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I went up to Huskyville yesterday with the expectation that the UW would defeat the defending 1AA National Champion Eastern Washington Eagles something on the order of say, 51 to 21.
The Huskies had it all. The 3rd year under Sark, coaches up the Wazzu, a home crowd, 20 more scholarship players. They're faster, MUCH bigger, and with extremely high expectations.
And they walked into a buzz saw.
Although Eastern ultimately lost, they racked up 504 yards in total offense doing it.
They carved up a Husky secondary that looked like Hockinson Middle School could have gone toe-to-toe with it. An Eastern receiver turned Trufant into his own personal highlight reel. Eastern kept running the same plays, over and over, and the Huskies all-too-frequently seemed helpless to stop them.
Eastern's pass protection was almost as good as it could get. While the Husky running defense was solid, holding the Eagles to a paltry 36 yards or so, those same linemen while big, seemed to have their feet stuck in concrete. They sacked the Eastern QB perhaps 3 times... in 69 attempts. But when the ONLY thing the other team is doing is passing, you SHOULD be able to bull-rush these guys into the 5th row in the bleachers.
The Huskies will be lucky to win ANY other games this year, as the rest of the PAC 12 is now licking their chops if they can play pitch and catch.
The Huskies pulled it out with an interception with 5 seconds left, after the Eagles traveled almost the length of the field in a minute, 20 seconds. Eastern, of course, should have kicked the field goal, because they likely would have won in overtime. (Coulda, would, shoulda.)
But the frightening thing is, Husky fans, that Washington did not defeat this Eastern team that showed a level of character, integrity and guts that all teams should emulate (You reading this, Cons? I mean, Ducks?)
Washington escaped.
Eastern played like the champions they are and the champions they should be again this year. They busted the Huskies in the mouth and the Huskies stood there, dazed and confused. The Washington defense was terrible, and the offense seemed incapable of throwing a pass longer then 6 yards (At one point, Price had completed 14 passes.... for 88 yards, an average of, well, about 6 yards per catch or so.)
The Husky running game looked "OK."
But Huskies... you sucked yesterday. And if you don't get your act together quickly, we are in for another, extremely long year.
Congrats to the Eagles. You've humbled a team that you outclassed in almost every way.
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