Tag Archives: Nick Foles

UW vs. Arizona Predictions

This was a pretty horrible week for Seattle sports fans.  After bad losses for the Huskies, I tend to tune out the media for a few days.  I guess it’s an attempt to avoid depression.  Still, a week without sports seems empty and dumb, so I turned my attention elsewhere.

I figured I’d think about the Mariners for a while.  The baseball offseason is always fun, at least until players start signing and Prince Fielder goes to Texas.  Then I read this and I got depressed again, although Seattle Sports Insider came to the rescue with a more optimistic view later in the week (starting here, with hopefully more thoughts on this later this week from the Good Guys).  Regardless of any offseason hopes, the Mariners have a lot of work to do.

I don’t care about the Seahawks as much as the other local teams, but even if I did, they were no help.  A 6-3 loss might be the worst football score there is.  Maybe it’s 3-0, but at least someone’s getting a shutout there.  The NBA has gone to great lengths to make sure Seattleites hate professional basketball, first stealing our team and then going into a lockout with no end in sight.  Even Old Reliable, UW basketball, had slightly bad news, with freshman phenom Tony Wroten undergoing minor knee surgery over the weekend and the season still a few weeks away.

Here’s to hoping for a better week.  Until then, keep your head up, Seattle.  In the words of local boys Blue Scholars, “Anybody in the town into sports, God bless ’em.  We heard that all underdogs go to heaven.”

Dan

A month ago this game did not scare me. Arizona was a mess, Stoops was coaching his last games in Tucson, and the Huskies were exceeding expectations behind Keith Price. It’s too soon to tell, but Arizona seems to be rising, and Washington is facing real adversity for the first time this season. A common theme when analyzing a UW game is, the offense should be able to score, but the game will come down to how well the defense performs. Truth is, until the defense shows a consistent ability to stop the opposition, the team’s success will hinge on the offense putting up enough points to win the game. This is a big problem, and one that I didn’t think would so glaring yet again. As for tomorrow’s contest, Arizona does not exactly have a juggernaut defense either, and I think the offenses are about a wash (Foles may very well go for 400 yards). I’ll give the advantage to UW because of home field and a little more program stability, which should translate to the little things like tackling, penalties, and taking advantage of opportunities. Take the over in this shoot out!

Huskies-44, Wildcats-38

Andrew

I’ve come to realize that I have the worst record in predictions for the Good Guys.  I’m pretty shook up about it.  Anyway, I don’t see the Huskies losing tomorrow.  Arizona has been talked up more this week than any 2-5 team I can remember.  Yes, they are dangerous but, playing away from home without the energy, they don’t scare me.  The Huskies are too dangerous on offense and the defense won’t be great but it will at least answer some of the criticism that it’s rightfully received this week.  This game will be close for the first 2 and a half quarters and then the Dawgs will pull away.  Go Dawgs!

UW 48 – UA 31

Joe

After the butt whuppin Stanford put on UW last week, I don’t know what to expect vs Arizona. I do expect the Dawgs to come out focused and determined to put last week behind them, which they must. The next two games at home will make or break their season in many ways. Lose to Arizona and Oregon, and you are 5-4 going on the road to two hostile environments with a rivalry game on the back end. Things could get sketchy. Beat Arizona and they set up nicely no matter what happens v Oregon. 6-2 looks a whole lot better than 5-3 with the specter of 5-4. I realize Arizona beat down UCLA last week, but cmon, that was Doogie lost the Bruins a while ago. Arizona traditionally stinks on the road and I believe have quite a few suspensions from their brawl last week. I fully expect UW to win this game. I expect the D to play really well. Traditionally, under Sark, the Huskies play really well coming off losses. I see no reason this game will buck the trend.

UW 38 – UA 27

Matthew

This game is a little scarier than I would have ever anticipated a few weeks ago, but less scary than it probably should be.  Last Saturday’s results are getting slightly overblown for both teams, in my opinion.  Yes, UW’s defense is terrible.  You know who else’s defense is terrible?  Arizona’s, and they’re playing without most of their secondary for at least half of the game.  Nick Foles is phenomenal, and the Wildcat running game was much improved last week.  Keith Price isn’t significantly worse, and the Husky running game is significantly better.  Arizona was playing at home with the emotion of a few coach, who isn’t Mike Stoops.  That should be worth a few touchdowns right there.  Some of that emotion will likely wear off this week.  I still expect Arizona to look much better than they did a month ago, but the Huskies should handle them.  They might not hold them under 35 points, but this should be a win for the Dawgs.

UW 45, UA 34

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Scouting Arizona

The Dawgs play Arizona on Saturday night at 7 pm in Tuscon.  Here’s a look at what they’re up against.

Quarterback

If you haven’t heard by now, Arizona’s starting quarterback, Nick Foles, is out for this game with a knee injury.  This is good news for Dawg fans because Foles is one of the best quarterbacks in the Pac-10.  Taking his spot for the game will be a very capable backup, Matt Scott.  Scott played a little bit last year and showed that he’s a solid quarterback.  He also played last week against Wazzu.  He was decent in that showing.  Scott is more athletic than Foles, meaning we could see him break the pocket a few more times than we’d like.  With that being said, I think people have been downplaying the loss of Foles.  He’s one of the top quarterbacks in the Pac-10 and their offense could struggle without him.  We’ll see.

Running Back

The Wildcats have a solid 2 back combination in Nic Grigsby and Keola Antolin.  Neither are in the upper echelon of backs in the conference but both are solid in their own right.  Nic Grigsby has 340 and Antolin has 218 yards on the year.  The truth is, Arizona is a pass first team.  But, with Foles out, they may turn to the run more.  Both of these guys can catch pretty well out of the backfield.  Grigsby and Antolin are both capable of big days, but they aren’t on the same level as Jacquizz Rodgers, who was phenomenal last week (just thought I needed to throw that in there).

Wide Receivers

Arizona has one of the best receivers in the country in Juron Criner.  He’s extremely fast and is a big play waiting to happen.  Criner has 34 receptions for 562 yards on the year.  He was limited last game because of “soreness” but that is ready to go this week.  After Criner, no one has been a huge threat.  David Douglas has put up some decent numbers, 250 receiving yards.  William Wright and  David Roberts are also names to look out for.  The Wildcats really throw the ball around, so don’t be surprised if someone you’ve never heard of ends up with a big game. 

Offensive Line

To be honest, there’s not much information on Arizona’s offensive line.  They have over 700 rushing yards on the year, so that shows that they are pretty decent in that area.  Arizona runs a quick hitting, spread offense that doesn’t involve a lot of sitting in the pocket.  This makes it hard to  know how good the pass protection is.  I’ll get back to  you on this area after the game.

To the defense after the jump.  Continue reading

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