It has been a loooong time since the Huskies have beat the Ducks. That in itself is enough to make me nervous because as my dad always said "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while." At a high level, no matter how good you are it is hard to maintain a streak. The Huskies in their hay day didn't hold a streak this long over the Ducks.
This year I'm a little frustrated with the Huskies because they really laid an egg down at LSU. They looked flat and the SEC vs PAC battle certainly went to the SEC on that night. Then they bounce back and knock of Stanford who just knocked off USC. The "Pac 1" argument down here in the south started up again. "The team LSU beat by 38 pts just beat the team that beat USC!" That leaves Oregon.
Here's some things I'll be looking for this week.
1 - Once again I'm going D 1st. We looked unbeatable on D against Arizona and solid against Wazzu. But the Huskies will be a better challenge even though their offense has been struggling. The Ducks have been beefing up to compete with the SEC, here's your big chance, LSU completely shut down the Huskies. We should too. LSU held WA to 1 yard a carry and 4.4 yards an attempt in the passing game. Shut them down. Our offense operates so quick the Huskies will get more attempts and carries, but I'd like to see that type of effort.
2 - Easily the best defense we've seen coming up this week. They are much improved. This will be a big test for Marcus. Our QB has done very well this year but he has looked a tad rattled under pressure at times. Against Wazzu I'll point to the 7 yard sack he took when everyone in the state of Oregon (except for the 2 Beaver fans) was screaming "get rid of it". It was so obvious, the camera zoomed in on Chip Kelly who you could see was saying "just relax". My guess would be that the Huskies will look to scheme against our zone read and force Marcus to pass, then blitz him and try to dirty him up early. This is a big test for Marcus, he needs to keep that cool and hit his targets. Hey Marcus - lean on the tight ends.
3 - The receivers need to step up. A couple of drops against this defense when they are bringing pressure on a young QB will shut down drives and add to the pressure. DAT, Kenjon and Bralon are capable of turning a 5 yard pass into an 80 yard touchdown. In the last 2 games that has been missing. Someone needs to make a play out of nothing in this game and help out the young QB. The TE's I want Marcus to lean on need to make those tough catches over the middle and pick up 1st downs.
4 - They teased me with a heavy dose of Colt against AZ then pulled him back against Wazzu. I don't really care if it is in the run game or in the pass game but good God, let him have the ball a few times. Barner said the other day that when Colt started running the ball they found out pretty quick that people HATE tackling him. Put that burden on the WA linebackers and safeties.
5 - Washington is a good team, they've been getting better each year and this is probably their best team in a while. I really feel like we need to beat them down like we did Arizona. The Huskies are coming off a big win over a top team in the conference. A big win for us shows us where we are.
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