Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.

A few football thoughts.

Passion
Passion Member Posts: 4,622
edited December 2016 in Hardcore Husky Board
Just took a look at pac-12 statistics: pac-12.com/content/football-statistics (I know, statistics lie).

Washington and colorado are basically 1st and 2nd in nearly every defensive category, except 1: Rushing defense. Washington is ranked 1st and colorado is ranked 5th. Will Washington have the discipline to stick with the run? colorado will surely do what most teams have done - load the box to stop Gaskin and Coleman, and force Jake to beat them. Most of the time (sans usc) Jake has been able to do so.

Speaking of that, another interesting number: colorado's defense brings extra pressure on the QB over 40% of the time.
In contrast, Washington does so only 16% of the time.

colorado has a lot of faith in their CBs (which are good), so they run a high-risk high-reward defense. Pressure the QB and put your CBs 1-on-1 on opposing WRs.

So, Jake will have to make quick decisions and get rid of the ball - FAST. It also could create mismatch opportunities for Washington's 3rd and 4th receivers. If Ross and Pettis are drawing the attention of colorado's star CBs, McClatcher, Fuller and the TEs could have one-on-one mismatch opportunities against safeties and LBs.

Bottom line (at least my read) is that Jonathan Smith must stay committed to the run to keep colorado honest (please God), Washington must have designed plays for its 3rd and 4th WRs (simply relying on Ross and Pettis is not enough), and our OL must do a better job of blocking than they did against usc because colorado will bring heat.

I yield the floor.
«134

Comments

  • Tequilla
    Tequilla Member Posts: 20,270

    I strongly agree with Tequila on this.

    That's pretty much my takeaway as well ...

    The only game I saw from Colorado where they didn't really put pressure on the short to intermediate routes was USC because they were afraid of the speed killing them over the top. How much they worry about our speed will be one thing I'm watching early because while they may worry about our speed, I'm not sure they will worry about Jake's arm.

    You can run the ball on them as their front 7 is fundamentally sound but lacks overall athletic talent ... it's the reason why they are constantly bringing pressure because they want to be in a position to dictate the action to shorten the play. Unlike us, they don't have the ability to sit back, contain, and then attack mistakes.

    This is a game where Chico could be huge for us in a number of different ways. I wouldn't be surprised if he lines up in the backfield a few times trying to get him in coverage versus LBs. The Cougs ran a go route with Morrow coming out of the backfield right down the middle of the field against a LB and it was an easy TD. A play like that COULD be there for us as well.

    It's important for us to get up in this game early because Colorado's going to have a hard time moving the ball consistently against us from what I've seen. IF we can get Sefo into positions where he feels like he has to press, the game could be blown open rather easily.
  • DerekJohnson
    DerekJohnson Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 70,256 Founders Club
    Tequilla said:

    I strongly agree with Tequila on this.

    That's pretty much my takeaway as well ...

    The only game I saw from Colorado where they didn't really put pressure on the short to intermediate routes was USC because they were afraid of the speed killing them over the top. How much they worry about our speed will be one thing I'm watching early because while they may worry about our speed, I'm not sure they will worry about Jake's arm.

    You can run the ball on them as their front 7 is fundamentally sound but lacks overall athletic talent ... it's the reason why they are constantly bringing pressure because they want to be in a position to dictate the action to shorten the play. Unlike us, they don't have the ability to sit back, contain, and then attack mistakes.

    This is a game where Chico could be huge for us in a number of different ways. I wouldn't be surprised if he lines up in the backfield a few times trying to get him in coverage versus LBs. The Cougs ran a go route with Morrow coming out of the backfield right down the middle of the field against a LB and it was an easy TD. A play like that COULD be there for us as well.

    It's important for us to get up in this game early because Colorado's going to have a hard time moving the ball consistently against us from what I've seen. IF we can get Sefo into positions where he feels like he has to press, the game could be blown open rather easily.
    but if we consistently drop 7 and rush 4, it could play right into Colorado's hands
  • Tequilla
    Tequilla Member Posts: 20,270

    Tequilla said:

    I strongly agree with Tequila on this.

    That's pretty much my takeaway as well ...

    The only game I saw from Colorado where they didn't really put pressure on the short to intermediate routes was USC because they were afraid of the speed killing them over the top. How much they worry about our speed will be one thing I'm watching early because while they may worry about our speed, I'm not sure they will worry about Jake's arm.

    You can run the ball on them as their front 7 is fundamentally sound but lacks overall athletic talent ... it's the reason why they are constantly bringing pressure because they want to be in a position to dictate the action to shorten the play. Unlike us, they don't have the ability to sit back, contain, and then attack mistakes.

    This is a game where Chico could be huge for us in a number of different ways. I wouldn't be surprised if he lines up in the backfield a few times trying to get him in coverage versus LBs. The Cougs ran a go route with Morrow coming out of the backfield right down the middle of the field against a LB and it was an easy TD. A play like that COULD be there for us as well.

    It's important for us to get up in this game early because Colorado's going to have a hard time moving the ball consistently against us from what I've seen. IF we can get Sefo into positions where he feels like he has to press, the game could be blown open rather easily.
    but if we consistently drop 7 and rush 4, it could play right into Colorado's hands
    Actually completely disagree ...

    Sefo is not a technically gifted passer ... he's ok with the intermediate and short stuff. A lot of what they do comes back to some RPO's and getting the ball out of their WRs with numbers. The WR screen game in those instances typically don't work well against us.

    The biggest thing that I've seen in their passing game that is making me feel very bullish on this game is that their WRs really don't do a good job of extending plays and giving Sefo options when the original routes break down. That combined with Sefo having very, very poor footwork tells me that there could be some opportunities for us to create turnovers.

    Our defense is largely predicated on not only stopping the run, but forcing teams to throw the ball short where we tackle immediately. You can't win football games when your only offense is throwing short because eventually we squeeze those routes away as well (ask the Coug).

    Where rushing 4 and dropping 7 becomes more of an issue is when you're playing a QB that is as talented as guy like Deshaun Watson who will eventually pick you apart or a mobile QB like JT Barrett or Jalen Hurts where if you lose contain with your 4 man rush and allow them to get out and run they can compromise your defense. Sefo doesn't have the arm/accuracy of a Watson and he's nowhere close to the runner that Barrett or Hurts is.
  • DerekJohnson
    DerekJohnson Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 70,256 Founders Club
    Tequilla said:

    Tequilla said:

    I strongly agree with Tequila on this.

    That's pretty much my takeaway as well ...

    The only game I saw from Colorado where they didn't really put pressure on the short to intermediate routes was USC because they were afraid of the speed killing them over the top. How much they worry about our speed will be one thing I'm watching early because while they may worry about our speed, I'm not sure they will worry about Jake's arm.

    You can run the ball on them as their front 7 is fundamentally sound but lacks overall athletic talent ... it's the reason why they are constantly bringing pressure because they want to be in a position to dictate the action to shorten the play. Unlike us, they don't have the ability to sit back, contain, and then attack mistakes.

    This is a game where Chico could be huge for us in a number of different ways. I wouldn't be surprised if he lines up in the backfield a few times trying to get him in coverage versus LBs. The Cougs ran a go route with Morrow coming out of the backfield right down the middle of the field against a LB and it was an easy TD. A play like that COULD be there for us as well.

    It's important for us to get up in this game early because Colorado's going to have a hard time moving the ball consistently against us from what I've seen. IF we can get Sefo into positions where he feels like he has to press, the game could be blown open rather easily.
    but if we consistently drop 7 and rush 4, it could play right into Colorado's hands
    Actually completely disagree ...

    Sefo is not a technically gifted passer ... he's ok with the intermediate and short stuff. A lot of what they do comes back to some RPO's and getting the ball out of their WRs with numbers. The WR screen game in those instances typically don't work well against us.

    The biggest thing that I've seen in their passing game that is making me feel very bullish on this game is that their WRs really don't do a good job of extending plays and giving Sefo options when the original routes break down. That combined with Sefo having very, very poor footwork tells me that there could be some opportunities for us to create turnovers.

    Our defense is largely predicated on not only stopping the run, but forcing teams to throw the ball short where we tackle immediately. You can't win football games when your only offense is throwing short because eventually we squeeze those routes away as well (ask the Coug).

    Where rushing 4 and dropping 7 becomes more of an issue is when you're playing a QB that is as talented as guy like Deshaun Watson who will eventually pick you apart or a mobile QB like JT Barrett or Jalen Hurts where if you lose contain with your 4 man rush and allow them to get out and run they can compromise your defense. Sefo doesn't have the arm/accuracy of a Watson and he's nowhere close to the runner that Barrett or Hurts is.
    I get what you're saying, but the intermediate and short stuff is exactly how USC moved the ball on us, when we were reticent to bring extra pressure against Darnold.
  • GrundleStiltzkin
    GrundleStiltzkin Member Posts: 61,516 Standard Supporter

    I'm convinced that if we had really gone after Darnold then UW wins that game at home.

    Defense did its part.