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Game rewatch observances
Gladstone
Member Posts: 16,419
Most of this will fall under the water is wet variety, but some things that stuck out:
-- Shelton is a goddamn beast. He clogs up the middle better than any DT in recent UW memory. He engages two blockers on pretty much every play, allowing our LBs free to roam and make plays. On the rare occasion they didn't double team Shelton, he blew entire plays up by himself. I've seen some complain that he takes the occasional play off but I didn't see it here. Run stuffer is going to be his NFL calling card and he is putting on a display these days. Shelton and our LBs are what give me vague hope for the Tree game, which leads me to...
-- LB play is phenomenal. Shaq over-pursued a few times, but you'd rather make a mistake going 100mph then to stand idle and do nothing. They aren't as big as the Tree LB core but they're faster and more athletic. Stanford is going to run directly at these guys and I think we'll do OK against the run on Saturday. I really do.
-- Sark has made some adjustments in the red zone. I noticed he brought #80 Hudson back from defense in to be a 3rd TE on a few RZ plays. During our first 3rd quarter touchdown, he lined up as the 2nd TE on the right side and he fucking destroyed the Arizona OLB. Completely tanked and planted him into the ground. Also saw Psalm Wooching. Hooray for a little bit of smashmouth. It was nice to see us huddle up here in the RZ. Sark took a lot of crap for his pussy RZ playcalling against Illinois, when he was at the 8 yard line and kept calling pussy 5 yard WR out routes. This time he fed Sankey and scored the TD. So, credit there.
-- I am softening up my stance on the first half offensive playcalling a little bit. I've heard from many people now, people I trust, about how abhorrent the weather was. That doesn't excuse shit like throwing the ball on 3rd and 2/3/4 when you have literally the best RB in college football in your backfield. In a torrential downpour. With a OL that is suited to road grading. Christ. But I think Sark trusted his defense not to fuck his lead up, and he played it safe. 20-30mph gusts with constant wind directional change is nothing to scoff at. Bubble screens to Mickens and especially Ross would have been risky given how difficult it waI s for Price to grip the ball (per his post-game conference report) and the proclivity of fumbling in the rain. I can live with it I guess. All the same, we obviously cannot afford to wait until the 3rd quarter to go off on Stanford. This has happened against every team with a pulse we've played thus far.
-- Against every team we play, Sankey will be arguably the best player on the field. Awesome to see him emerge. If he can somehow carry us to a victory on the Farm, he'll start to (deservingly so) begin to get Heisman hype.
-- ASJ's blocking looks improved over last year. Granted his blocking sucked last year, but he was shoving guys aside last Saturday.
-- I really like our WRs. Kasen is the physical one. Ross the burner. Mickens the slippery slot guy. Smith the jack-of-all-trades.
-- Callier looks better now than he did pre-ACL.
-- RichRod is an emo toolbag.
-- Besides the OL, the most pleasant surprise of the year IMO is the secondary play. This Saturday will be a very interesting test to see just how good these guys are. I expect us to leave them on an island as we focus on stopping their run game. I'm excited to see how that match up against Montgomery and that big white TE looking motherfucker.
-- Shelton is a goddamn beast. He clogs up the middle better than any DT in recent UW memory. He engages two blockers on pretty much every play, allowing our LBs free to roam and make plays. On the rare occasion they didn't double team Shelton, he blew entire plays up by himself. I've seen some complain that he takes the occasional play off but I didn't see it here. Run stuffer is going to be his NFL calling card and he is putting on a display these days. Shelton and our LBs are what give me vague hope for the Tree game, which leads me to...
-- LB play is phenomenal. Shaq over-pursued a few times, but you'd rather make a mistake going 100mph then to stand idle and do nothing. They aren't as big as the Tree LB core but they're faster and more athletic. Stanford is going to run directly at these guys and I think we'll do OK against the run on Saturday. I really do.
-- Sark has made some adjustments in the red zone. I noticed he brought #80 Hudson back from defense in to be a 3rd TE on a few RZ plays. During our first 3rd quarter touchdown, he lined up as the 2nd TE on the right side and he fucking destroyed the Arizona OLB. Completely tanked and planted him into the ground. Also saw Psalm Wooching. Hooray for a little bit of smashmouth. It was nice to see us huddle up here in the RZ. Sark took a lot of crap for his pussy RZ playcalling against Illinois, when he was at the 8 yard line and kept calling pussy 5 yard WR out routes. This time he fed Sankey and scored the TD. So, credit there.
-- I am softening up my stance on the first half offensive playcalling a little bit. I've heard from many people now, people I trust, about how abhorrent the weather was. That doesn't excuse shit like throwing the ball on 3rd and 2/3/4 when you have literally the best RB in college football in your backfield. In a torrential downpour. With a OL that is suited to road grading. Christ. But I think Sark trusted his defense not to fuck his lead up, and he played it safe. 20-30mph gusts with constant wind directional change is nothing to scoff at. Bubble screens to Mickens and especially Ross would have been risky given how difficult it waI s for Price to grip the ball (per his post-game conference report) and the proclivity of fumbling in the rain. I can live with it I guess. All the same, we obviously cannot afford to wait until the 3rd quarter to go off on Stanford. This has happened against every team with a pulse we've played thus far.
-- Against every team we play, Sankey will be arguably the best player on the field. Awesome to see him emerge. If he can somehow carry us to a victory on the Farm, he'll start to (deservingly so) begin to get Heisman hype.
-- ASJ's blocking looks improved over last year. Granted his blocking sucked last year, but he was shoving guys aside last Saturday.
-- I really like our WRs. Kasen is the physical one. Ross the burner. Mickens the slippery slot guy. Smith the jack-of-all-trades.
-- Callier looks better now than he did pre-ACL.
-- RichRod is an emo toolbag.
-- Besides the OL, the most pleasant surprise of the year IMO is the secondary play. This Saturday will be a very interesting test to see just how good these guys are. I expect us to leave them on an island as we focus on stopping their run game. I'm excited to see how that match up against Montgomery and that big white TE looking motherfucker.
Comments
When Tailgater or Tequilla or AuburnDave or AAAAAAAAAAAAAAndy go TL:DR, I don't read it because they don't know how to keep from overdoing it. When someone who understands brevity shares a rare long poast I usually check it out to see if there's anything worth reading. I enjoyed Gladstone's analysis.
And also, our last TD drive was the best of the Sark era. All smashmouth runs against a stacked box. The doog in me wants to say that was a turning point in Sark's playcalling, but the realist in me knows it was more likely an aberration.
I hope you're right, but between the mistakes they've been making, Sark's track record on the road, and the physical mismatches, I'm not seeing it. When Stanford is paying attention to what they're doing, they really do look legit, while the Huskies still look like they've got to settle down, become more consistent and improve their execution.
It seemed like pretty reasonable coaching of a highly paid athlete to me. This was the play that effectively ended any threat of a comeback for Arizona after all.