Revisiting the 2011 Washington Huskies

30-20, ’Skers.

Maybe the team was not motivated to play in the Holiday Bowl, but please, do not ever use that as an excuse in a written article. We lost; Washington won.

GBR!

I finally got around to watching the Fresno St game this week here in Hyderabad, and the Blackshirts were absolutely pitiful: no sacks, no defense at all! Fresno St ran all over us.

If they do the same against the Huskies, I don’t see the Huskers coming out on top, and it will set the tone for the rest of the season. And with Wisconsin just around the corner, this same on Saturday is going to show whether or not the Big Red have what it takes to take the division and show up in Indianapolis.

We’ll see if Bo and Company have been holding anything back. I have a feeling they sort have been, which should be good. I remember that last season people were pretty unsure about the Huskers, and then we went to Seattle and played at a different level.

Although using the – “they beat them.. who beat them, who beat those guys, who beat those other guys, who played us well” – philosophy isn’t something that makes much sense, I think the Huskies are indeed looking to be a much improved team. The Locker situation was just plain odd, which makes this another huge question mark game.

The fact that they are last against the pass and 7th against the run is very much due to the fact that the two teams they played almost exclusively pass. I’m guessing their defense is decent against the run and a little below average against the pass.

It’s so hard to know what this game is going to look like. I think Washington is a better team than most fans want to give them credit for, but I know I have a lot of respect for them. They are a team on the rise for sure, they’ve got the right coach, and they’ve got some very talented players. I think Nebraska is in more of a rebuilding year than people want to admit, but I think our defense will step it up and play closer to their potential this Saturday, and that will be the difference.

Huskers 24, Huskies 20

Is our team coming onto the field flat and not ready to play like last week. Maybe they were looking ahead to this game tho, who knows? I hope the Huskies start on Offense and the Blackshirts get to go out first and set the tone for the game, I know that you can’t win a game on the first series but, you can come out swinging and deliver a big blow to the confidence of the team you are playing against.

If Martinez comes out and he plays like he did in both the first Washington game and somehow throws like he did against OkSU and we don’t go 3nOut on our first series then the Offense gets a big boost of confidence that they need. I played on a young team that started shaky before and one good performance by one player can make the whole team better.

As for the Defense this game is going to be about pressure on the QB and not allowing big gains up the middle. I’m sure that WU is looking at game film thinking, “Man this team looks like half the team we played a year ago.” But they have the skill and the coach to make it happen.

One more thing I have noticed over the last couple seasons. 1) Nebraska plays to their potential in three of the OOC games every year they always seem to heve one they look bad in and every Husker fan starts saying " Here they go agian." 2) Bo knows how to motivate this team. Look at the O-line last Saturday, was it what we expect out of a Nebraska line? No, But they did play better against a better opponant. 3) In the years since the brothers Pelini took over one big problem for the team has been coming from behind and adjusting when they are getting beat on something. Well last week they went into halftime down three and they didn’t look capable of stoping Fresno but they came out in the second half and turned it around. Was it pretty? not really. Did it come from a play that you can’t expect very offten? Yes, a 100 yard kick return. But the play was made by someone when it needed to be. 4) I still don’t think we have seen what this offense is capable of. Look at all the speed the offense has on its side and these young playmakers have not been thrown in to the mix yet. show me an offensive set with Martinez, Burkhead and, Abdulla in it and all I would say is “WTF? How do I defend this craziness?”

NU-35 Wash-14

Jamal Turner throws a pass. Maybe not this week, but sometime this season Taylor Martinez will throw a quick one out to Turner on the side and then when the safeties come up to get him, instead of running Turner will throw a pass to a wide open receiver on the other side of the field. It’s gonna happen. We already know Burkhead can and will pass from time to time. That’s the luxury of having a former QB at RB and WR.

Washington to me is a better team than when we last met in the Holiday Bowl. If we lose to them at home, there will be no excuses. I expect it to be a 27-24 type game with us hopefully pulling it out in the end.

A lot of this game rides on our DL. We will need to contain Price and keep pressure on him the entire game. Not to mention stop Polk who ran all over us in the Bowl game. The key is for our D to keep us in this game. Our offense is not even close to being finely tuned, so it may be back to relying on big pass and run plays for most of the game.

What channel is this game on? The BTN network on my guide seems to be saying something about arizona state and illinois??

I’m afraid to make a score prediction on this game. Really, here are the plausible scenarios:

Nebraska shows no improvement from Fresno and UW plays well: 10-28
Nebraska shows no improvement and UW is about where I think they are: 20-28
Nebraska plays better, but still has major issues and UW really brings it: 24-20
Both teams play well, including significant improvement by Nebraska: 31-14
Nebraska goes off and Price wilts under the Memorial Stadium pressure: 45-7

Something like that.

The only part I disagree with is this;

Remember how Locker tended to hurt Nebraska more with his legs than his arm? Well, Price is also a dual-threat quarterback; probably a better runner, and considering how poorly Locker threw, couldn’t be much worse through the air.

Locker is faster and bigger than Price. Locker had 1,783 yards in 40 college games played, I doubt Price will ever get half of that. This isn’t just my opinion, former Husky QB Brock Huard who has a radio show on ESPN Seattle, and has watched a lot of Husky practices, agreed that Jake is the better runner and has the stronger arm. Price’s advantage seems to be that he has more accuracy than Locker had. Don’t get me wrong, Price is a duel-threat, it’s just that the throwing part is probably better than the running part.

Also it should be noted that Price was hurt in the Eastern Washington game, and while he never missed a snap, he played with a knee brace last week against Hawaii. I have not heard yet if he was still wearing the brace in practice this week, but it’s something to keep an eye on.