Participation by Position Group

Kingdome_Urinals said:

Our front 7 sucks now due to injury and defection.

And as @Crow_T_Robot warned, a couple whiff recruiting years. That’s shit depth right there.

Minor correction to the participation list, from that game at least: They were playing McDonald at OLB. Not good news for Trice.

If Latu is truly out for the "season," this team is truly fucked, as neither Smalls or McDonald looked even remotely ready.

I'm with everyone else on the bewilderment as to how bad the DL has performed. For two years straight, UW vacuumed up nearly all of the DL talent out west. There's no excuse for that line to not dominate, yet there they are getting pushed around by Beavis. I guess I got so spoiled by seeing lower rated guys like Gaines and Jaylen Johnson being studs, higher rated guys like Qualls and Onwuzurike living up to their billing, and even guys like Tani Tupou coming good after development that it seems inconceivable to strike out with so much talent available.

I think part of it is just being so light in the box all the time, but I'm seriously starting to wonder if there are issues in the S&C/rhino cum program. Players just haven't been developing like they used to, and this goes back a couple years.

I just went back and watched OSU's "hot knife through butter" first offensive scoring drive. Starts at 3:44 in this video:





1st and 10. Bronson, Tuitele, Smalls left to right, Simon and Ulo behind. At the snap, Sirmon immediately fills a gap away from the play side, taking himself completely out of the play. Let's hope this is an ill-timed run blitz. Bronson does nothing special but nothing wrong and is away from the play side. Tuitele takes a double team and holds his ground, so good from him. Smalls gets double teamed and totally fucking rocked, fails to disengage when the ballcarrier runs right behind him. With Smalls so out of position, Ulo fills his gap and is now too far inside and shielded from the runner by three bodies. Molden--I love this guy as a defensive back, but this is a major theme with him in run defense--gets completely erased by the slot receiver, can't shed the block, and Jefferson has a nice little 17 yard gain.





2nd and 3. This one's on Kwiatkowski. The boundary side is also the weak side of the formation, yet that's where they loaded up, with Ulofoshio moved up on the line. To make matters worse, the whole line slants to the boundary at the snap, with ZTF giving up contain and shooting an inside gap. With just about everybody taking themselves out of the play, the right guard is free to move to the second level and erase Sirmon. The tight end just has to take Molden out, and it's a cakewalk. None of the Husky defenders seem to be able to avoid being blocked, with Sirmon and Molden pretty low on even that scale, so this play goes about how you'd think.





3rd and 2. Beavis comes out in 11 personnel, spread to run. Huskies doom themselves with a conservative base nickel defense. Bronson and Taimani hold their ground fine, all things considered. ZTF does the impossible and quickly sheds his blocker, but then misses an ankle tackle. Sirmon blazes into the backfield to accomplish absolutely nothing except not be there when the runner squirts out right to where he used to be standing. Don't mind the aggressiveness, but don't whiff the tackle if you're going to blaze in like that.





2nd and 5. 11 personnel again, but this time a safety (Turner) is moved into the box. McDonald, Bowman, Taimani, Bronson, Ulofoshio left to right. At the snap, the entire DL does it's job. Bowman quickly sheds an attempted cut block, Taimani and Bronson both get a ton of penetration, forcing the run inside. Ulofoshio gets doubleteamed and therefore blasted out of the play. Then three players doom it: Bowman easily defeats his block on then whifs on the tackle. Turner, completely free because of Ulo's doubleteam, runs to the boundary and takes himself completely out of the play, effectively blocking himself, and then there's my whipping boy Sirmon. He has an acre of space in which to avoid being erased by a stumbling CENTER, but he decides he'd rather be blocked. Nice hustle by McDonald, actually, to make a touchdown saving tackle, not that it mattered much three plays later.



I don't know. It's still disappointing that these highly rated D-linemen aren't just beasting through doubleteams and making plays--or at least affecting plays in ways that make it easy on the second level players, but there are bigger problems than just the DL. Familiar problems to anybody that was watching last year. There is still a massive, gaping hole right in the middle of the defense, and Kwat is struggling to scheme around it. Safety play in run defense also leaves a lot to be desired, not helped by having safeties 18 yards deep on nearly every play. With a QB that can sling it, that's defensible. Saturday night, it made no fucking sense and was basically a big neon sign that read, "Please run it down our throat!"