Hello Followers. Hope you had a fanstastic Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend.
As for me, well, its birthday time for me tomorrow. So, the question round all of these here parts concerns whether the Cougs are going to help me celebrate with a nice bit of Apple Pie.
Read on…
Followers, those of you who have frequented the WSUFB blog of late know that prognostication duties have fallen squarely on the Cougla Kahn. But alas, for this week, the Kahn would not put his four game winning streak on the line. Instead, he just handed me his laptop and said: “Sutra, in the last four weeks, I have shown myself to be back in the saddle as the world’s greatest predictor of Cougar Football. And since its your birthday tomorrow, I have to tell you, you don’t want to know what is going to happen tonight.”
So, as I looked at his face–which was filled with profound resignation and disgust–I knew that it was my turn to be the Grim Reaper. Onto the keys:
1) Defensive Line.
Lots been written about this already, but I thought it prudent to add a little twist. I mean, yes we know that Chris Polk is deadly. Yes, we know that if he runs for half of the 284 he racked up last year we’re gonna lose. Yes, we know all of that! But here’s the deal: Our run defense is just fine. Its actually our PASS DEFENSE that is horrible. And truly, when you look at games where we’ve given up a lot on the ground MOST of those yards came after other teams had established a real effective play-action passing game against us.
Take last week’s game against Utah as an example. If you remember, after being held in check for nearly three quarters, White started to go off right after they had established a few deep slants over the middle. Even more to the point, those deep slants were executed when we blitzed our linebackers. Then, later in the game, when we rushed four and dropped our LB’s into coverage, we did just fine. And really, that’s the key for today’s game. IF our defensive line can provide enough of a passrush on Price to speed up his decision making, we will be well positioned to win this game at the end…
2) Special Teams
To win today, we’re going to have to hold the Dawgs to 28 points or less. Can it be done? Sure.
But we certainly won’t keep them under that treshold with our current special teams play.
I mean, track back to the Oregon game: 15 points were given up based on special teams plays alone. The Arizona State game? 7 points + five drives that started within 60 yards of the goal line. Then in the Utah game? 7 points on a fake punt and 7 more on a fumbled punt.
Now, lets do the math of what the opponents score would have been (including ASU’s touchdown drive that ended the 1st half when they started on our 40 yard line) in three out of the last four games IF the opponents score reflected only the play of our defense:
Oregon: 28 points allowed.
Arizona State: 13 points allowed.
Utah: 13 points allowed.
And that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
3) Ground Game
We can talk all we want about how bad Washington’s pass defense is–and it is–but what cannot be lost in is how stinking bad their run defense is as well. And to me, OUR ground game represents a HUGE key to the game. After all, our defense tends to do pretty well until such time that it starts to wear down. So, a big key to the game is whether we keep our D off the field enough to keep them fresh.
My take: Its gonna take 150 yards of rushing for us to win the game.
4) Four Verticals
We saw it on the opening play of the game against the Aztecs, and here’s to hoping that we see it again today. Because the Dawgs have shown themselves to be midgets in rushing the quarterback, today is a GREAT day to send lots of guys deep and to do a whole lot of double moves. Moreover, as we all witnessed in the Colorado game, Mr. Marshall throws a decent deep ball when he has time to get his feet set. Lets hope we offer enough protection for him to do the same today.
And finally.
5) Swag! Swag! Swag!
Don’t know about you all, but my favorite person in the world to follow on Twitter is none other than CJ Mizell. Love the guy’s humor and colorful language! But for us to win today, CJ is going to have to play his best game as a Coug. Why? Well, have you noticed some guy named Seferian Jenkins?–cuz I heard he’s pretty good.
So, if CJ has some SJ for breakfast lunch and dinner today, the Dawgs aren’t going to score many points. And we all know what that means: Lots and lots of Apple Pie.
Prediction:
Have tried all week to shrug off the gloom and doom of the Kahn. But, its not possible. While I have decent confidence in our offense’s ability to move the ball and score today, I fear that our defense and special teams once again will fail to rise to the challenge of the day. Dawgs win going away 42-23 in a game that will have us longing for better times and a much, much better defensive coordinator.
We’ll be back later tonight for a brief post-game to set the stage for what will be a HUGE week for the future of the program…
GO COUGS!!!!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
