Washington is 1-0 after toppling Colorado State last weekend and will enter Saturday with an opportunity to advance to 2-0 against UC Davis. After the season-opening victory, you had questions, UWDP had answers.
So without further ado, here is your Week 1 mailbag, ‘numbers sometimes lie’ edition.
RBinAZ asks..
“A couple weeks ago I made the comment in this forum that, with our DL and LB position groups somewhat suspect, our DBs/Safeties may lead the team in tackles (not good). It’s just a 1-game sample size…but should we be alarmed? Also, why the struggle to get to QBs year over year?”
Exiled in Colorado asks…
“Where was Zach durfee? 0 stats but often say him downfield in coverage was this scheme? The rams avoiding him or is something else going on?”
Otis asks…
“Our offense looks like we can play with anyone. The defense however looks like a work in progress. I was especially surprised to see how ineffective Durfee was. At times he looked a little lost and also lost containment. Is he (and other linemen perhaps) struggling to adjust to the new system?”
For the most part, these questions are pretty similar. So I’ll provide one answer for all three:
Per PFF, Durfee’s 45 snaps broke down as: 8 in coverage, 23 rushing the passer, 14 vs. the run. UW averaged 4.24 DL/EDGE per snap, meaning a 5-man front about 25% of the time. When they didn’t send everyone at the QB, Durfee was often the one asked to drop. That’s why fans saw him downfield. Zero stats doesn’t equal zero involvement. He had just 1 QB pressure in last year’s opener, too, then exploded for three sacks the following week vs. Eastern Michigan. Small sample size, plus new scheme wrinkles, make it way too early to panic.
Colorado State’s QB is notoriously tough to sack. His pressure-to-sack rate was 6.7% Saturday, under 10% the last two seasons. For perspective: Michael Penix’s was 7.6% when UW won the Joe Moore Award. He’s a back-foot, backpedal thrower, vulnerable to picks (like Esteen’s INT) but rarely taken down. That alone lowers sack totals. This defense is asking linemen to do more than hunt QBs. There were a few plays where Durfee looked like he was processing instead of reacting, and yes, containment wasn’t perfect. However, the Week 1 rust and system change mean it should be expected.
If Durfee disappears for a month, that’s a red flag. But right now it’s an overreaction to a single game in a brand-new system.
HRsportsfan asks…
“Why don’t we kick more touchbacks?”
Pescado Paul asks…
“Why, despite hiring two special teams coaches, does this continue to be a problem area, and when can we expect to see significant improvement?”
These two questions are similar, so the same style answer is featured below:
Grady Gross had a rough season last year when it came to field goal kicking and recording touchbacks. He had just 21 last season, which is much less than the 48 he had in 2023. Kicking it deep is just not a strength of his.
Enter: Ethan Moczulski
In his Husky debut, he had six kickoffs, two of which were touchbacks. That’s good for 33%, which is not ideal. A strong leg eliminates most issues when it comes to kick coverage. If he can kick it deeper, you’ll see an immediate fix.
Rddawg22 asks…
“How much time is ZRS going to miss?”
There hasn’t been a clear answer yet regarding true freshman linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, and knowing college football, there probably won’t be until he’s on the verge of making his Husky debut.
Atang asks…
“Am surprised that we haven’t seen more usage of some sort of option play with Desmond Williams. Is there a reason for that or do you think they starting bringing calling more options in subsequent games?”
We will see more option plays with Demond Williams once competition ramps up. Partly due to UW not wanting to put too much of its offense on tape for B1G foes, the other half of it is not wanting Williams to take hits in games where you don’t need him to. Although it is pretty funny that UW dialed up speed option for Will Rogers last season in the Apple Cup with the game on the line, but is conservative with Williams. Actually, maybe it’s not funny. Maybe that loss is annoying me all over again. Maybe I should move on and go to the next question.
In all seriousness, expect more down the road.
Oledawg asks…
“Definitional more than anything. What is the precise definition of “missed tackle?” I saw several instances where our D players were simply juked and missed. Sometimes without even touching the ball carrier. That doesn’t even address the issue of being out of position.”
Depends on who you ask. Here are breakdowns pulled directly from two of the best stat-tracking resources out there.
Pro Football Reference: “marked when a defensive player should have reasonably brought down the ball carrier but failed to do so”
Pro Football Focus: “Instead of the normal box score tally of total tackles and assists, PFF also tracks missed tackles similar to how we track missed tackles forced. Did a defender miss a would-be sure tackle on a play? Was it against the run or after the catch? Tackling efficiency gives us a figure for both facets on defense as well as a combined number of total tackle attempts by a defender compared to the amount of missed tackles a player recorded over the course of a game or season.”
Mountain Man asks…
“Why are you guys such assholes? Asking for a friend.”
Gabey left a void where our hearts used to be.