Harry Husky and His 12-PAC: Southern California Edition

by JLee2025 on Nov 11, 2011 12:00 AM PST

This has been such a crummy year for college football for reasons that have nothing to do with activity on the field. Oregon, Miami, Auburn, Ohio State, the list goes on. That has all been summed up by the firing of Penn State coach Joe Paterno in a scandal that requires no more coverage in this corner of the blogosphere. FACE PALM.

In our own neck of the woods, layers of pointed comments by coaches Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin, and Nick Holt have detracted from the fact that the past two UW/USC games have been really exciting. Before last week's game against Oregon, I felt that both coaches did a great job of keeping the focus on the football game and the finale at Husky Stadium. This week, not so much. FACE PALM.

So...can we get back to football?

Harry thinks so!

*NOTE I've adjusted the size so that it will load more quickly on the mobile app.

FACE PALM!

I know it's a tired joke. Trojans. Protective...stuff. We get it. But it highlights a key difference between Washington's offensive success and failures. Keith Price's ability to settle in the pocket has been the key component to the offense's success; dare I say, more so than even Chris Polk's success running the ball.

In both of our conference losses to Oregon and Stanford, we expected Keith Price to pull the trigger in expected shootouts. Instead, Keith Price delivered two of his worst performances with 6.9 and 4.1 yards per attempt respectively (ESPN). While I give the Duck and Cardinal secondaries credit, the real tip of the cap goes to the defensive lines' efforts.

When defenses apply pressure, the idea is to force a quarterback to use his check downs and hot reads. When a quarterback has to throw a ball early, his receivers do not have the opportunity to influence the secondary and create space for those check downs. How many of you watching the Stanford and Oregon games saw Polk or Callier get tackled after a 4 yard pass and said to yourself, "Damn! They are fast!"?

The issue isn't the speed of the defense. The issue is the fact that defensive pressure is forcing Price into early check down situations where the safeties and linebackers haven't even fully dropped back to cover the receivers. There is no space for neither Polk nor Callier to catch a pass and make a play. In both the Oregon and Stanford losses, running backs caught 11 passes for 48 yards; 4.4 yards per catch (ESPN).

Against USC, join me in keeping tabs on the performance of the offensive line. Let's hope that they step it up after a torrid effort against Oregon. One could argue that the USC defense is just as physical and athletic as Stanford and Oregon's defenses. If the Husky offensive line plans to yield similar results to last week, prepare to talk about how fast the USC defense looks. FACE PALM.

Go Dawgs.

Poll

Rating offensive lines is a tough task, and there are no defined statistics to measure success. So, we will use John B's grades as our metric. How do you think the Offensive Line will grade out?

A for AWESOME!

2 votes

B

22 votes

C

30 votes

D

4 votes

F for FACE PALM.

4 votes

62 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 11 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

I think they will bounce back

When have the Dawgs under Sarkisian not bounced back after a horrible effort. I also think KP17 will bounce back as well.

Just to disagree, I actually don’t think Keith checked down enough, he actually said so in a recent interview courtesy of Gohuskies.com. He had Chris wide open on third and short sitting on the first down marker with no Duck in sight, he instead took a unnecessary sack. He also noted that despite the fact he was sacked a season high 6 times against the Padfoots that he was the cause of some of those sacks due to him not checking down. He said he was trying to get a big play which is what I said Monday morning on a thread on this website. Keith needs to take what the offensive scheme and defense gives him in big games. We can’t pull what we do against Colorado in a game against Oregon/Stanford.

by datboyeddiep on Nov 11, 2011 6:31 AM PST reply actions 1 recs

4.4 ypc

Is a good stat to me. You take for instance 1st and 10, instead of being sacked for 6 yards, take 4 and a half. Then you have 2nd and 3rd and shorts instead of long. 4.4 is also a good stat for checkdowns because every three play is a first down in theory. I’ll take 4.4 ypc. If Keith would have taken those 4 yards instead of 6 sacks, we would have won the Oregon game.

True 4.4 is not a lot, not eye popping, but against great teams you must take what you are given.

by datboyeddiep on Nov 11, 2011 6:33 AM PST up reply actions

Perhaps the key to that stat,

Is the “longest gain.” A well executed check down or screen, where the running back catching the ball has space to work with, can kill a blitzing defense.

One thing we didn’t do against Oregon or Stanford was make them pay for blitzing or manning linebackers on Polk/Callier. While 4.4 yards per catch is great on 1st downs, it doesn’t scare a blitzing defense at all. Being able to punish a blitzing defense by hitting open check downs that gain 15-20 yards after catch with good blocking will slow down blitzes, which breeds more time for Price to do his thang.

thisjustinlee.wordpress.com

by JLee2025 on Nov 11, 2011 9:44 AM PST up reply actions

I saw that same interview

But I couldn’t ignore the stats and the fact that running backs, who are primary check down options, accounted for a third of Keith Price’s completions last Saturday. My understanding of Keith and Sark’s quote is that situationally, Keith needed to better utilize his check downs.

Ultimately, my point was not to say that Price needed to use his checkdowns more or less. Rather, my emphasis was on the offensive line’s ability to create time for the receivers to develop their routes and influence the secondary, thus creating space for the check downs, when used, to be effective.

thisjustinlee.wordpress.com

by JLee2025 on Nov 11, 2011 9:33 AM PST up reply actions

Agreed

Once again Justin man, great post. Go Dawgs!

by datboyeddiep on Nov 11, 2011 9:44 AM PST up reply actions

I think the Harry Husky strip

should be a daily feature, not a weekly one!

Andy Wooldridge, andy_wooldridge@yahoo.com
BuildingTheDam.Com
Go Beavs!

by AndyPanda on Nov 11, 2011 7:25 AM PST reply actions

Definitely would have to go B+W,

I’ve considered it, especially earlier in the week when activity is relatively lower. But coloring and shading these strips has been the most dynamic part of the artwork. While removing that would save many hours, I worry that it would compromise the quality of the strip.

Eventually, I’d like to get to the point where the strip is more consistent and frequent. There are actually some really beautiful comic strips out there on SBNation (see “The Pits”). Definitely have a long ways to go, but I appreciate the enthusiasm! Go Dawgs!

thisjustinlee.wordpress.com

by JLee2025 on Nov 11, 2011 9:55 AM PST up reply actions