The Washington defense was scorched for the second consecutive week. After giving up 496 total yards against Oregon the Huskies surrendered 475 more, 338 of them through the air to BYU.
Max Hall was pretty much untouched and had the time to do whatever he wanted on Saturday. Harvey Unger broke tackles all game long giving BYU short yardage situations which kept their offense moving. The Huskies were shut out in the sack department and only had one tackle for loss.
BYU was 12 for 14 on 3rd down conversions.
DC Ed Donatell says he isn't happy with the results. "There's no question we're not happy these first two weeks," UW Defensive Coordinator Ed Donatell said. "It's nothing close to (the) Husky standard. But we are thinking about what we can do better to teach these guys. Is there a better alignment we can put them in? What can we do to help them? It's all about making it better."
I think you are going to see some changes next week. Look for Johri Fogerson to see action at safety. Fogerson is an upgrade over Tripper Johnson and with Darin Harris out with a concussion the Huskies are losing depth back there. Look for Taylor to move over from receiver.
Josh Gage isn't cutting it as a starter. Washington needs an upgrade at LB. Willingham needs to let EJ Savannah back on the team. The addition of the teams best defensive player would elevate the play of the unit. You can do a lot more things when EJ is in there.
Cameron Elisara and the interior of the defensive line aren't making an impact yet. They looked better against BYU this week but the team still lacks a dominator inside.
I am not sold on Washington's 3-3-5 defensive alignment even though I like the defensive play better so far this year. I don't think playing three safeties puts the best eleven players on the field at this point.
You can't give up an average of 480 yards per game and expect to win more than you lose.