UW @ Zona 7:30pm Pac12N

[WizardHawk]

Time for real football again. The long ass preseason is over and now shit gets real.

Say what you want about the early struggles of Arizona, but UW hasn't won on the road in that state in over a decade and have lost two games there in recent years they shouldn't have.

Entirely excited and nervous about the game for sure. You just know RR is going to pull out some kind of trickery and funny shit is going to happen. Some bounced ball off a foot or weird special teams play.

It will be a solid test of the defense and a chance to see really how that unit is doing. Really still need to see consistent pass rushing to help out that secondary. And they have to do this while also respecting a very capable running attack. If Soloman is still out with his injury they are going to have the opportunity to try to rattle a kid that did well against Hawaii after not having the best day versus Grambling. If you can't get to him and make him have a long day the following next two games are going to be much worse.

I still have serious questions about the offensive line. Most of Gaskins yards yesterday came outside the tackles or were otherwise not power runs. This team really doesn't have any kind of power running. I'm not convinced they can get a yard on 3 and 1 against a tough defense. I'm not sure Arizona has that tough defense, but they are better than what they have seen in these last three games and yet couldn't run on those. The good news is The cats have allowed quality QB's to gash them and so far this passing game has been on fire. It could be enough to sneak out with a win this week, but you really want to see a lot more balance to the offense.

A late night date in the desert. Shit is getting real guys. Here we go...

 

[mcnabb7542]

Yep this one can be a "tripper" if they don't go down there with their heads on squarely!

I love this coaching staff, Dawgs handle their business and take one in the desert 35-10 !

 

[WizardHawk]

I don't get all these people wanting Stanford to win today so that it sets up a bigger game next week.

Never pull for another team in the North to win if you are trying to win the North. The goal should always be to hit the rose bowl. I get those that want the SoS to be higher for a run at the playoffs, but that's not the angle people are talking about today. And I don't care about SoS or the playoffs at this point. Win your game and if Stanford loses you have a one game lead on them for the North. Much rather have that than some hyped up battle of two unbeaten top 10 teams.

 

[dude82]

The Husky running game looks good this week. Unfortunately, so does Arizona's running game. You know you're having a bad day when you're giving up 160+ yards rushing to the quarterback alone.

 

[dude82]

I don't know if the Dawgs stay in the Top 10 after this game, but I know they'll take the win with the Stanford game coming up next week.

The defense is gonna have to figure out what Arizona was doing to open up so many wide running lanes so it doesn't happen again next week with McCaffrey coming to town. They play run defense like that against him and he's liable to run for 200 yards by himself.

On offense, I loved watching Coleman run the ball and I hope whatever knocked him out of the game tonight doesn't keep him out for next week's game because for whatever reason, Gaskin doesn't look like the same guy who was running with authority last year. He looked hesitant and off balance all night. Yes, he managed to run for 85 yards this week, which is much better than the first few weeks, but he still didn't look right. Browning to John Ross is still working pretty well and it was nice, as the announcers brought up during the broadcast, to see them connect on some intermediate routes.

Still... this game didn't have to be this close and definitely didn't have to go into overtime. I don't know what happened on Van Winkle's missed field goals, but it's a totally different game if he makes those. A better team than Arizona will advantage of missed opportunities like that if they happen too often. Browning's INT was bad too. Just a bad decision that might have taken points off the board, assuming Van Winkle could have connected on the inevitable field goal attempt that even an incomplete pass would have allowed for.

Bottom line... they have to play better next week. Being at home should help, but Stanford will eat them alive if they play like that next week.

 

[TheDayMan]

I don't know if the Dawgs stay in the Top 10 after this game, but I know they'll take the win with the Stanford game coming up next week.

The defense is gonna have to figure out what Arizona was doing to open up so many wide running lanes so it doesn't happen again next week with McCaffrey coming to town. They play run defense like that against him and he's liable to run for 200 yards by himself.

On offense, I loved watching Coleman run the ball and I hope whatever knocked him out of the game tonight doesn't keep him out for next week's game because for whatever reason, Gaskin doesn't look like the same guy who was running with authority last year. He looked hesitant and off balance all night. Yes, he managed to run for 85 yards this week, which is much better than the first few weeks, but he still didn't look right. Browning to John Ross is still working pretty well and it was nice, as the announcers brought up during the broadcast, to see them connect on some intermediate routes.

Still... this game didn't have to be this close and definitely didn't have to go into overtime. I don't know what happened on Van Winkle's missed field goals, but it's a totally different game if he makes those. A better team than Arizona will advantage of missed opportunities like that if they happen too often. Browning's INT was bad too. Just a bad decision that might have taken points off the board, assuming Van Winkle could have connected on the inevitable field goal attempt that even an incomplete pass would have allowed for.

Bottom line... they have to play better next week. Being at home should help, but Stanford will eat them alive if they play like that next week.

Yep, gonna have to capitalize on opportunities against stanford. As far as the ranking goes, I don't care. If they're a top 10 team they'll be there when it matters, if not it's irrelevant anyway.

I'm just happy they got out of there with a win. Back home for stanford!

 

[WizardHawk]

You got out of the desert with a win. First road game of the year was a win. Got rid of the 10 year drought in the State of Arizona. And came out with no major injuries.

They do have lots to clean up. How many false starts? Other costly penalties. Not uncommon to have those creep up on the road. I really don't expect to see that next week at home.

I fully expected something more like we saw than what was predicted for this game. I'm still not calling them a top 10 team until they beat a ranked team on the road and it will be late October before they even have a chance at facing one. And that's only if Utah doesn't implode.

If this was Sarks team they would have lost that game. 100% sure. Good teams find ways of winning ugly games on the road. We haven't been a good team in a long time. Really not worried about the top 10 or being a great team. Just keep getting better.