Need More Defense

The University of Washington Huskies are 2-0 to start their 2014 season. But there's more to the story than those numbers reveal. The Huskies' first game was against Hawaii, long time one of the worst teams in the FBS (also known as "Division I"). And the Huskies won by one measly point.

Then they played the Eastern Washington University Eagles, an FCS team (also known as "Division II"). As I said last week, the Eagles are arguably a better team than the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors since the Eagles are one of the best teams (apparently ranked #2) in the FCS.

When the Huskies racked up a 21-0 lead early in the first quarter, I thought UW head coach Chris Petersen had found the formula between the Hawaii game and this game. Seven of those points came from a recovered fumble on a kickoff return, but still, we'll take it.

Then the Eagles started coming back as the Husky defense proved to be as porous as a hooker's virtue. The same problem we had with Hawaii was glaring in this game: bad defense.

The game went back and forth after the Eagles closed the gap and once even managed to get ahead of the Huskies. Last year the Eagles beat Oregon State and all us Husky fans didn't want to be their next FBS victim. Their quarterback, Vernon Adams, (who I cannot understand why he's not on an FBS team) could not seem to miss a throw. Twice the Eagles converted on a 4th and 10 play.

Neither defense was able to stop the other's offense much at all and I was worried it would come down to who had the ball last. But then the Huskies managed to pick up a fumble and turned that into seven points. They won the game 59-52.

This week the Huskies have to get their defense in shape. The offense is doing better but the defense us just awful. Next week we play Illinois (at home) and it's going to be an ugly game if the defense is as bad has they have been the last two games.