The Washington Huskies open up conference play when they welcome the Northwestern Wildcats to Montlake for a 4:00 kickoff.
Both teams come in at 2-1 on the season with major question marks headed into the Big 10 play. The Huskies are coming off an embarrassing loss where unforced errors led to a loss to the Washington State Cougars in the Apple Cup.
Northwestern has already made a change at quarterback after transfer quarterback Mike Wright failed to throw a touchdown pass in his first two starts. Sophomore Jack Lausch completed 64 percent of his passes against Eastern Illinois for 227 and 2 touchdowns to go along with 62 yards on the ground.
Washington needs to fix the unforced errors that have plagued this offensive line. At least three of the false starts can be blamed on the centers alone. Many offensive players started out of their breaks as both Landen Hatchett and D’Angelo Titialii had yet to snap the ball.
The offensive line was also confused on a couple stunts and loops thrown at them by the Cougar defensive front. One play led to a free runner at Will Rogers when WSU looped to the outside and Gaard Memmelaar was unable to disengage his double team quick enough to get to the defender.
In his press conference Jedd Fisch said that this was their best week of practice, but had the caveat that it doesn’t directly correlate to a clean game on Saturday.
The X-Factor for this game is the five guys up front. The teaching tape and specific issues that will be seen in the film room this week are mistakes that have simple fixes. Communication on the lines, recognizing exotic defensive looks, and snap timing are pieces of the offense that can be worked on through reps.
The fact that these issues resulted in the first loss of the year gives more weight to the adjustments that the offensive coaching staff makes during game-week install.
If the offensive line can make steps to clean up the execution the Huskies will win by two scores. If the same issues plague the line this game will be a punt-fest where Husky fans will pray for Grady Gross to have enough opportunities to put another tally in the win column.
