I am off to Hawaii in the morning so I am trying to get everything cranked out for the weekend before I leave. I had the choice in August of spending two weeks in Hawaii or going to Eugene to watch the Huskies play. Just thinking that my wife is pretty darn smart by suggesting we go to Hawaii in November this year rather than December.
Quarterback
Jake simply didn't have time to do anything. The offensive line couldn't even begin to pick up the blitz and Washington only picked up seven first downs all night. When Jake did have time he just wasn't accurate and you could tell he was rattled early. I feel sorry for Jake as he descends to the second or third rounds of the NFL draft. His decision to come back to Washington has caused him to lose unrecoverable millions of dollars.
"They did some different things defensively that we did our best to prepare them for and they had a good plan. It's just I'm kind of with coach, I kind of don't know where to begin. I think we were we just weren't very sound everywhere. I know I made a few mistakes and things that really cost us in some big times in games, missed a few throws that would have possibly given us drives earlier in the game that could have changed the outcome of it. It's frustrating.''
Grade D
Running Back
The Huskies fell behind early and Chris Polk carried the ball for 17 yards on 13 carries. This was total domination in its purest form. Tough to blame Polk because there was very little there the entire night but when you average only one yard per carry you are lucky that you don't get an F.
Grade D
Receivers
These guys never had a chance to get open because Locker had only about two second to pass the ball after the snap. UW had an advantage deep over Stanford but was never able to get there which is the story of the game. Good news is I didn't see any drops. Bad news is these guys never had a chance to make a difference.
Grade C
Offensive Line
This was a historically poor performance. The two frosh on the right side were over matched from the start, You have to question why Sark didn't insert Christine and Habben to see if they could make a difference. I don't see any progress being made with Habben being on the sidelines.Maybe I missed it when they were rotating in...perhaps it didn't make a difference. Perhaps these are the growing pains you have to go through when you start frosh.
Grade F Triple Minus
Defensive line
Two frosh starting on this unit also and they were just eaten up all night. Ta'amu was overwhelmed early and was gassed pretty early. This unit won't improve until Elisara and Chrichton are back in the line up which probably won't happen till we play UCLA. We have seen some terrible defensive lines at Washington over the last eight years but this is probably the worst we have seen up to this point.
Grade F
Linebackers
These guys didn't have a chance because of the play of the defensive line. Mason Foster as usual had his good moments but it was impossible to clean up all night behind a defensive line that was being dominated.
Grade C
Secondary
19-26 isn't the whole story because the defensive line left these guys on an island the first four possessions of the evening. When a QB like Andrew Luck has that much time bad things are going to happen. If you don't get pressure a on a QB like Andrew Luck he is going to pick you apart.
Grade D
Special Teams
Stanford stifled the return game but Washington had decent coverage and didn't give up anything big the entire evening. The play of this unit may have been the only positive on the evening.
Grade B
Coaching
The team came out flat and that is entirely on the coaches. Washington was totally unprepared to play tonight and it brings up the honest question of whether the coaches have lost control of the team. The last two weeks have been vintage Ty Willingham.
"I'm not sure (if it was emotion or execution) to be honest with you. I'm going to have to try to assess it all. I thought we just didn't perform and they did. Obviously the line of scrimmage was a big factor. But we are going to assess everything and try to figure out why, how and what we can do to fix it.''
Coach Sark...your team is slow and predictable. Jim Harbaugh and his staff smoked you tonight. They made you look Willingham-esque. Your team wasn't ready to play and there is no excuse for that. We can talk talent gaps all night but your team didn't begin to fight until they were down by 28.
Coach Holt...that is eight terrible quarters in a row. I know that the defense didn't have much of a chance because of the inefficiency of the offense but your guys didn't start playing until they were down by 28 points. You make way too much money not to have your players mentally prepared to play.
Grade F