someone is in making less mistakes. That suggests that a component of outplaying someone is making less mistakes. Therefore, it is not an either/or proposition.
Therefore, we establish that the two are different but mutual due to a relation. Because of that, we can, in the cases of either losses, subjectively, at least, offer the opinion that the Huskies losses had more to do with being outplayed than with being sloppy.
Of course, we also must not confuse being sloppy with making mistakes. Sloppiness implies a degree of carelessness being involved, whereas mistakes, even with the greatest of care, can still occur. In being outplayed by an opponent, making more mistakes than the opposition means that even with the greatest of care and in the absence of sloppiness, errors can still occur.
Golden!
by Carl Shinyama on Oct 3, 2010 11:05 PM PDT up reply actions
Johnb, did I miss it
but so far haven’t seen your prediction on outcome in this feature (good one by the way) or in Pac picks.
This afternoon I will realease it.
UW Dawg Pound - SBN Seattle
by John Berkowitz on Oct 1, 2010 10:01 AM PDT up reply actions
position comparisons
I personally think that USC has the advantage at both Quarterback and Running Back (they even use a fullback!!) and the Wide Receivers is a draw.
I expect USC to win this game about 42-14 as USC simply controls the clock and runs the ball allover us.
Practices
I attended several and they were run very efficiently. I just don’t think the horses are all there yet. Willingham was here for four years. Give Sark that many and see where it goes. “Patience is a virtue”, and one that is seriously lacking, in our modern day society.
Washington Husky Football-"Hear the bark, feel the bite!"
Interesting
Washington beat USC 16-13 last season in Seattle.
Two years ago in L.A. USC blanked the Dawgs 56-0.
Washington Husky Football-"Hear the bark, feel the bite!"
IF only it would read:
2008: USC 56, UW 0
2009: USC 13, UW 16
2010: USC 0, UW 56
Sorry, I’ll slap myself, but for a moment their that was a pretty cool dream.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
QB Matchup
do you really give locker the edge over barkley at this point? i don’t think he’ll be nebraska game bad again, but i’m not convinced that he can step it up against talented opponents. i think this is a tie at best, but probably i would take barkley as a true soph over locker as a 5th year senior
If you throw out Nebraska…ya you would take Locker over Barkley.
Honestly it was real close.
I give the edge to Locker because he is a fifth year senior and the fact that I think Nebraska was a fluke rather than a progressing trend. I think Jake bounces back strong.
UW Dawg Pound - SBN Seattle
by John Berkowitz on Oct 2, 2010 12:30 PM PDT up reply actions
not me… i’d take barkley and the usc running backs over uw at this point the way sark play calls.
if sark was willing to let jake be mobile then it’s a different story, but as long as jake is being forced to play the pocket passer then barkley is a better qb.
Maybe today is the day we go mobile. The season is at a point where they have to do that.
UW Dawg Pound - SBN Seattle
by John Berkowitz on Oct 2, 2010 3:45 PM PDT up reply actions
Jake > Barkley
If you put Jake and Barkley on the same team, Jake beats out Barkley. Now, Barkley has a lot of potential, and Barkley as a Senior might be better than Jake as a Senior, but right now? Jake is better.
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