Good Tuesday morning to you Cougar Nation and a Happy Apple Cup Week as well!
Today I am going to take a look at a few key areas that our Cougs need to execute, in-order to be competitive and possibly this weekend’s game.
Before doing so, a couple of housekeeping items.
It was reported last night, although I cannot find the link, WSU QB Connor Halliday is out of the ICU and in Stable Condition. As you likely know, Halliday suffered a Lacerated Liver late in the first half on Saturday against Utah. Thoughts and prayes to Halliday and his family as he looks to recover from this internal injury. Isaiah Barton will also join Halliday on the sideline as he is out for the year after suffering an ACL injury on Saturday as well. Barton was having a great Senior campaign coming out of the Slot for us, and hopefully can heal in-time to impress NFL Scouts this spring. Walk-on WR Bennett Bontempts replaced Barton on Saturday. What does that say about Gino Simone’s future at this position?
In other Pac 12 news, last night the Arizona Wildcats introduced former Michigan and West Virginia HC Rich Rodriguez. Rodriguez will likely bring his Spread Option offense and 75-48 career record (15-22 in three seasons in Ann Arbor) to the desert. The initial reaction to this hire talking to some of my Arizona friends was nothing to exciting.
Click the jump for my keys to the Apple Cup.
Contain Polk
Last year Chris Polk rushed for an Apple Cup record 284 yards against us. With Keith Price returning under Center, not near 100% healthy, I would imagine the Huskies give Polk atleast 25 touches. Last week we did an excellent job containing Utah’s John White IV for about three quarters. If you remove his 56 yard score in the 4th Quarter, White IV averaged just over 3 YPC. Last week a poor OSU run defense held Polk to 109 yards on exactly 25 carries. If the Cougs come close to matching that, this game looks very winnable.
Special Teams Needs to Be Special
A quick tally tells me the Cougs have given up a Special Teams touchdown in five of 11 games this season (six scores in all). We need to contain Kevin Smith and Kasen Williams, to very explosive players for the Huskies. Last week Coach Wulff said he would replace some of our coverage players with starters. This paid huge dividends in the Field Position Battle, as we only gave up 15 Yards Per Return. Prior to that, in-conference, we were yiedling an average of 26 Yards/Return.
Shootout in Seattle?
The Cougar offense has been averaging almost 32 points/game the last two weeks and considering we only scored more than 30 once in-conference play (31 at Colorado), it’s nice to see this unit clicking. Hopefully the Lobster can keep up with the pace established in his absence. Meanwhile, the once dangerous UW offense has only averaged about 18 points/game in their last three contests. While this game could go well over that, I think the first team to 35 wins on Saturday. Don’t look now Husky Fans, but your defense is giving up more points/game this season (34.5) than your 0-12 team of 2008. Like Jon Gruden said last night “They don’t put yards per game on the scoreboard for a reason.”
Turnovers, Turnovers, Turnovers
This is very simple, take care of the ball, and you win football games. In our seven losses this season, our turnover margin has been -3, +1. Even, -2, +1, Even, -2 and in our four wins the margin has been (Even, +1, Even, +2). To me that’s pretty simple math, take the rock away a few more times than you give it up and you’ve got a winning recipe.
There you have it folks, my four key areas to this Saturday’s match-up with the Huskies. Check back this afternoon as we go inside the mind of one of my favorite Huskies. Sidenote, having family and lots of friends that went to UW, I do have multiple favorites; please don’t hold this against me.
Have a great rest of the week!
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