Grading the Game - UW vs ASU
by John Berkowitz on Oct 10, 2010 11:01 AM PDT
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Jake had an off night. His stats weren't all that bad but he didn't have any extra gas in the tank it when Washington absolutely needed it. He didn't get it done in the clutch like he did so many times last week. He couldn't sell a play fake to save his life. He was pressured all night in the pocket and was prevented from making big plays.
Jake wasn't feeling well and was seen taking oxygen on the sidelines during the second half. Sarkisian commented after the game that Jake wasn't explosive. He was sick all week and had problems getting his breath back during the game. Sark said that Jake had about one run in him per series. He wasn't able to use him in a moving pocket this week because he simply wouldn't have lasted four quarters.
The series of the game in my mind came right after the Cort Dennison interception. Washington went three and out, punted, and gave up a 30 yard punt return which resulted in ASU kicking a FG to take a 10 point lead. Going three, and, out and failing to capitalize, or at least move the ball on the turnover sealed the Huskies doom.
Do you put that all on a sick Jake Locker or do you look to the coaches and ask them they they didn't let Polk and Callier share more of the burden on a night when they were having success? I don't think the coaches put Jake in a very good spot last night.
Grade C Plus
Running Back
Chris Polk as usual was magnificent with 110 yards on 18 carries. You have to wonder why on a rainy night a running back who was averaging 6.1 yards a carry didn't get the ball more? Jessie Callier (6.7 ypc) continues to get more touches and has big play potential. With Jake not feeling well it would have made sense to run Polk and Callier a dozen more times with Sylvester as a lead blocker to help lessen the load.
Grade A
Receivers
Devin Aguilar missed the game with a hip flexor injury. Deandre Goodwin, and Jordan Polk stepped in, and played well. Jermaine Kearse caught six passes but continues to have problems with dropped balls. He isn't making big plays right now and that is a problem for this offense. The longest catch was only 22 yards. The Huskies didn't seem interested in testing the Devils deep which makes sense because the offensive line wasn't giving Jake enough time in the pocket to make those type of throws. How far has James Johnson fallen on the depth chart?
Grade C minus
Offensive Line
Jake was beaten up and pressured all night by the Sun Devils. The tackles didn't have a very good game which resulted in the pocket collapsing around Locker too many times. The Huskies missed Erik Kohler big time on the inside. He could be out 2-3 weeks or more with Mono.
Greg Christine was called for two holding penalties and didn't have a great game so look for the Huskies to take a long look at starting Colin Porter against Oregon State. Cody Habben was penalized for a late hit that extended a drive.
Two things that makes this offensive line look acceptable is the mobility of Jake Locker and the yards after contact by Chris Polk. Jake didn't have his usual mobility last night and on days like that the major flaws of this line are exposed.
Grade D
Defensive Line
The Huskies held the Sun Devils to 99 yards on the ground in 37 carries using a three man but they weren't able to get enough pressure on Steve Threet. Washington played with a three man front most of the night to help counter the spread. The name of the game against a spread team is pressure and Washington didn't bring enough of it to force Threet into making mistakes.
Grade C
Linebackers
I thought the trio had a good game. Foster and Dennison led the team in tackles and both had a sack. Cort also had an interception. Victor Aiyewa had a nice tackle for loss. This group really misses having a big thumper. These guys also played every single snap of the game. Experienced depth at linebacker is a problem.
Grade B
Defensive Backs
Threat picked these guys apart. It would have been much worse if his receivers hadn't dropped at least six balls. The Huskies played a nickel most of the night with Sean Parker seeing significant action. Even with the extra DB the Sun Devils were wide open most of the night. It could have gotten pretty ugly if ASU receivers hadn't dropped at least six catchable balls. Lack of pressure up front is making this unit look worse than it really is.
Grade D
Special Teams
Jessie Callier did a nice job returning the ball. He broke one for 51 yards. Erik Polk missed a long field goal. Kiel Rasp continued to punt the ball well. Washington's coverage game continued to improve but they allowed two big ASU returns. The fake field goals wasn't a very good call, but the weather, and distance factored into that decision. Punting which was a much better choice could have backed up ASU and prevented that third touchdown which proved to be the game winner.
Grade C Plus
Coaching
Sark didn't do his team any favors with his game planning. With Jake far from 100% and with a monsoon going on it would have made sense to keep the ball on the ground more. It was the type of night to play some Husky power football and Sark missed the opportunity. I think Polk and Callier would have looked pretty good being led by Austin Sylvester and one of the tackles lining up at TE.
The fake FG was a bad call. Of course all risky calls are either bad or brilliant depending on the outcome.This just wasn't the right place on the field to sell the fake which looked pretty pedestrian by the way. The decision led to an ASU touchdown drive that the Devils into the locker room with a 21-7 lead.
The defense held ASU to 24 points and that is usually enough to win the majority of the time. ASU's only score in the second half was a lone field goal. The Devils only picked up 99 yards on 37 carries. Those are good numbers which mask the fact that the only thing stopping ASU most of the game through the air was themselves..
On the negative side of the slate the Washington pass defense was terrible.The Huskies gave up way too many big plays in the first half which led to points. The Huskies blitzed quite a bit while staying in a nickel most of the evening but the Devil receivers were open all night. Holt needs to figure out how to get more pressure on the quarterback but he is hindered by the lack of horses up front to get it done.
Grade D
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Is Locker the only QB??????
Sounds like the Seahawks pinning their all hopes on Hasselbeck who is mediocre at best…
Do That Coaching Thing
Perhaps Sarkisian needs a mentor - I think Mora is still in the Seattle area. Down the road he will likely be a great coach, but for now he appears to be a one trick pony (USC).
his mentor is having his problems with OL protection
by PandG on Oct 10, 2010 11:56 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Also got to remember that the offense is limited because we are missing a good TE and FB. This offense would be MUCH better if we had a threat at both positions. Next year we will.
Did you notice we had a extra tackle lined up as TE when Sylvester would line up as an H back and we would run Power?
Worked pretty good, they couldn’t stop it was good for 6 yds each time.
We are ALWAYS playing from behind, makes it hard to commit to your run game when down two scores.
by PandG on Oct 10, 2010 12:45 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
pre-season strengths aren't there
Receivers-Kearse is having a soph slump in his jr year, JJ is obviously not healed, D’andre is the only one showing up.
DB’s-Trufant looks like he is having problems just sticking to receivers, much less looking at their eyes or breaking on the ball. Q is inconsistant at best poor form at worst. Long was out of position on zone plays.
These aren’t physical issues they’re mental and the coaches are responsible for fixing that. Don’t want to hear, “they’re just kids.” It’s time to become young men.
Cort said players were ‘doin’ their own thing.’ That’s on the coaches to discipline. Their priority is to not be players coaches.
by PandG on Oct 10, 2010 11:54 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
Think of a man, and take away reason and accountability.
Rah-rah is great and everything, but eventually, if you don’t do the job, you have to make way for somebody who will. Potential gets you nothing without clear expectations of performance. Opportunities to perform are limited, precious and vital. Personal failure is painful for everyone.
If the ball hits you in the hands, you have to catch it. Every fucking time. Most particularly on fourth down. There is no excuse. Catch or fail.
In that failure, you are considerably worse than useless, because you are taking away opportunities from somebody who WOULD do the job. Useless just sits on the bench, without positive or negative effect. You, Mr. ball dropper, are an active negative, wasting the collective effort, squandering the opportunity, gutting your team.
If it happens once, well… shit. Everybody makes a mistake. If it happens twice, or thrice, or 5x, that is a pattern. A loser pattern. And you must sit on the bench, and contemplate your uselessness. But hey, it’s better than dropping than ball.
MELLO FANS
We are still young, thin and lack speed on defense. Notice 5’11" 258# defender had Kelemente for lunch. Too undersized for Dawgs?
Fellner drop was critical, thrown directly to him. Surprise.
Two D pass interference could of been intercepted if DB turns around as both ball were short and uncatchable by WR.
As for criticism of SARK/HOLT rebuilding efforts it is pretty pathetic, criticism that is. If you want real criticism log on to OCR USC BLOG. Nasty, very nasty. Almost feel sorry for Lame and definitely Monte and the Tampa 2, absolutely brutal.
Started attending games in 1960 and never remember it being like this. Give credit to TROLLS and TYEES.
We are on same pace as Harbaugh and Stanford and the sun will come up in the morning.
Always a HUSKY FAN win or lose.
Nothing but excuses.
We are still young, thin and lack speed on defense.
We’ve been hearing that for a decade now.
Started attending games in 1960 and never remember it being like this.
Well, duh! When was the last time we went almost a decade without a winning season? When was the last time we went almost a decade with out a bowl game? We’ve lost 7 straight to ASU, somewhere around 7 straight to Oregon, and what, 6 straight to Oregon State? You don’t remember it ever being like this, because we’ve never been this bad for this long before.
You want someone to blame? Try the coaches! Sark said that he didn’t think we’d lose a game at home this year. He also said it wouldn’t take that long to turn this thing around. We lose to a pathetic BYU team, get embarrassed by Nebraska, and then we lose to an average ASU team at HOME. The only people to blame our the coaches, if you are going to build up expectations, you better back it up with results.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
Oops,
Few grammar errors, sorry. Good thing I’m a pilot and not an English teacher.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
Agree
But if it continues it will be the coaches fault.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
it's going to take a while
Our DL has some guys that could develop into really good players in Jamora, Potoa’e, Tokolahi, Lagafuaina, Hudson and Shirley. And there is potential in the secondary in Trufant, Parker and Ducre. But I’m worried about our LB situation – not yet sold on the young guys they’ve brought in. And the LB situation is why I’m afraid our defense might not be much improved next year after Foster graduates. So if there’s a criticism of how quickly Sark is improving the talent on the defensive side, it’s on his LB recruiting. I hope I’m wrong…
You'll like Kearse and Pelluer once you see them play.
And I hope the redshirt year really helps Burnett.
Gilliland and Fuiamo need to gain weight.
I really think the staff needs to let go of the notion that Shirley is going to grow into a defensive end. He doesn’t look like he has the same type of frame as Jamora, Hudson, and even Crichton. He’d be a smallish end even if he gained all of the weight that his frame could carry. He needs to spend the rest of the season shadowing Mason Foster and Dennison, and learning everything he can about being an OLB.
I hope so
Maybe I’m underselling the LB situation and overselling the DL and secondary situations. And I think you may be right about Shirley.
When you look at the roster, it sure seems like 2011 might be another building year and 2012 is the season when things really start coming together.
No, you really aren’t, because the linebackers are by far the youngest and least experienced of the three units next season on defense. It’s a weakness, there’s no doubt.
I go back and forth on what is “reasonable” for next season. I don’t think it’s unfair to expect next year’s team to be better than this one, Jake Locker or no.
QB is the key for me
I think it’s fair to expect the OL to be better, even with Tolar and Habben graduating. Kelemete should improve, Kohler may already be our best lineman, Schaefer should improve, and it’s not unreasonable to think we should be able to adequately replace what we’re currently getting from Tolar and Habben (not much) with some combination of Porter, Fancher, Riva, Hatchie, Tanigawa and Ikehara.
WR should be better – Kearse will be back, Aguilar is back, Johnson should bounce back if healthy, Smith should step up, Kasen could very well step right into the lineup. ASJ and Hartvigson should improve the TE situation noticeably.
RB should be a real strength behind Polk, Callier and Cooper. Hopefully Zach Fogerson gives us more of a threat at FB.
So even with Jake gone, there’s reason to think the offense as a whole might not take a step back with either Price or Montana running the show.
And on defense, while I’m worried about the LB situation, the DL and secondary should be better. We lose Williams, but Parker should be able to more than adequately replace him. We lose Elisara, but we should be able to adequately replace him. And hopefully with another year someone among Jamora, Hudson, Crichton and Aldrich can step up at DE (maybe a true frosh like Greg Townsend if we can land him?)
One thing that helps is the schedule gets easier with E. Washington and Hawaii to start the season.
Great stuff.
The outlook for next year should be positive, but as you said it will greatly depend on the play of the QB. On offense there should be plenty of tools to work with, and defense shouldn’t have much trouble replacing the seniors (with the exception of Foster). Short version, just what you said, QB and LB will be the question marks next year.
Overall I still think their is one vital question regarding this coaching staff, can they develop players into quality PAC10 players. If they can, this staff could be successful for a very long time. If they can’t, it won’t be more than 2 years before we’re talking about who our new head coach is going to be.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
Sark may have some interesting calls this offseason
You have to wonder whether Sark is going to feel some pressure to make some staff changes this off-season. Thing is, the guys at positions where we are questionable are also some of our best recruiters (Nansen, Martin), so you have to balance player development vs. recruiting.
Those are also two of the units that are the most lacking...
…in experienced talent and depth.
Sarkisian might feel some pressure, but I really hope he doesn’t do anything unless he can get a bona fide upgrade. Recruiting is just so huge right now.
Mostly agree.
Don’t make a change, just to make a change. If you aren’t positive you can get a better coach, than don’t do it. On the other hand, if you now know that a coach doesn’t have what it takes to get the job done, you’ve got to let him go.
Recruiting is huge, but player development is just as big. The best high school player is still just a a high school player. We’ve seen more than our share of guys playing as freshmen, but never getting much better throughout there four years. Hopefully the same doesn’t happen under Sark.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
Recruiting is huge, but player development is just as big.
I completely agree.
Right now, speaking of Martin and Nansen specifically since they are the ones that are going to catch the most heat, we know that they are very good recruiters. I don’t think we can say for sure that they are or are not good coaches.
I agree.
It is too early to tell if any/all of our coaches can develop players. I will say that so far this season I don’t see enough improvement, but with good coaches that could change quickly, only time will tell.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
"LEAR PILOT" CENTER
If LEAR had his way Don James and Jim Owens wouldn’t have made it through to their third year. No JIM OWENS statue and no DON JAMES CENTER. Neither won enough games for LEAR their first two years. LEAR a prime candidate for the Husky Ignoramus award presented in the LEAR PILOT CENTER, wherever that is.
Well...
I see where you are coming from Purple but there are some obvious problems that need to be dealt with.
The team didn’t exactly come out on fire against ASU and the offensive game plan was stale. If Jake isn’t feeling well…fine…switch horses and ride the power running game.
UW Dawg Pound - SBN Seattle
by John Berkowitz on Oct 11, 2010 7:19 AM PDT up reply actions
switch horses and ride the power running game.
I don’t disagree with the thought, but the Dawgs didn’t get what they did on the ground with a “power running game.” Callier’s yards all came on the fly sweep, and other than a nice 36-yarder, Polk mostly struggled going at the ASU defense.
It isn’t as simple as that with a line that, quite honestly, can’t go straight at a defense for an entire game. Or even part of a game. Or even as something other than a change-of-pace.
I agree with everybody that Polk and Callier should’ve had more carries. But the notion that it was as simple as lining up and going right at one of the better defenses in the conference is patently false. The Dawgs, right now, are fragile enough that their running game is keyed by the passing game, and the passing game is keyed by the running game. All of it needs a “good” (at worst) Locker in order to work. For all of the skill that there is on offense, it’s a house of cards because the line simply isn’t there yet.
And really, Locker isn’t much more than a true sophmore in terms of his develpment as a QB. And maybe worse, because not only did he have to learn how to play the position the right way, but he also had to unlearn three year’s worth of bad habits.
110 yards - 36 yards = 74 yards / (18 carries - 1 carry) = 74/17 = 4.35 YPC.
4.35 yards per carry is something you’re calling “struggling.” Jacquizz Rodgers averages just 4.41 YPC. As an average, 3 runs at that rate is a first down without ever throwing the ball.
Sure, the defense adjusts and the ground attack doesn’t work as well. That’s fine. But then you open up the passing game to Locker a little more. This game needed more yards on the ground.
He's probably a Tyee, too.
Worthless bastards.
I agree with your point, to an extent, though. Jim Harbaugh would be up to his knees by now as the Husky fanbase began to bury him in his second season.
Been Hearing That Way Too Long
My days of being patient are long over. It’s one thing to get beat by a team like Nebraska that simply has far superior talent at this point. It is inexcusable to loose at home in the rain to team with comparable talent level like ASU. In my mind’s eye, ASU wanted it more. This team needs to be at the point where it wins the games against like opponents and steps up and competes against better teams. They need to learn and put into practice that they have to play hard every down against every team in order to win. We are just not good enough to take plays and games off if we want to be a winning program. It is a shame that the fans on this blog seem to have more pride in the Husky program them the current players do at times. We go down and loose to Oregon but play hard and compete the whole game, I can live with that. We loose to ASU at home and look uninterested far large parts of the game, inexcusable.
Another TYEE bash, expected
Oh, and what happened to your rants about not criticizing individual players, looks like you just violated your own rants.
Coaching
I’ve been reluctant to put too much blame on Sark’s play-calling this year; if you look at film, most of the time you’ll see that lack of execution is usually what dooms failed plays rather than the call itself not being a good one.
That said, I’m getting frustrated at Sark’s overall philosophy. Chris Polk is a stud, pure and simple. Jesse Callier also shows a lot of potential. Our running game was working pretty well last night despite our OL not being the greatest, and Jake was playing under the weather – why weren’t we running the ball more?
I hear Sark say the right things about play balance and wanting a good running attack. But when push comes to shove, he seems to favor the passing game at the expense of the running game. Is Sark ever going to be a coach that rides the running game when it’s working to 50 carries in a game?
And while I admire his willingness to take risks and not play things totally conservative, he also needs to reassess his decisions – that fake FG was a bad decision in those circumstances. Same with going for that 4th and 5 near the end of the 1st half instead of punting and trying to pin ASU deep inside their 10 yard line. That ASU then turned around and stretched their lead from 14-7 to 21-7 was critical.
And why the trust in Christine? Why not give Porter a shot? Christine was overwhelmed much of the night. Why not give Porter a chance to see some real action since his redshirt is already burned?
Sark doesn’t have a bye week this time to reassess himself, but he needs to do so regardless.
I still see more positives than negatives out of Sark, but I’ve seen enough negatives to be concerned.
Agreed.
I think there will be some tough decisions to be made by Sark in the offseason, should be interesting to see if he does what it necessary to succeed.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
My only problem with Sark is that he coaches like he has USC talent. He calls plays like he has Carson Palmer and Reggie Bush in the backfield. He is not adjusting to his players talents and skills all that well. He wants Jake to be a certain type of QB that I just do not think at this point in his career Jake is capable of being, and if Jake does not get it by now then he is not going to get it before his college career ends in 7 games, 8 if a miracle happens. Sark’s problem is too be expected to a point. Coaches recruit talent to fit their system. I suspect that once the team is full of his player that Sark’s play calling will improve greatly.
Kirk, agree again
i am going to have to start tallying plays. My guess right now is Sark seems to favor throwing the ball on 3rd and short versus running around 75% of time. Even when the run game works.
Chrisitine is a great story, but he is still a talent level down from what Porter may provide. I like Kanzugowski in as an added TE or H back, that formation seemed to work, why not use it more especially in light of our O line talent.
I would ask Sark this question myself at the coaches show, but since he didn’t want to ride to Anthonys for the Coaches show anymore, and just self abrogated the contract with Anthonys, I wont be able to ask him in person.
Now that I know Jake was sick with the flu, it explains a lot more of what I saw on saturday. Hope he recovers quickly and hope its not mono like Kohler.
My guess right now is Sark seems to favor throwing the ball on 3rd and short versus running around 75% of time.
The Huskies ran 7 plays on 3rd or 4th down with three or fewer yards to go. 4 were rushes, three were passes.
In looking at the play-by-plays for each game, it’s been roughly a 50/50 split for the season.
The problem isn’t the play call, it’s that the plays aren’t working.
Sun, thanks for the data, obviously I was wrong
I guess when I am caught up in the game, the pass seemed to be more prevalent to me at the time. I will have to wait until i get to SoCal and review my ASU DVD along with hopefully better results against Ore St.
I understand the “feel” that you had about it, prrbrr. To me, part of it just that the team feels soft; that they are so weak up front that they must be throwing it every single down.
If you would’ve asked me what Locker’s stats were after the game on Saturday, I would’ve said 16 or 17 for 40. I was absolutely SHOCKED to see that he was 23-38. It felt so much worse than that. I’m guessing that’s sort of how you felt about the 3rd down play calls, no?
Jake
He was actually having a halfway decent game throwing the ball until late. He was 0-2 on that 3 and out to start the 4th quarter, then was 0-3 on the series when we went for it on 4th down with about 6 minutes to go (the point at which many of us figured the game was essentially over, except ASU let us stay in the game). He was then 5-8 on the last drive, including the pick. So he was 5-13 with an interception in the 4th quarter when we really needed him to step up and get some points for the offense.
Obviously some drops didn’t help, and we now know that he was playing sick and out of breath, but at the time it felt like he was reverting to Bad Jake, especially that 2nd series in the 4th quarter where he wasn’t close on any of those passes.
Watching the replay, I felt the same way about him as you.
He was gassed in the fourth. He wasn’t getting the depth on his drops that he did earlier in the game, his footwork regressed, he didn’t step through the same way on his passes….A lot of what I saw live made a lot more sense in with the context of his health.
Sun/Kirk
Absolutely, we felt the same way watching the game, it SEEMED the pass/run ratio was 60/40 and that Jake was reverting to bad Jake again. Now that I’ve learned he was sick, accounts for much of the performance. When you ain’t well, it affects vision/judgment/decision making etc. Not sure if he was also taking OTC meds too, which also affect reaction time etc. There is a reason pilots shouldn’t fly when sick.
Hope he is healthy by saturday, if so we can get one of our required wins out of the way.
Why shouldn't pilots fly sick??
That’s why we have autopilots!! Just kidding!
Good points though. It makes much more sense now that we know Jake was sick. He looked good for the first half, and then seemed to fall back as the second half progressed.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
I do think the pass rush is absolutely making the secondary look worse than it is.
Threet was barely pressured all night. I’m tempted to go back with a stopwatch and time how long he had to throw on the average play.
I’m not going to do it, because I want to erase the memory of that game from my brain entirely, but it is tempting.
Field goal fake was an iffy call..
..or at least the way they faked it. Sark repeatedly said he had to respect ASU’s lateral speed when he game planned, then ran a fake which required Bruns to outrun ASU to the sideline. Sure enough, ASU’s defense tracked him down easily. Strange.
it was a really poor choice
I’m not against fake field goals. But we were in what, 4th and 18? You’d better have a hell of a fake play and really good reason to believe the opponent isn’t going to stay home and play it safe.
I’d love to see some film study breakdown of that play – I’ve seen another person claim that we had a WR open on that play. Not sure if Bruns had a run/pass option on that play.
Reality Check
Sark called an ok game. Give ASU defense credit, they blanketed our receivers. Jake never had time to throw the deep ball and that really hurt us. Our line was not good enough to block properly. ASU collasped the pocket so there was not room to step up or or find openings to run.
Both lines were overwhelmed all night. I think a downpour like we had last night favors the team with the better defense and that is ASU. There QB had time and the receivers were really open. ASU converted on 3rd down after 3rd down. Our secondary missed assignments, is playing too far off, and tenative.
I think we need to get out of the bend but don’t break model. The defense thinks it is ok to give up yards between the 20’s and it is not. You can’t always wait for an opponent to make a mistake you need to pressure them to make a mistake.
Jake was not great, but he was accurate all night. I do not think he played poorly by any means. Also, we did not get any breaks from the officials. Nothing went our way as far as calls.
we did get some generous spots
at least twice in the gamethread I was about to post a “should we go for it on 4th down here” after it appeared we came up short, but the officials ended up spotting us for the 1st
play calls
I think Sark and Holt both have some creative schemes (Sark especially). And in general, I think they call good games. But Sark didn’t run the ball enough IMO, and Holt got caught multiple times running blitzes that ASU had the perfect play for (screens, quick passes to the zone our blitzers had just vacated).
It was not the best night of play calling for either guy.
Holt got caught multiple times running blitzes that ASU had the perfect play for (screens, quick passes to the zone our blitzers had just vacated).
Some of them were good play calls, but most of the time it was a simple read adjustment by one of the receivers to go directly to the void created by the blitzer (hot route).
The Dawgs were in the nickel virtually all game. Their only options were to try to defend ASU with a base defense (which has proven to not be able to generate pressure on its own), forsake getting pressure, or blitz to get pressure. The D probably telegraphed their blitzes a bit too much.
zone coverage
I’d like to hear someone smarter than me dissect our secondary and their zone coverage performance. Seemed like ASU almost always was able to find big gaps against our zone all night. That’s to be expected when we are rushing 6-7 guys, but we were running a 3-3-5 most of the night and often only rushed 3-4, so we should have had enough guys back in coverage to cover the field pretty effectively.
For the most part, it's simply a lack of awareness.
The DB’s and linebackers generally make their drops correctly to get into their “zones,” but they don’t adjust well on the fly as the play develops and the receivers make their breaks.
There were several times that a receiver found a small hole between two and sometimes three defensive backs, and nobody on D was aware enough to step up or back to cut off the pass.
You simply can’t teach instinct. Fellner and Williams aren’t good coverage safeties. When you watch them in slow motion on TV, you can see the lack of feel for the passing game. Parker is a true freshman. His head was on a swivel all game, trying to figure out what he was seeing. Richardson isn’t instinctive as a corner. Trufant hasn’t shown as much as I’d hoped to see after last season. He’s still the best true corner out there, though.
These guys can be coached to be better, but virtually all of them lack (to a varying degree) the innate talents that good DB’s have in pass coverage.
yep
The DB’s and linebackers generally make their drops correctly to get into their "zones," but they don’t adjust well on the fly as the play develops and the receivers make their breaks.
This is what I suspected. Doesn’t seem like our guys have a really good feel for playing zone. Yes, they know their zone, but they don’t take the next step of knowing when to step up and cover someone in their zone. They seem too afraid to pick up a guy for fear that he’s a decoy and they’ll leave their zone open for a 2nd receiver to enter their zone unchecked.
Of course, this would be less important if we had any semblance of a pass rush from our DL. Holt was running a lot of stunts and bringing extra guys to generate a rush, but we just don’t seem to have a guy that can win a battle with his man and get to the QB in under 3-4 seconds. We’re getting a little better at collapsing the pocket, but most teams these days have shorter QB drops and can get rid of the ball within 4 seconds. And too much of the time, they have a lot longer than that against us.
And yeah, it would help if we disguised our blitzes better. Our corner blitzes are too obvious – these guys need to get better at faking the blitz and not coming, as well as coming without telegraphing it. They need to become better actors.
Calm down...
Okay this was a game that we should have won.. yes. Now it has not been so much in this forum but in others a lot of husky nation is going over board on this performance. Calling for Holt, and Sarks head.
First on Sark-
Many are calling for him to turn over play calling duties. This is the same coach who everyone was applauding last week for calling such a great game vs USC. Does Sark make mistakes yes but to use this game as evidence for him to turn over play calling is crazy.. Who do you want to call plays? Nuss? You think he is a better play caller than Sark I dont think so. Sark is learning as he goes, and he is getting better and learning from mistakes. The one thing he is consistently doing is brining in top talent and not just at skill positions, something we have not done in 15 years. Give him time. The reality is that next year is going to be a struggle to so ride the wave.
As for Holt he is making progress. I really do not think we realize how little talent that we have on defense. I expect a big improvement next year for our d. Besides Taamu and Foster NOONE else would be starting on a top tier PAC TEN program. Maybe Trufant… We have no talent there it is that simple. Having said that they help a good running back to 3 yards a carry. Your DB’s and a lack of pressure cost us the game. The problem is that you cannot coach Richardson or Felliner to catch a ball. All that a coach can do is put him in the best position. Im sorry but there is no reason for Richardson to see the field. i have sat through way to many plays where he should have picked off a pass or made a play on the ball and has instead caused a penalty. I would rather let Anthony Boyles get experience than see Richardson on the field..
Finally, people who say we are in the same position as we were in 2008 under Tyrone must have never watched a game during that season. As a fan who sat through every second of his tenure we are so far headed in the opposite direction it is not funny. Are we where any of us would want to be? Of course not but Sark understands that.. I am not sure if TW even cared. We have talent besides at QB which you could argue did not exist under Tyrone.
Everyone needs to relax.. Look at Arizona and how long and far it took them to become a solid program. Questioning our coaches is one thing but calling for there firing is another..
Let s go beat OSU
I agree with a lot of your points. Sark’s is an offensive genius. Right now, he just does not have the talent level or type to fit his play calling. Giving enough time, this will resolve itself. My biggest disappointment with this game is that I really question the level of the players resolve and effort. Again, given enough time, this will resolve itself as Ty’s players leave the program. Bottom line is though, if we want to be a consistent bowl program, upper conference team, with dreams of bigger prizes, we have to start winning games like last night. It is great to pull off upsets at USC; however, what makes teams truly winning programs is that they beat all the teams you are supposed too almost every time. Back in the day, we always beat Oregon, Cal, Stanford, OSU, etc of the world. It was expected. Now, I frankly, much like the players, expect to loose to all those schools. It used to be a surprise when we lost, now it is a surprise when we win. We have to start beating the middle of the road conference teams consistently and then we can start worrying about beating the top programs in the conference and challenge for Rose Bowls again. That is why last night was so disappointing. I keep waiting for this team to take the next step, and they keep letting me down. The next step is not beating USC and Oregon. The next step is beating Oregon State, Arizona, California, etc on a consistent basic, every week when those teams are the opponents. We will never challenge for the conference until we first do that.
CONGRATULATIONS
DAWGFAN87. You are a voice of reason among some very recalcitrant voices on this blog. Win or lose GO HUSKIES.
You are 4-5 weeks late.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
I know……but he looked awfully “Heisman-like” last week when he crushed my Trojans (Grad School). However, this is the beauty of going to two PAC-10 schools……heartbreak one week, redemption the next.
by DevilishTrojan21 on Oct 10, 2010 7:24 PM PDT up reply actions
Impressed with Callier as KR
I was really impressed with Callier returning kickoffs, he seems to be very explosive and appears to be pretty good at finding seems and doesn’t seem to hesitate when he sees a hole, something I don’t we have had in quite some time back there.
Couldn't agree more.
With Callier and a healthy Cooper, our backfield should be a lot of fun to watch.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
yep
Callier looked decisive as a KR which is half the battle. Add in good speed and vision, and he seems like a keeper back there for the rest of the season.
For the first time this season
I think our return teams did as good as, if not better than, the opposing return teams.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
Impressive
When you consider ASU has one of the better return games in the Pac-10 if not the nation.
Yes it is.
I was impressed. It also gives you hope that the coaches can “coach up” the players in other area’s too. They obviously weren’t playing well the first few games, but the special teams have been steadily improving throughout the season. If I saw the same improvement from the defense, I might actually believe in Nick Holt.
"Legends are made on the shores of Lake Washington"
"BOW DOWN TO WASHINGTON"
As much as people want to bail on the team after every loss
I think there were some positives to take from that game.
1. Defense actually held an opposing team to 3 points in the second half, even with the offense doing them no favors with 3-and-outs after turnovers etc.
2. We actually moved the ball pretty well on offense, total yardage was comparable to ASU’s. We just kept killing drives with penalties, something we hadn’t really been doing all year.
That game really was a lot closer than people want to believe. If we can iron out some of the kinks with penalties and get everyone healthy I think we will be right back on track against OSU.
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