Behind Enemy Lines: Washington Q&A with The Dawg Report
To learn more about Oregon State's opponent this weekend, BeaversEdge.com chatted with Dawg Report Editor Lars Hanson, who covers the Washington Huskies.
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1. As far as Chris Petersen standards go, having a losing conference record in November isn’t up to par. What’s been the biggest factor in the Huskies not quite being themselves this season?
Most of the struggles have been a result of some positions not playing up to the caliber that UW has become accustomed to, namely at linebacker but also increasingly in the secondary as well. The trio of junior corners hasn't risen to the level that Byron Murphy, Jordan Miller, and the prior unit played week in and week out. On offense, UW has been hit by the injury bug at running back while the receiver corps has been slow to develop and rotate younger players in. UW has been great in some areas and for half's, but putting together a complete game has been the main theme.
2. Offensively, the Huskies have been brilliant at times this season with the cannon-armed Jacob Eason at QB and Savon Ahmed at RB. What’s been the biggest difference in the offense this year compared to the past few with Jake Browning and Myles Gaskin?
Lack of playmakers outside at WR and what has appeared to be a vanilla offense with respect to the play calling. That said, one thing Myles Gaskin was excellent at was his impact out of the wildcat. This season only Richard Newton has shown promise and when UW has called the play without him the result has been catastrophic in a negative way. At QB the difference has been that Jacob Eason has a stronger arm compared to Browning, but when it came to the timing routes the latter QB made better throws. Eason has almost too strong of an arm at times, as crazy as that sounds. Salvon Ahmed has been the main RB for the Huskies while Newton and Sean McGrew have been working their way back from injury. McGrew has proven to be a solid option when healthy and he made a big impact against BYU and Arizona, both road victories. If he's healthy this Friday it could play a key role for UW to end its two-game losing streak.
3. If you were Oregon State OC Brian Lindgren, how would you go about attacking the UW defense?
This season the defense has played well early but struggled to close out games. The key to beating UW is to be methodical and take what they give you on offense. The Huskies secondary has shown that it can bend but not break. On Friday they may have one of their tougher tests with Isaiah Hodgins, Tyjon Lindsey and Jake Luton pulling the strings.
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