Tag Archives: Syracuse

The Huskies loss to BYU was disappointing in so many ways.  It was the type of game, a road test against a beatable team, that the Huskies couldn’t win last year.  Beating BYU was a chance to start the season by answering questions.  A win would have set the team on a course to improve upon last year’s five wins and show that the team is moving rapidly toward sustained success.

The loss only brought more questions, and it failed to answer any that existed previously.  Are the Huskies improved from last year?  It didn’t appear so, but they didn’t look worse either.  Was all the offseason talk of improved strength and explosiveness just talk?  Can an experienced offensive line be consistently effective?  Will the defense build on a dominating end to the 2009 season?  All questions without clear answers, now one game deep in the season.

One game is still only one game, and this team wasn’t going to contend for the national championship no matter what, so the loss isn’t terribly damaging from a season or conference race standpoint.  Most teams start the season a little rusty, which is why teams play Toledo and UC-Davis and Sacramento State to start.  BYU vs. UW was one of the few games last weekend to combine two good teams, so the Huskies deserve at least a bit of a break.  They get their winnable game this weekend against Syracuse.

The problem with playing Syracuse is that it still won’t answer a lot of the questions.  Syracuse should be a lot easier to handle than BYU, which obviously is good.  This team needs wins anyway they can get them.  But even a win won’t necessarily say much about these Huskies.  Until they pull out a win on the road, it’s hard to judge this team to be anything different than it was last season.

All that said, there are certainly things to watch for this Saturday.  This game could go two ways.  Syracuse could be as bad as Dawg fans hope, and UW could be on the winning end of a blowout.  Syracuse could also be better than expected, or the Huskies worse, and Husky Stadium could see a tight game.  There are actually positives and negatives to each scenario.  A look at them after the jump. Continue reading →