Tag Archives: Washington vs. Arizona postgame

I couldn’t bring myself to do an actual post-game analysis after the debacle against Arizona this weekend so instead you get an array of bullet holes.  No sense in wasting time, let’s get to it!

• Saturday marked the low point in the Steve Sarkisian era and there’s no doubt that his seat is getting a little warmer than it was to start the year.  With that being said, everyone needs to step off the ledge for a moment.  Yes, this year has been a disappointment through 7 games and 8 wins doesn’t seem likely.  But, a 3-4 record is about what we all had the Huskies pegged at through this point.  Let the year play out and then make a judgement on the coach.  For the record, Sark won’t be fired this year unless the Huskies lose every single game (and even then it doesn’t seem likely).  It’s next year when the real expectations kick in and, frankly, I think that he’s earned that.
• The offense continues to struggle and I think that it’s time to panic as far as that goes.  The running game is the only part that seems to be decent right now and, for whatever reason, the coaches went away from that in the last 2 weeks.  The offensive line looked awful, once again, in pass protection.  Micah Hatchie played his worst game of the season.  Drew Schaeffer even looks lost on blitzes.  When you can’t play with the same 5 guys every week there isn’t as much communication.  That’s a basic rule in sports and it’s coming into play right now as we see blitzers running right by linemen who aren’t blocking anyone.  The receivers are bad too.  They really should be better and I don’t know what to say about them.
• Keith Price deserves his own bullet hole.  His head is muddled right now and he is just lost.  He is visibly upset after turnovers or bad plays and doesn’t seem to be having any fun.  It’s not the Keith that we saw last year or even in his first start of his career against Oregon.  Price clearly has the offensive line on his mind as he is just missing reads.  He isn’t trusting his receivers.  If you watched Matt Scott on Saturday, he threw the ball well before his receivers had turned or looked for the ball.  On fly routes the receivers would take off, Scott would find a spot he could throw it and the receiver would spot the ball in the air and just stop and make the catch.  Has Keith done that this season?  Maybe a few times early in the year but not lately.  He has the capability and flashes it a couple of times a game.  But, then he throws an interception, fumbles or just doesn’t trust anyone around him to make a play.
• The defense clearly can not keep up with a high-paced, spread offense.  It’s interesting, because before the year that’s what I thought they’d be able to deal with best.  Thankfully, there aren’t really any of those teams left on the schedule.  The Cougars I guess could fit the bill but to put them in the same category as Arizona and Oregon is laughable.
• Arizona is good.  They’re a scary team especially at home.  They’re not as good as the Huskies made them look, granted.  But, that was a good team the Dawgs lost to.
• Oregon State now comes to town, in the top-10 and undefeated.  In a way, I think this Oregon State team is a year ahead of the Huskies.  They had a disappointing year last year.  Their receivers were talented but inexperienced, their running backs went MIA a lot of the time.  Their offensive line struggled but gained experience, their defensive line had bright moments but lacked consistency.  There are quite a few similarities and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Huskies took a similar route as the Beavers have.  With that being said, I think this will be a tricky game for Oregon State.  They have yet to blow the doors off of a team and Sark has proven tough in close games.  Sean Mannion will be back as the starter at quarterback for Oregon State and that is a big boost for them.  Like I said though, the Huskies have had much more success against these type of offenses as opposed to spread offenses.  Marcus Peters and Desmond Trufant will have to step up and the offense has to get rolling.  But, this has been a different team at home and it should be a decent game.  If it’s not, expect the boo birds to come out early.

I suppose that’s enough for now.  This is a defining moment in the Sark era and how the team responds will go a long way in telling us if we have a long-term coach or just one who got us to mediocrity.  Let’s hope for a pissed off Husky team to show up and play their best game of the season on Saturday.

Andrew