More Postgame thoughts on UW-OSU

This will be short and sweet, before we look ahead to this week and other Pac-10 teams.  Since bullet points are awesome, I’ll just write a few.

• This team is frustrating.  To be honest, they remind me of the Husky basketball team last year.  They may not have as much potential to be great, like that team did, but they show flashes of greatness and then look like a different team.  This was the case with the offense on Saturday.  They jumped out to a 21-0 lead, scoring on the 3 of their first 4 possessions and then didn’t look near as good until overtime.  I have a few theories as to why this happened but none of them are proven.  Do the coaches over-think things and try to get too complicated rather than sticking with what works?  Do the players lose focus, causing the dumb penalties?  Is the line not good enough to sustain the success for long periods of time?  I don’t know.  But, if they ever put it completely together they could score 40 points a game.  It’s frustrating but, on the bright side, at least Casey Paus isn’t the quarterback.
• Mason Foster is easily the first half MVP of this team.  He could make a run at Pac-10 defensive player of the year if the Huskies don’t fall completely out of contention.  That arm tackle he made on Katz in the 4th quarter was absolutely amazing.  If the Huskies go on a little run and make a bowl game, we can call that “The Tackle That Saved the Season.”  Mason is my favorite player on the team and is playing out of his mind right now.
• The rest of the defense is growing up.  They are getting better, as we can see by the overall performance on Saturday, but they still suffer some growing pains, as we could see by the 21 straight points they gave up.  But, the defense, as a unit, won Saturday’s game for the Huskies.  When is the last time we can say that?
• The crowd had a bigger impact on this game than any game in recent memory.  They caused a few false starts and a burnt time out.  But, bigger than that, they caused the Huskies defensive ends to get a head start.  Brock Huard pointed out on the broadcast that, with the crowd noise, the offensive tackles are very slow off the ball.  He said that it gives the defensive ends up to half of a second head start on the tackles.   This thought is both good and bad.  Good job on the crowd, they brought the noise even when things were a little bit frustrating.  The bad is on the thought that our defensive ends really have improved in the last week or two.  Yes, they have improved but, maybe it’s not quite as much as everyone has been pointing out since Saturday.  This week will be a better test of how far they have truly come.
• The line changes were good.  Greg Christine got pushed around quite a bit, but he brings a great effort and gives leadership.  Ryan Tolar played his best game of the year, in my opinion.  He had some nice blocks while pulling.  Colin Porter is a big guy and played really well in his first collegiate start.  I’m looking forward to him playing more and more.  With Kohler practicing this week, it makes me wonder if we’ll see more changes.  I’d love to see Porter and Kohler out there together.  Two true freshmen are in our top five offensive lineman.  That may not be great news for the present, but it bodes well for the future.
• Chris Polk is amazing.  I don’t know what else I can say about him.  I love that guy.
• Locker and Kearse had bounce back games, which was pretty predictable.  Locker hung in the pocket and made some great throws.  This game really showed how far Jake has come in the last year and a half under Sark.  No, it wasn’t his most impressive game but the overtime session showed that he’s comfortable hanging in the pocket.  We couldn’t say that 2 years ago.  Some of the throws he made off his back foot last week were amazing.
• Some penalties and calls were questionable.  I’ll leave it at that.
• There is quite a bit of debate whether the last pass of the game was dropped or knocked away.  It may have been dropped but that was a really tough catch that people aren’t taking into account.  In any other situation, I feel that most people wouldn’t count on a player to make that catch.  Dennison got there right when the ball did and the throw was low and hard.  Yes, it was a catchable ball and a player needs to rise to the occasion in that moment, but don’t forget to credit Cort in making a great play.

That’s about it from me, thanks for reading.

Andrew