Washington players and coaches talk after UW’s 45-3 win over North Dakota.
Coach Petersen
Opening Statement
I’m proud of those guys. We played the type of defense we should. Their running back Santiago is a really good player, and if you take that one long run out of there we played really stifling defense, proud of those guys. My hats off to 22, that guy’s a good player. If you put on the tape every game before he played us he gets long runs and he does a good job. Credit to those guys, and those linebackers were flying around, Ben Burr-Kirven got a lot of tackles Potoa’e got some tackles. We played good defense, I’m proud of those guys. On offense, we can do better. Certainly running the ball we need to do better, so we will keep working on that and figure it out.
What do you think of Jake’s performance?
I really need to look at the tape, to really see what he’s seeing. There were a couple of reads he made that were maybe a little different than how we’d like him to read the defense but we’ll take a look at it.
How do you feel about the running game?
Not good. We need to run the ball better. I like the guys in the fourth quarter, they attacked it. We might have had them worn down a little bit towards the end of the game but I thought there were some nice clean runs in there. The O-line gave the backs a chance to get it started, and Sean pounded it in there, Kamari too. Those guys are good players, they’ve done it in practices and scrimmages and in games when we’ve got them in. A little credit to the guys before for wearing those guys down, but the guys who went in looked pretty good to me.
What did you see from Jake Haener?
It was awesome getting him in there and letting him throw the ball. He’s done a nice job in Spring ball and nice job since he’s gotten real reps and he’s turned those into how he’s been performing in practice. Excited to get him on the field and let him throw the ball, when he’s going to be hit for real and everything. We put him in there and wanted him to be able to throw the ball. Some of those deep balls are dictated by the coverage, if they’re playing in your face. Great work for him to get that work and those other receivers to make those plays.
What needs to change in the running game?
It’s hard to know. We knew what they did and it’s what we practiced all week, it just wasn’t blocked clean enough. They do a nice job of moving and not staying blocked and mixing in blitzes. It’s exactly what we talked about last Monday and what we said they were going to do and it wasn’t blocked clean enough in my opinion.
What did you think of Sosebee?
I can’t really tell you but it’s good he didn’t have too many mistakes. We are under center, in the shotgun, and he managed that which is part one. We’ll put the tape on and see what it looked like inside.
Was their progress made in the red zone?
No. When we got tight red zone, I wasn’t feeling good about our offense. We did score four out of six times or something like that, but it was tougher sweating than we’d like it. We will keep getting more snaps, keep analyzing, keep strategizing and figure out how to improve that. It’s tough down there, that I know.
When you see Jake bail out of the pocket, what’s happening?
It’s probably a little bit of everything, it’s never one thing. We like a guy to work in the pocket. I saw one time when he got out of there where I wasn’t seeing what he was seeing from the sideline, but we’ll look at it. No one analyzes, critiques and works harder than Jake so we will keep working.
How do you feel about Utah next week?
We think we were in a hostile environment last Saturday, it won’t be comparable. A night game there, I know how that goes. That’s college football, it will be a challenging game. It will be interesting to see next week what we are all about.
What are you seeing from those secondary guys coming off the edge?
They’re hard to block. You obviously have to get there quick when you are bringing guys off the edge and those guys are pretty speedy guys that come very fast. If the quarterback holds it all it usually works out for us, but that’s the kind of cat and mouse game because if he gets it out then those guys are singled up on the edge.
What did you see out of the receivers?
I saw those guys make some tough catches, two weeks in a row, so I think they’re building confidence. We are going against a heck of a secondary next week and they will really be tested and challenged. They’ve made some spectacular catches and I think we are headed in the right direction
Jake Browning
On the home opener:
It’s always nice to play at home. It felt like a lot of energy in the stadium. I’m happy we won, happy we put up 45 points. I though Jake Haener came in and played really well. Not any disrespect to them but we shouldn’t be going three and out three times in a row, at home versus North Dakota. We’re going to play some really good defenses this year and I don’t think we can do that. If we just sit there and pat ourselves on the back because we won this game, then I don’t think we will improve as much. This week of practice will be big for us. We will continue to improve and that starts with me.
On his turnovers:
One of them, I pulled it on the inside, just inaccurate trying to hit Drew (Sample) on the scramble on third down. Went to throw it and just pulled it a little too far inside. On the second one, we throw routes like that all of the time and the guy just sat there. I’m not even really counting that one. We talked about a lot how we like those and I just ripped it, and he just sat there. I think if you’re a corner and you play like that, you’re going to give up a lot of touchdowns. I think that one he got kind of lucky a little bit. Maybe he saw it on film or something. As far as some of these other plays, I think I have to play a lot better.
On what bothers him:
The two turnovers. Feeling like we really didn’t impose our will that much on offense. Then we started to rip off some big runs. I don’t feel like we dominated at any point. I feel like we have a standard of play and we didn’t play to it, I don’t feel like I played to my standard. Obviously happy we won but not happy with how I played personally.
Bush Hamdan
Jimmy Lake
Ty Jones
On big plays:
I’ve gotta give a lot of credit to Haener and Browning. They’re throwing them up there and giving us a chance to catch it.
On slow starts:
Yeah, we’ve got to figure that out mentally, and hopefully we can figure it out before the game next week which is a big one coming up. Starting fast will be an emphasis all week, I can guarantee that.
What difference did not having Nick Harris make?
Not only physically, it changed our aura. He’s a great player and we love having him as much as possible.
Salvon Ahmed
On if less attention was given to this game:
We attack every game the same. We knew we needed to come out and start fast. We came to practice prepared and knew this was a tough team we couldn’t take lightly. We came with more in the second half and finished strong.
On the biggest differences between Auburn and North Dakota:
These guys blitzed a lot, I think that was one of the problems they gave us. It kept us on our toes. I think we adjusted to it well in the second half, and we were able to get things going after that.
On if there was game-plan to get him out in space:
Our coaching staff is always coming up with new stuff, to get guys open, and to get different plays going. This week that was something we put in, and we’ll build off of that going into next week.
On the talk at halftime:
We know what we needed to do, finish strong. We were up on them, but we weren’t playing to our standard, we just had to finish the game strong. That’s what Coach Pete told us and we took it into our hands after that.
Quinten Pounds
On the matchup against Utah:
We’re taking it each week at a time. Definitely ready. It’ll be a good game, a great environment. We just have to take each play at a time, and be locked into the details.
On what he learned about the offense:
We kind of struggled again in the red zone, it’s Week 2, we still have things to clean up, it’s a long season. We have to stay positive about it and keep moving forward.
On Ty Jones’ one-handed catch:
Ty continues to show off how great he is; you guys saw today the big plays he was making. He really can’t be stopped at 6-4, 210. Just absolutely a monster.
