UW vs. ASU Recap

Coming into their game against the Arizona State Sun Devils, the .500 Huskies had struggled with a quite a few aspects of the game. Against Stanford, the physicality of the Cardinal and the power running game of Toby Gerhart shocked the Huskies coming off their upset of USC. And last week, UW could not stop one simple play until the end of the game, the bubble screen.


Consequently, on the defensive side of the ball, the Huskies came into Tempe with a new scheme to stop the run, and Nick Holt hoped he had ironed out the troubles with the bubble screen. In the end however, big gains through the ground gave momentum to the Sun Devils, and a new offensive play arose for the Huskies to mishandle, the reverse.

After a promising pass from Locker to Aguilar for a 49-yard touchdown, Arizona State responded with two momentum shifting drives. The second drive took advantage of a reverse play in the early minutes of the first quarter by T.J Simpson, which went for 30 yards. They ran what looked like a nearly identical play with Kyle Williams, but this time the Sun Devils capitalized off the Husky defense that thought they saw a repeat of the play that hurt them earlier.

Instead of Williams running the ball around the end, he passed to T.J Simpson in the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown, putting Arizona State up by a score.

The lack of physicality on both sides of the ball for UW also proved deadly. On offense, the line was completely manhandled by the superior play of the ASU defensive line. All game, Locker was under pressure, and in this game his feet could not save him. Also, not surprisingly, the inconsistent running game of the Huskies continued.

Despite one homerun by Chris Polk, for 23 yards, the Huskies could not move the ball on the ground, putting them in a tough situation against a team that takes much pride in their defense.

For the struggling defense, the woes continued. Simply put, the defense just does not have the talent that is present on the offensive side of the ball. Certainly, Nick Holt is an experienced defensive coordinator, but it may take him a few years to recruit the talent that is present on the offensive side of the ball because of the misdoings of the Willingham staff.

As it is now, the defensive line cannot get pressure on the quarterback, and this gives quarterbacks all day to navigate their way through a weak secondary. Danny Sullivan of ASU passed for 263 yards and a touchdown in this game, and he certainly made the Husky defense look inexperienced at times.

On the run, the front seven is continually overpowered by superior play as they were on this Saturday in which the Sun Devils rushed for 169 yards.

But this game was really defined by the lack of mental toughness for both teams. It was an ugly game, dominated by penalties, and neither team really deserved to win. The Huskies racked up 124 yards on 12 penalties, and as a result, it seemed that every decent gain through the air or on the ground was just to get back to the original line of scrimmage.

On defense, big stops were canceled by bone headed penalties. In the first quarter, it seemed the Sun Devils were loosing their cool mentally, and they certainly did. All game, ASU’s defense was wasting energy taunting and yelling at the Huskies. It was reasonable to think Locker and the Huskies would capitalize off this immaturity, but they fell into the same trap themselves and it became more of a dogfight than a football game.

The Huskies cannot expect to win when they turn the ball over and make ample penalties.

However, it is somewhat comforting to see that the Huskies were in the game till the final seconds against a formidable opponent, even though the Huskies played horrifically. The play everyone will be talking about is the third and one at the end of the fourth quarter. Instead of running the ball, or giving Locker the short pass or run option, Sarkisian unsuccessfully took a shot down the field.

It seems Sarkisian expected the corner to bite on the slant route as he did earlier in the game, leaving the deep route open, but this was not the case. This meant the Sun Devils got the ball with only seconds on the clock, and it seemed the game would head into overtime. But the lack of heady play continued for the Huskies.

Chris McGaha, who was sick all week felt much better after he somehow got behind the Washington secondary for his only catch of the game, a 50-yard touchdown to put ASU up by a score. This left the Huskies with one Hail Mary attempt, which ended with a pick to end the game.

This series of events at the end show Steve Sarkisian is still developing as a head coach, and there are signs he could be a great one, but he will most definitely learn from Saturday’s loss. The Washington staff lost control of their players, and in the end, perhaps a bit of over coaching on the third and one play hurt Washington’s chances.

Surely, however, Sarkisian will work hard to get his team ready for one of their toughest games of the year at home against the No. 12 Ducks. Jeremiah Masoli will most likely return in that game, and he will certainly be tough assignment for the UW defense. It will be very interesting see how the Huskies respond in this game; they need to put this past Saturday’s game behind them and remember their true identity as a well coached, smart football team.

The Husky faithful will continue to bark for Sark, this game was simply a bump in the road that Washington will overcome.