After playing three good games in a row the Washington Huskies traveled to Stanford and just stunk up the joint last night losing to the Tree 34-14. The game started on the wrong note as Stanford's Chris Owusu returned the opening kickoff for a TD. Washington was two steps slow and ten dollars short all night and never rmatched the intensity of the Cardinal at any point during the night.
Jake Locker fell back to earth tonight. Only last week he was being touted as the top QB in the country and ready to be a top pick in the NFL draft. Tonight he was just another deer in the headlights who missed his wide open targets and made fatal mistakes all night. To make matters worse he was tenative on the run when he rolled out which took away any edge he had as a multiple threat. Jake was terrible tonight, but in his defense had little protection, and was used poorly by the coaching staff.
The coaching staff that was celebrated as saviors only a week ago came out as flat as their team tonight. The offensive play calling was terrible but honestly it didn't really matter because the offensive line didn't block worth a crap tonight. Kavario Middleton was just terrible at TE. It seemed like he gave up at times tonight. The Stanford defense ate him up on blocking assignments and when called on as a receiver his usually sure hands failed him. Even Bob Rondeau thought he was dogging it out there tonight.
The defense was a total sieve as Toby Gerhart shredded the Husky defense for over 200 yards on the ground. Gerhart looked a step slow tonight and the Husky defense looked two steps slower. It was just a pathetic performace which reaked of lack of effort. Coach Holt had no answer for Stanford's smash mouth offense. There was nothing trickly here. The Cardinal line just kicked Washington's ass all night.
Stanford dominated time of possesion 44:53 to 21:09 tonight. the Cards rolled up 426 yards of total offense to only 290 for UW. Another completely pathetic stat for the UW defense is giving up 322 yards on the ground which has to be some type of a record. Jake was 16/31 with two interceptions...Andrew Luck only had to throw 14 times tonight and was 7/14 for 104 yards...but he picked up 59 additional yards on the ground.
Washington simply was poorly prepared for this one. This was not the same team that played the previous three games. Perhaps it was the presence of Ty Willingham in the building which put a curse on this team tonight. We have seen so much excitement on the sideline the past three weeks but tonight the UW sideline was dead which was really strange....did the coaches take the week off or where they intimidated by their first road game?
I love Sark and Holt but they were outcoached all night. I guess it is understandable because Harbaugh has been a thorn in USC's side since he arrived at Stanford...why wouldn't it carry over to tonight against a similar game plan? Stanford knew what was coming all nght. UW did also but couldn't stop it...the tackling was some of the worst I have ever seen not to mention that we were out of postion and were blocked to the ground on almost every single play.
Looking back we would have been thrilled to be 2-2 at this point...but you figure if you almost beat LSU and then knock off USC you should be able to show better against Stanford...Well it didn't happen and it was a strange weekend in the Pac 10 overall....Cal getting blown out by Oregon? Arizona beating OSU on the road? ASU taking Georgia into the 4th quarter on the road? WSU not giving up 50 in the first half against USC? Cats sleeping with Dogs?...It is just Crazy!
What this and all the other games today mean is parity has arrived to the Pac 10 and a home field advantage is huge. Anyone can beat anyone and you better bring your "A" game each week. Most importantly it means Washington is going to be lucky to win six games this season with a road heavy conference schedule. If they continue to play like they did tonight they won't get the bowl thing done.The coaches and players produced the type of game tonight we haven't seen since last season. This one is going to leave a mark.