Tequilla Thoughts: UW vs Rutgers and College Football Week 1

Tequilla said:

Pre-Season Scrimmage #1 A General Success

Easy victory, ability to leave the game in good health, and working through a lot of depth throughout the game. Jumping out 24-0 after the 1st quarter is what you wanted to see. We still won't know how legit this team is though until the conference season starts.

Defense Is As Advertised

Just over 300 yards of offense (304 to be precise) on 88 plays (3.45 yards per play) with the balance of that in the 2nd half against the 2's and the 3's. 10 yards of total offense after 1 quarter. What to look for in the next 2 games will be to see the defense come to the field with the same kind of intensity to close the door before it ever gets started.

Offense A Mixed Bag

As has been discussed, I thought Rutgers really went out of their way to slow down the running game by stacking the box. It opened up a lot of room for Browning in the passing game. One of the things that we talked about throughout the offseason and in looking back at the 2015 season was the lack of big plays in the passing game coupled with his inability to hit the deep ball. That was Rutgers defensive game plan and with John Ross returning, Browning made them play for it. 18 of 27 for 287, 3 TDs, and 1 INT I'd take every game. The INT was poor and was more of just a throw and pray and he missed his spot by about 5-10 yards.

The play calling is something that I think a lot of people will always focus on with Smith at the controls. I've often bitched about the need to dictate matchups to the defense through formation, route combinations, etc. The first TD pass to McClatcher was a great manipulation. There were a few instances in the running game where they were able to get some good plays by how they are shifting pre-snap that personally I don't think they want to completely put as much on tape as possible leading into the first 3 conference games. There was some that I thought was way too cute (i.e. the Budda fly sweep) and some execution issues (going too fast on the 4th and 1 inside the red zone and being a little late calling in the FG leading to a rushed attempt), but all in all, not terrible. The execution in the red zone and on 3rd downs needs to be worked on.

Special teams will lead to continued good field position throughout the year particularly as teams start to kick away from Ross and Pettis.

USC ... LOL

Anybody that thought that Clay Helton wasn't in way over his head, I give you Saturday night. USC will beat some teams because they are USC but the biggest stench of Sark that is left on them is missing OL/DL play and that's going to be their biggest on-field undoing. Bigger question that I have as the season unfolds because I just have a hard time seeing USC going better than 7-5 at this point is at what point do some of their recruits start looking around?

COUGS ... LOL x2

Luke Falk was 41 of 51 for 418 yards and 4 TDs so everything is right in Coug Land ... except for they've rarely understood that to win games you actually have to stop somebody. The Cougs will never be a serious contender as long as they try to out score teams first and foremost. Otherwise they'll just be the team that can beat a decent team here and there but will never have consistency.

Interesting fact: Mike Leach is now 0-5 in season opening games as Wazzu head coach.

PAC 12 Dreck

I was actually somewhat impressed by Arizona's defense against BYU but their offense looked terrible. Oregon State may be more competitive but they are still going to be lucky to win more than 1-2 conference games. Colorado was probably as impressive as anybody else in the conference this weekend. 24 points against Southern Utah isn't a sign that Utah's going to be a tough out ... they need to find some offense in a hurry. UCLA put up a good fight at TAMU but their OL play was brutally bad at times in that game. They're probably the favorite in the South but that's not saying much. Oregon's defense looks like a decided work in progress. My big takeaway from Stanford was that they only had 4 receptions outside of McCaffrey or Rector ... definitely going to be a very questionable offense going forward.

Top 10 Overrated???

Oklahoma was fortunate last year ... they're going to be a 3-4 loss team this year at least. Houston needs Oklahoma to keep winning to make that win look good for them because outside of a late season game against Louisville the rest of the schedule isn't going to make headways. Les Miles should start planning his retirement. Clemson wasn't overly impressive but a road win at Auburn is something you just take and run. Tennessee looked very unimpressive and possibly not ready for the bright lights. Notre Dame and Texas played a mistake filled game that at times looked like a defensively optional game.

Playoff Developments

Good weekend for the Big 10 with Wisconsin getting a notable victory over LSU. No real change so far with the ACC pending Florida State's game against Ole Miss Monday. Big 12 is looking like a 2 loss team will win the league from what I've seen. The PAC's only legitimate contenders at this point for a playoff spot are Stanford and UW. Alabama is Alabama. It's looking like it may be a very, very wide open year.

Tequilla said:

ThomasFremont said:

Listing UW as a playoff contender after beating Rutgers is as doog as it gets. Especially if you omit all the other 1-0 teams.

7 PAC teams are 1-0 ... 4 in the North and 3 in the South

Starting with the South, none of them are going to run the table ... you are looking at arguably the bottom half of the South being undefeated. Utah's offensive problems will likely earn them a loss to BYU on Saturday.

Cal's not a legit threat to be a playoff contender ... a bowl game will be good for them and they will lose this weekend to San Diego St. Oregon's defensive issues put me in a position where I do not expect them to be a serious threat ... I will reconsider that position if they go to Nebraska, win, and look good doing so.

That leaves Stanford and UW ... both ranked high enough with expectations that COULD put them in a position if they handle their business .... UW's schedule is SIGNIFICANTLY more manageable than Stanford's

Tequilla said:

EsophagealFeces said:

I was going to upvote until you called UW a playoff contender.

I didn't call them a contender - my point was that after 1 week there are likely only 2 0 teams in the conference that have any chance to be there in the end

Tequilla said:

ThomasFremont said:

Tequilla said:

ThomasFremont said:

Listing UW as a playoff contender after beating Rutgers is as doog as it gets. Especially if you omit all the other 1-0 teams.

7 PAC teams are 1-0 ... 4 in the North and 3 in the South

Starting with the South, none of them are going to run the table ... you are looking at arguably the bottom half of the South being undefeated. Utah's offensive problems will likely earn them a loss to BYU on Saturday.

Cal's not a legit threat to be a playoff contender ... a bowl game will be good for them and they will lose this weekend to San Diego St. Oregon's defensive issues put me in a position where I do not expect them to be a serious threat ... I will reconsider that position if they go to Nebraska, win, and look good doing so.

That leaves Stanford and UW ... both ranked high enough with expectations that COULD put them in a position if they handle their business .... UW's schedule is SIGNIFICANTLY more manageable than Stanford's

I like to dismiss other teams for their weaknesses while ignoring our own.

I like to do that.

UW was a preseason Top 15 team ... only Stanford was rated higher. Of the other undefeated teams in the conference, only Oregon was ranked.

If you want to criticize me for my dismissing of Oregon that's one thing ... but to act like Cal, Colorado, ASU, or Utah are going to go 11-1 is FS.