I’m doing this from my phone because, frankly, I forgot until now. So there won’t be any witty comments about mascots or about what the final score of the WSU-Oregon score will be. I’ll update the standings next week but for now it’s just the picks! Just the picks.
Arizona vs. Oregon State
Matthew, Andrew: Oregon State
Joe, Danny: Arizona
Arizona State at California
The Good Guys: ASU
Colorado vs. UCLA
The Good Guys: UCLA
Oregon vs. WSU
The Good Guys: Oregon 
Have a great weekend!
Andrew
Filed under Predictions
Growing up, I always heard and saw highlights of what a ‘Husky defense’ was supposed to look like. The legend of the defense was talked about with every coach who was hired, and later fired, for the past decade. Every coach wanted to restore what ‘Husky defense’ was supposed to be. Sometimes there were glimpses. The crowd would stand up, yell louder than they would for any touchdown, and the defensive ends would fire off the ball for a sack on 3rd down. We saw glimpses but hardly ever complete games.
That Was Awesome!
In 2010 the Husky defense dominated a one-dimensional Nebraska team in the Holiday Bowl. In that same year, the Husky defense kept the team in the game against Oregon State by shutting them down in the second half. In 2009, the defense played pretty well against USC, Cal, and Wazzu. We can go back farther. The 2001 Rose Bowl team had a good defense who was opportunistic and often rose to the occasion. But, as the college football game evolved, the offense has been ahead of the defense for most of the last 15 years.
Tonight the Huskies played their best defensive game since…. I don’t know. Maybe the Holiday Bowl was more impressive to you? Not to me. This effort was complete against the most physical team in the Pac-12. Stanford shoved their way to 65 yards and 6 points. Stanford didn’t score a touchdown for the first time since 2007. The Dawgs just didn’t let any plays break them. Stanford didn’t have a rush for over 7 yards. Last year, they had 10 over 15 yards.
I could throw out stats all night that show you how well the defense played but I think you get the point. This defense tackled better, pursued better, and played with more effort than I’ve ever seen. Tonight was maybe my best glimpse of what a ‘Husky defense’ is supposed to look like. Do I expect them to go into Oregon next week and shut down the Ducks. Not at all. Hardly anyone does that and it will be a different type of game. This was a giant step in the right direction though.
Later on, I (or another one of the Good Guys) will break down this game more thoroughly. Tonight is for soaking in victory though. We don’t need to think about how the offensive line can’t pass block or about the emergence of a 3rd receiver. We can focus on a defense that was nothing short of phenomenal. We can focus on a surprising running game. We can focus on the play-maker Kasen Williams is turning in to. We can focus on a quarterback who repeatedly gets taken to the ground while throwing balls on target and then gets up and smiles, no matter the outcome. Tonight we saw a team who deserved to be a top-10 team. And what do you know? They did.
Go Dawgs!
Andrew
Filed under Uncategorized
While most of this city may still be focused on one of the crazier football games I’ve ever seen, the Good Guys think it’s time to turn the page and look at the most important game of the season for the Washington Huskies. Tomorrow the Dawgs play Stanford on national television at 6 P.M. For some reason, it is being billed as ‘The Blackout of the Century’. I guess you might as well shoot for the top.
The season for the Huskies has gone as scheduled. They won against a decent team, lost to a great team, and killed a terrible team. They’re 2-1, and the that’s the record that everyone predicted after 2 games. With that being said, there seems to be a great deal of pessimism coming from the fans. I’m guessing that it comes from the blow-out loss to LSU and the injuries. I don’t think there is an excuse for the LSU game and it’s time to put that game to bed but let’s talk about the injuries for a minute.
The Huskies have suffered injuries to 3 starting offensive linemen. Three linebackers have missed games. Two running backs are out for the season. Their second and third wide receivers are either out indefinitely or have been banged up. Their starting safety played with stitches in his eye last game. There have been 9 starters who have already missed a game this season. This program is 3 and a half years removed from going 0-12. That is not enough time to bring in quality depth to fill for all of these injuries. Yes, it’s enough time to bring in good players who will top your depth chart and make you a solid team. But, it’s not enough time for a team to bring in depth to cover all of these injuries.
With that being said, the Huskies are still strong enough to compete. If they don’t, I think we, as fans, should be disappointed. There are enough good to great players on this roster to keep the Huskies in games against top-25 schools. No, I’m not as optimistic about the Huskies after these injuries than I was at the beginning of the year but I think they are still capable of handling this situation. They won’t handle it like a top-10 team, but they’ll handle it like a good team.
I guess my point and question is, should we change our expectations for this Husky season based on the injuries? I think if I had to do my pre-season prediction again I would guess for 7 wins. They already have 2, plus Colorado and WSU are on the schedule. Utah doesn’t seem to be as tough as we thought they’d be. They play Oregon State at home and California is not in a good current state. That’s 7 teams right there. Add in Arizona to that mix and 7 seems like a good expectation to have. Against the good teams I don’t think we should change our expectations. The Huskies need to compete. LSU was a disaster and that shouldn’t happen anymore.
Tomorrow the Huskies play Stanford with an injury-laden team. I don’t expect them to win, in fact I’m leaning towards the thought that they’ll get dominated. I’m sick of thinking that about my team. We have for 10 years and it needs to end, no matter the excuse. Maybe it ends tomorrow against a physical, strong Cardinal team. Probably not, but maybe.
(Some bullet holes after the jump)
Filed under Uncategorized
After last weeks brief hiatus, ‘Around the Pac-12’ is back with a vengeance! Since Matthew already laid out how the Pac-12 teams are doing this week, I can devote this whole post to mascots. Just kidding. Sort of. Now that we’re in Pac-12 play, I’ll use a little bit of a different format that won’t be as organized and won’t be in alphabetical order. Hooray for changes that make things worse! Well, if you still want to read this after me telling you all of this I don’t know what will stop you. Here we go!
This Week: Arizona (Lost to Oregon 49-0) vs. Oregon State (Beat UCLA 27-20)
Before last week, these were two of the surprise teams in the Pac-12. Arizona’s shine has worn off since the shellacking they were served at Auzten. Arizona’s offense couldn’t convert in the red-zone and then the Ducks turned it on in the second half, like they usually do. The Wildcats are now 3-1, which is nothing to sneeze at if you look at their schedule thus far. Unless you’re allergic to the teams that they’ve played. Oregon State went in to Pasadena and continued to surprise. This is the first week in which they haven’t had 2 weeks to prepare for a team, which is really odd but their first game was postponed. The Beavers are unquestionably better but I don’t know if they have the staying power or the strength to stay at the top of the conference. This game will tell more about the Beavers than it will the Wildcats. Winning in Arizona is difficult and Oregon State pulls it off it may be time to take them seriously. Arizona has their quarterback, Matt Scott, a little bit banged up and needs to rebound from their blowout loss. This is probably the most interesting Saturday game in the Pac-12.
This Week: Arizona State (Beat Utah 37-7) at California (Lost to USC 27-9)
This game is a story of two programs going in different directions. The Sun Devils looked impressive for most of the out of conference schedule and then walloped Utah in the conference opener. The level of opponent is fair to question in all of their victories, but they have won emphatically. I’m not sure why more of us didn’t see this coming though. Yes, they lost a lot of seniors last year but they were a decent team who probably should have won the Pac-12 South. They got off to a hot start but then collapsed and gave up as the year went on. Maybe they’ll do that again this year, but the program is in better shape than many people gave it credit for. California is an absolute mystery. They are one of the most talented teams in the conference but look terrible. They have lost to Nevada, Ohio State and USC. Except for Nevada they aren’t bad losses and were expected before the year. They struggled against an FCS school and just don’t seem to be well coached or execute very well. The Golden Bears have the talent to turn it around but I don’t think that they will. If they are going to turn it around, it needs to happen this week with a strong showing against the Sun Devils. Unfortunately, a golden bear probably isn’t able to move or do much of anything aside from looking majestic and expensive as a statue. Assuming a Sun Devil is just a devil in the sun (?) I don’t think they should have an easy edge. Unless it’s raining.
This Week: Colorado (Beat WSU 35-34) vs. UCLA (Lost to Oregon State 20-27)
Last week, Colorado inexplicably earned what will be their lone victory of the year against the team who plays in the ugly part of Washington state. Yes, a win was good for them but they are bad. Watch the highlights of that game and then watch the highlights of any other Pac-12 game last week. You’ll notice quite a difference. It would be a shock if the Buffaloes won another game this season. They’ll probably be double-digit underdogs in every game left on their schedule. UCLA showed people that they still are UCLA. The Bruins have to be inconsistent or something is wrong with the universe. Oregon State could turn out to be a good team and the loss will look fine but people were anointing the Bruins to be USC’s competition in the south. I heard pundits say that they would go undefeated through 8 or 10 games. Haha. They have talent and an impressive victory over Nebraska, otherwise they haven’t done much yet. We’ll see going forward. With that being said, UCLA won’t have a problem this week. This is my favorite mascot match-up of the week. A Bruin fighting a Buffalo would probably be more entertaining than this game will be.
This Week: Oregon (beat Arizona 49-0) at WSU (lost to Colorado 35-34)
Maybe I shouldn’t say this game is at WSU because it’s in Seattle. There will probably be close to as many Duck fans as there are Cougar fans in the stands. The WSU players who spoke to the media this week weren’t exactly happy that this game is in Seattle. One of them said they ‘deserve to play at Martin Stadium’. That quote is laughable and undeniably true, although it’s not true for the reason he meant it to be. The Cougars lost in amazing fashion last week. Oregon won easily last week. This should be a blow-out, although WSU has kept it close against the Ducks in recent years. I worry about Mike Leach throwing his players under the bus after too many losses. I think it will happen at some point this season and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the team quit on him.
Utah (Lost to Arizona State 37-7) This Week: Bye
What happened to Utah? They were supposed to be USC’s only competition in the south and now they look like the second to worst team in that division. Their quarterback is bad, their running back is hurt, and their defense is over-rated. This team could turn it around but, right now, they aren’t close to pre-season expectations.
USC (Beat California 27-9) This Week: Bye
The Trojans won but it wasn’t extremely impressive. Their passing game is lacking for some reason and they were carried by their running game this week. I still think they could turn it around and make the Rose Bowl but they aren’t the team that we saw at the end of last year.
As always, we’ll be previewing the Stanford-Washington game in a while. In fact, I’m working on an extra post on the Huskies for later today. Stay tuned!
Thanks for reading!
Andrew
Filed under Pac-10 Outlook
As is usually the case, when the Huskies have a week off the Good Guys take a week off. We’ll be back with our usual posts and maybe more next week.
Last week was another pretty good week as far as picks go. Dan and I came in with a 9-1 record. Joe was 8-2 and Matthew was 7-3. Pretty crappy picking from Matthew. This week there are only conference games, with Stanford and U-Dub having the week off. Anyway, on to the picks!
Arizona at Oregon
The Good Guys: Oregon 😦
Utah at Arizona State
Matthew, Joe, Dan: Arizona State
Andrew: Utah
Colorado at Washington State
The Good Guys: Washington State
California at USC
The Good Guys: USC
Oregon State at UCLA
Joe, Dan, Andrew: UCLA
Matthew: Oregon State
Picking Standings:
Andrew, Dan 27-7
Joe 26-8
Matthew 25-9
Have a great weekend, everyone! We’ll see you next week.
Andrew
Filed under Predictions
These posts always seems a little empty to me, so before I jump into the predictions I wanted to recap the posts that were put up this week, just in case you missed them. I had the joyous task of recapping the UW-LSU debacle. I also looked ahead to what the Huskies need to accomplish in that game. We had our weekly preview of other Pac-12 games, as well. My favorite post of the week was written by Matthew. The post is about Arizona State Sun Devil, Deantre Lewis.
Now, for the predictions. We weren’t great last week, but with all the upsets all of us turned in with a record of 8-4. We still all have the same record (18-6), which is interesting since there have been a few different picks throughout these first 2 weeks. There are some interesting games this week, but expect quite a few games where we all predict the same team to win. Here we go!
Arizona vs. South Carolina State
The Good Guys: Arizona
Arizona State at Missouri
Matthew: Arizona State
Andrew, Dan, Joe: Missouri
California at Ohio State
The Good Guys: Ohio State
Colorado at Fresno State
The Good Guys: Fresno State
Oregon vs. Tennessee Tech
The Good Guys: Oregon 😦
Stanford vs. USC
The Good Guys: USC
UCLA vs. Houston
The Good Guys: UCLA
Utah vs. BYU
Andrew, Dan: Utah
Matthew, Joe: BYU
WSU at UNLV (Friday)
The Good Guys: WSU
Standings:
Everyone is tied at 18-6
As always, Washington Husky predictions will come tomorrow with a bit more analysis to them. Thanks for reading!
Andrew
Filed under Pac-10 Outlook
Before we get to the other teams in the Pac-12, I’ll get to the Husky news of the day. If you haven’t heard by now, Steve Sarkisian has decided that the U-Dub will not talk about injuries anymore. Also, reporters who are at practice can’t report on who sat out of practice or about any strategy being used. In the long-term, this isn’t a big deal. Sooner or later the NCAA will force teams to put out injury lists, like the NFL. Until then we’ll have to deal with this. In the short-term, it is irritating. No, the Huskies aren’t the first team in the conference to do this (the Ducks and Trojans came first) but I don’t support the program limiting access to reporters or fans. Tyrone Willingham treated the media poorly and the fans were closed off from the program. Closed programs are reminiscent of bad times to recent Husky fans. Anytime we hear about the football team limiting access, we shudder now. If we were Oregon, this would be okay because we’d be winning. When you aren’t a top-10 program though, the little things add up to be annoyances. Anyway, I don’t think any less of Sark but I don’t agree with him on this issue. Also, it’s bad when reporters aren’t allowed to report. It hurts what is already a declining industry. Coaching and quality players win games, not keeping injuries secret until the other team can see them during warm-ups.Anyway, on to the real point of this post! Last week was a great week for the Pac-12, even considering some terrible losses. The Pac-12 upsets outweighed the Pac-12 getting upset. This week sports a few challenging games, but also some cupcakes. Not real cupcakes, because what do cupcakes have to do with football. Also, the cupcakes have been much better across the country this year. They are banana cupcakes instead of vanilla. Away we go!
Arizona – Beat Oklahoma State 59-38 – Coming Up: vs. South Carolina State
The last of the upsets came last Saturday night when the Wildcats beat the Cowboys. I guess the cowboys weren’t very quick on their draw. In their defense, wildcats sound like a hard thing to deal with. Oh yeah, football. Arizona’s offense obviously looks explosive and they are looking like a much tougher opponent. Their defense is still in question but I wouldn’t want to face this team right now. Unfortunately for South Carolina State (something I never thought I’d type), they don’t have that luxury. Bulldogs are awesome and that is South Carolina State’s mascot. These weekly blog posts are just turning into a study on mascots.
Arizona State – Beat Illinois 45-14 – Coming Up: at Missouri
ASU winning last weekend wasn’t an upset but the way in which they won was very impressive. Then again, it was the Sun Devils against the Illini. It was sunny. What chance did Illinois really have? So far, Arizona State has been the surprise of the conference (along with Arizona and UCLA). I didn’t think their offense would put up this many points against anyone, much less against BCS conferences. This week they face a much tougher task in Missouri. While Missouri isn’t at the top of the SEC, they are a good road test for the Sun Devils. Expect a shootout and hopefully the Pac-12 can come out with another upset.
California – Beat Southern Utah 50-31 – Coming Up: at Ohio State
The Golden Bears are off to a shaky start. Cal was able to pull away from Southern Utah late in the fourth quarter last week. They had fallen behind for a while but they did rally back. This was a week after losing to Nevada. This week they play Ohio State and, while I’m usually hopeful that a Pac-12 team can pull an upset, I wouldn’t bet on Cal in this one.
Colorado – Lost to Sacramento State 30-28 – Coming Up: at Fresno State
The Buffalo have upstaged Cal in getting off to a bad start. They lost to Pac-12 killers Sacramento State and are now 0-2. Colorado had one of the easier non-conference schedules in the conference but could easily start 0-3 this week. If they don’t take advantage of playing the Bulldogs this week, it could be tough for them to find a win this season. Also, I think buffalo and bulldogs would be good friends in the wild.
Oregon – Beat Fresno State 42-25 – Coming Up: vs. Tennessee Tech
Oregon again jumped out to a large lead and then let Fresno add-on some points against their backup defense. The Ducks are surely very good but we won’t be able to see how good for a few weeks when they actually play a quality opponent. On Tennessee Tech’s home website they have a virtual admissions adviser. They named this virtual adviser ‘Awesome’. Also, this match-up is the Ducks vs. the Golden Eagles. We’ve seen golden things struggle this year in our conference but I have a hard time seeing a duck ever beating an eagle in a brawl. Too bad this is a football game that doesn’t have to do with mascots.
Oregon State – Beat Wisconsin 10-7 – Coming Up: Bye
The Beavers beat the Badgers. Again, I don’t know why everyone was so surprised. Oregon State’s defense was fast and ferocious in this game. I was thoroughly impressed and if they keep playing like that, they’ll be one of the best teams in the conference. Their offense needs to improve though. Everyone will have played 3 games after this weekend except the Beavers, who will have only played one.
Stanford – Beat Duke 50-13 – Coming Up: vs. USC
Stanford probably got sick of hearing about how close their game with San Jose State was and then thoroughly dominated Duke. Of course, Duke isn’t good and their true test comes this week against USC. Stanford probably isn’t what they used to be, but they have been playing well against USC of late. This is a game to keep an eye on.
UCLA – Beat Nebraska 36-30 – Coming Up: vs. Houston
UCLA is the darling of college football right now. They deserve it with their hot start but I’d advise people to ease off their enthusiasm. This start is reminiscent of the start Rick Neuheisal had there. This week they should improve to 3-0 though and will remain the dark horse in the Pac-12 South.
USC – Beat Syracuse 42-29 – Coming Up: at Stanford
USC let Syracuse hang around for a while before putting them away in the second half. The game had a weather delay and not a lot of rhythm if you’re looking for an excuse for the Trojans. I prefer to just wait until this week before I decide whether they are overrated. Trojans vs. Cardinal seems like a no contest because cardinal is a color and can’t fight.
Utah – Lost to Utah State 27-20 (OT) – Coming Up: vs. BYU
In my opinion, Utah had the worst loss of last week. Colorado’s was terrible but no one really cares about Colorado. The Huskies was ugly, but a loss was expected. Utah was supposed to challenge for the Pac-12 South but losing to a below-average team isn’t something champions do. Utah could rebound, they remind me of those mid-2000’s Mike Riley Beaver teams that always started slow but this is definitely a bump in the road. Utah plays an interesting game this week
Hey Reb!
and could really help themselves with a victory. BYU proved to be a pretty good team against the Cougars. Then again, Cougars.
WSU – Beat Eastern Washington 28-24 – Coming Up: at UNLV (Friday)
Wazzu got a victory, and that’s about all you can say. Eastern is a fine program (as Husky fans found out last year) but WSU should have won this game easily. It was fairly similar to the Washington-Eastern game last year. Now the Cougars go on the road to face those rebels of UNLV. This should be an easy win as well but who knows. The Cougars vs. Rebels? I’d probably choose a cougar in that fight. But, it does depend on what kind of rebel we’re talking about.
Thanks for reading!
Andrew
Filed under Uncategorized
I’m a few days late on this but I was a bit busy and don’t have much to say about this game. I’ll keep it short and then talk about the rest of the Pac-12 tomorrow.
Before I recap the disaster that was Saturday night, I’d be remiss to not mention the announcement that the Sonics Arena Deal will be passed. Chris Hansen has bent over backwards to get this deal done and now, we’re only a few steps away from getting an NBA team here. Hansen seems to be one of the most likeable guys around and the whole city needs to send him a few thank you cards. Our city will be better because of this deal, not just because of the enhancement of the NBA being here but also because of the traffic problems being taken care of and the cleaning up of the Sodo District. It’s a great day to be living in Seattle.
Also, I’d like to thank any veterans and members of the military on this day we remember. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost someone on this day 11 years ago.
So, on to Saturday night. There’s not much to say, because I generally try to stay positive. The Dawgs were beaten, stepped on, beaten, and then curb-stomped a few times. Sure, the game started well on the first play and the Huskies took an early lead, but the game was over once the Huskies had to settle for a field goal. Who knows what happens if Bishop Sankey or Jaydon Mickens holds on to the ball and the Dawgs get a quick 7 on the board. They still would have lost, but an early bit of confidence could do a young team wonders. It was like LSU was going to play rope-a-dope with the Dawgs, then felt their measly jab to the ribs, and decided to just K.O. them sooner rather than later.
Thomas Tutogi and Danny Shelton had good games. Otherwise, can you point to anyone who had a good game? I can’t. If you can, let me know in the comments. Erik Kohler was lost to another injury. Travis Feeney might be out for a few weeks. The team was just dominated physically.
My general feeling is that I’m tired of watching that happen. I thought this team would compete with the best this year and they definitely didn’t. They’ve been bit by the injury bug, but that’s not an excuse for getting beat 41-3. It’s one game, but for the first time in the Sark era, you have to worry about progress a little bit. He’s done a great job with this program and by no means is in the hot seat but the team can’t keep getting blown out in these games.
This week they need to throttle Portland State. They need to beat them the way Oregon would. It will put everyone’s mind at ease. They need to average 5 or 6 yards a carry. Keith Price needs to have a high completion percentage, look efficient and then get out of the game by the 4th quarter. The defense needs to score a touchdown (they have in both games so far, unless you count that blown call by SEC officials) and limit yardage. No, they don’t need to do these things to win but they need to do them for their own confidence and to keep the fan base patient. Stanford comes in a few weeks later and the Huskies need to have shown that they’ll be ready.
Shane Brostek will play in his first game on Saturday. He is a true freshman who will see time at right guard. I wish he could have red-shirted but the offensive line needs help and if he can make them improve then I’m all for it. This week is a chance for the Dawgs to get healthy and dominate in all aspects of the game. Let’s hope they get that done. After Saturday, they could use something that goes according to plan.
Andrew
Filed under Huskies Football, UW Game Previews, UW Game Recaps
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