kearly
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I guess I should be excited. The Huskies lost the turnover battle, gave up over 100 yards in penalties, and probably had well over a 100 yards of offense marched back by those penalties, but still finished with 616 yards and 34 points on the road against a non-terrible opponent.
Keith Price, again, finished around 10 yards per attempt. That surprised me seeing that, because it felt like UWs WRs took forever to get open in this game.
ASJ was a non-factor, though he was held (without getting the call) on what would have probably been a 30+ yard completion late in the game. Ross had a pretty big catch (IIRC), but otherwise didn't do much. Jaydon Mickens had a fairly good game while also reminding us that he sucks at catching the football if it isn't behind the LOS. Kasen Williams bobbled, but still caught, a huge catch or two. Price spread the ball around. Smith was our top receiver. He's a senior, and I seriously wonder where the hell he's been the last several years. Especially last year.
Regarding ASJ. He looks slow. I think it's just a perspective thing, now that UW has a few true burners at WR we've gotten a better perspective on our team speed. And ASJ doesn't have it. I honestly would not be shocked if he ran a 4.8 at his combine. I still would love to see Seattle get him, but I'm thinking ASJ is a pretty safe bet to reach Seattle's first pick at this point. Even if that first pick is #32.
I am probably speculating too much, but I think ASJ's lack of speed might end up hurting him in this new super quick offense. This offense is built off of yards after catch, and ASJ is not a yards after catch guy. And though I think ASJ is absolutely a viable deep target, it takes him time to get down there, and UW is dialing up fewer deep plays (as a percentage) than they used to. I think ASJ is a perfect fit for a traditional pro style offense, but I think for the Arizona/Oregon/UW style a more athletic TE is preferable. Even though I have issues with Colt Lyerla and think that in a pro-style offense ASJ is clearly the better of the two, I think if UW could trade ASJ for Lyerla it would probably benefit UW's offense the way it is currently constructed. I hope ASJ proves me wrong. It's early, and I'm conjecturing.
I really like how Keith Price is protecting his body this season. His decision making has been extremely sound, especially when it comes to making choices to avoid contact.
UW's rush offense is weird. Washington is averaging over 250 yards rushing a game so far this season, and yet I would guess they are probably also averaging over 10 tackles for loss per game. Make no mistake, UW's O-line still sucks. This new scheme is doing a terrific job of hiding warts. Even when UW lineman lose their individual battles at the line, the opponent's front seven is usually spread out so much that a running lane is almost always present, and Sankey has a real gift for getting small and darting through the narrowest of alleyways. Our running game, just like Oregon's a few years ago, is pretty much all scheme and RB talent.
Whoever the coach for Illinois is, he's weird too. He generally outcoached Sark in the 2nd half, coming up with new game plans and trick plays that gave UW serious problems, but for a coach so smart with his adjustments, he didn't have the first clue about clock management. He basically sat on his timeouts at the end of the first half so that he could get the ball back with barely any time remaining, and in the 2nd half he wasted a time out (when down a touchdown late in the game) to make UW slow down their offense, and wasted another to stop the clock after most of the play clock had already expired.
Watching the Seahawks during the Carroll era has deadened my nerves to penalties. Seriously, we had what, 9? 10? Penalties against Carolina? And it felt like nothing compared to some of the preseason games we endured. But in this game, I began to genuinely wonder if one of the officials had taken the over-under line on Illinois. Not only were some of the calls and non-calls shady, but it seemed like a very high number of those penalties were "clutch", reversing badly needed big plays for UW and putting them in a hole. By contrast, the penalties against Illinois were not only far less frequent, but always seemed to occur in situations where they'd be declined or make no real outcome on the game. It's a big credit to Washington that they still overcame a lot of 1st and 20 and 1st and 15 situations after some of those backbreaking calls.
Sankey is a terrific weapon on the screen. I hated watching him run out of bounds several yards early to avoid being hit though. Maybe that's smart, but Beast Mode has spoiled me.
Sankey is really, really hard to tackle despite his smallish size.
That RB for Illinois actually looked pretty good. Donavonn Young, listed at 6'0", 220. I can believe the 220, maybe, but he looked way below 6'0". Anyway, he was quick and powerful and pretty smart too. They should have given him the ball a lot more than they did.
Keith Price completed a pass to 9 different Huskies players.
The Huskies D-line did a good job generating pressure with 4 rushers. The defense struggled to get a tackle when they needed one to get off the field, but otherwise I thought they played well and Wilcox was quick to make adjustments. I'm not so sure about that 3 man front idea though. That seems a bit extreme to counter a running QB. Illinois always had a guy there to stop Price from running and they didn't have to sacrifice anything big to do it.
It has nothing to do with this game, but Marcus Mariota's QBR through three games has been 97.7, 97.0, 97.5. When UW and Oregon face off in a few weeks, I'm pretty much expecting a repeat of the 2011 Alamo Bowl.
Keith Price, again, finished around 10 yards per attempt. That surprised me seeing that, because it felt like UWs WRs took forever to get open in this game.
ASJ was a non-factor, though he was held (without getting the call) on what would have probably been a 30+ yard completion late in the game. Ross had a pretty big catch (IIRC), but otherwise didn't do much. Jaydon Mickens had a fairly good game while also reminding us that he sucks at catching the football if it isn't behind the LOS. Kasen Williams bobbled, but still caught, a huge catch or two. Price spread the ball around. Smith was our top receiver. He's a senior, and I seriously wonder where the hell he's been the last several years. Especially last year.
Regarding ASJ. He looks slow. I think it's just a perspective thing, now that UW has a few true burners at WR we've gotten a better perspective on our team speed. And ASJ doesn't have it. I honestly would not be shocked if he ran a 4.8 at his combine. I still would love to see Seattle get him, but I'm thinking ASJ is a pretty safe bet to reach Seattle's first pick at this point. Even if that first pick is #32.
I am probably speculating too much, but I think ASJ's lack of speed might end up hurting him in this new super quick offense. This offense is built off of yards after catch, and ASJ is not a yards after catch guy. And though I think ASJ is absolutely a viable deep target, it takes him time to get down there, and UW is dialing up fewer deep plays (as a percentage) than they used to. I think ASJ is a perfect fit for a traditional pro style offense, but I think for the Arizona/Oregon/UW style a more athletic TE is preferable. Even though I have issues with Colt Lyerla and think that in a pro-style offense ASJ is clearly the better of the two, I think if UW could trade ASJ for Lyerla it would probably benefit UW's offense the way it is currently constructed. I hope ASJ proves me wrong. It's early, and I'm conjecturing.
I really like how Keith Price is protecting his body this season. His decision making has been extremely sound, especially when it comes to making choices to avoid contact.
UW's rush offense is weird. Washington is averaging over 250 yards rushing a game so far this season, and yet I would guess they are probably also averaging over 10 tackles for loss per game. Make no mistake, UW's O-line still sucks. This new scheme is doing a terrific job of hiding warts. Even when UW lineman lose their individual battles at the line, the opponent's front seven is usually spread out so much that a running lane is almost always present, and Sankey has a real gift for getting small and darting through the narrowest of alleyways. Our running game, just like Oregon's a few years ago, is pretty much all scheme and RB talent.
Whoever the coach for Illinois is, he's weird too. He generally outcoached Sark in the 2nd half, coming up with new game plans and trick plays that gave UW serious problems, but for a coach so smart with his adjustments, he didn't have the first clue about clock management. He basically sat on his timeouts at the end of the first half so that he could get the ball back with barely any time remaining, and in the 2nd half he wasted a time out (when down a touchdown late in the game) to make UW slow down their offense, and wasted another to stop the clock after most of the play clock had already expired.
Watching the Seahawks during the Carroll era has deadened my nerves to penalties. Seriously, we had what, 9? 10? Penalties against Carolina? And it felt like nothing compared to some of the preseason games we endured. But in this game, I began to genuinely wonder if one of the officials had taken the over-under line on Illinois. Not only were some of the calls and non-calls shady, but it seemed like a very high number of those penalties were "clutch", reversing badly needed big plays for UW and putting them in a hole. By contrast, the penalties against Illinois were not only far less frequent, but always seemed to occur in situations where they'd be declined or make no real outcome on the game. It's a big credit to Washington that they still overcame a lot of 1st and 20 and 1st and 15 situations after some of those backbreaking calls.
Sankey is a terrific weapon on the screen. I hated watching him run out of bounds several yards early to avoid being hit though. Maybe that's smart, but Beast Mode has spoiled me.
Sankey is really, really hard to tackle despite his smallish size.
That RB for Illinois actually looked pretty good. Donavonn Young, listed at 6'0", 220. I can believe the 220, maybe, but he looked way below 6'0". Anyway, he was quick and powerful and pretty smart too. They should have given him the ball a lot more than they did.
Keith Price completed a pass to 9 different Huskies players.
The Huskies D-line did a good job generating pressure with 4 rushers. The defense struggled to get a tackle when they needed one to get off the field, but otherwise I thought they played well and Wilcox was quick to make adjustments. I'm not so sure about that 3 man front idea though. That seems a bit extreme to counter a running QB. Illinois always had a guy there to stop Price from running and they didn't have to sacrifice anything big to do it.
It has nothing to do with this game, but Marcus Mariota's QBR through three games has been 97.7, 97.0, 97.5. When UW and Oregon face off in a few weeks, I'm pretty much expecting a repeat of the 2011 Alamo Bowl.
