Tag Archives: bothell high football

News, Sports

Smart QBing Helps Huskies and Seahawks to Easy Wins. Now Comes the Gauntlet

Seattle Football WeekendBoth the Huskies and the Seahawks are where we thought they’d be on September 17th–the Huskies at 2-1, and the Seahawks at 1-1. Our two favorite teams won their games by a combined 59 points this weekend, the Huskies winning 52-13 over lower-division Portland State the Seahawks 27-7 over the favored Dallas Cowboys. During the Husky game, I felt so carefree I went to the Mobile Food Rodeo in the third quarter. Happily chomping on food truck falafel will soon be replaced by nervously biting my nails, though, as the teams both enter the toughest parts of their respective schedules.

Intelligent quarterback play spearheaded the two wins. The Huskies’ Keith Price wisely targeted the two Husky receivers who were impossible for lower-division Portland State to cover–6’6″, 260 lb. tight end Austin Sefarian-Jenkins, and 6’2″ former state track champion Kasen Williams. Of Price’s 14 completions, 11 went to either Sefarian-Jenkins or Williams. The poor Portland State Vikings tasked with defending them simply had no chance. On the bright side, someday, when Sefarian-Jenkins and Williams are in the NFL, they’ll be able to point to the TV and say, “Hey, that guy jumped over me and caught a touchdown pass!” With the Huskies’ defense and special teams getting big plays, Price knew not to make risky throws that might give the Vikings hope, and didn’t throw an interception.

The Seahawks’ Russell Wilson played a similarly efficient game. Like Price, he threw only 5 incompletions and 0 interceptions. Playmaking wide receiver Golden Tate’s return seemed to give the Seahawks offense a spark, as Tate had 3 catches for 38 yards–two for key third-down conversions on touchdown drives. Tate’s crackback block of Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee sprung Wilson for a key first-down run, energized the crowd, and put Lee out for the rest of the game. Meanwhile, Seahawks defenders were dishing out hits of their own. The Cowboys offense was moving in the first half, but whenever a completion was made, the receiver took a huge hit. By the second half, Cowboy receivers were suddenly dropping catchable balls. Until a late drive with the game well out of reach padded their numbers, the Cowboys offensive output in the second half was 3 drives for 35 yards, which all ended in punts.

Now the scary part: What’s next. The Huskies next four games are against ranked opponents–#9 Stanford a week from Thursday, then consecutive Saturdays at #3 Oregon, home to #13 USC, and at #22 Arizona. Washington will likely be two-touchdown underdogs in all four games. If you’re an optimist, maybe you think that this stretch gives Washington a chance to prove that they belong in the top 25. As for me, I don’t think they’re quite ready for this, especially will all the injuries at offensive line.

The Seahawks’ schedule isn’t quite as daunting, but it’s possible that they’ll be underdogs in each of their next six games. The early line on next Monday night’s game at CenturyLink Field vs. Green Bay has the Seahawks as 6-point underdogs. After that, it’s these five teams:

@ St. Louis — QB Sam Bradford is the 4th highest-rated passer in the NFL after two games.
@ Carolina — Cam Newton outdueled Drew Brees yesterday.
vs. New England — Is New England.
@ San Francisco — Seem even better than last year.
@ Detroit — Playoff team from last year.

The Seahawks used to be able to count on their substandard NFC West competition providing some easy games during divisional play, but our long-derided division seems to be on the upswing. Sunday, the NFC West had a 4-0 record for just the second time since divisional realignment in 2002. There will be no 7-win divisional championship this season, the Seahawks will need strong, consistent play to even sniff a playoff berth. That will start with winning at least three of these next six games.

In other weekend football: Wazzu looked shaky in a narrow win over UNLV Friday night. Quarterback Connor Halliday, filling in for the injured Jeff Tuel, threw some nice deep balls but also threw 2 interceptions. The Cougars would now seem to have a dreaded “quarterback controversy” on their hands. Whoever Mike Leach chooses to play quarterback, Wazzu should go to 3-1 Saturday, they host Colorado, which lost 69-14 Fresno State on Saturday and may be the worst team in Division I. The Cougars are 18.5-point favorites.

Insane game down South on Friday night, as Kentlake beat Puyallup 76-55. Kentlake’s QB, Steffin Church, threw 9 TD passes. The Issaquah-O’Dea game at West Seattle Stadium turned out to be pretty entertaining, with Issaquah winning 33-30. Bothell, ranked #5 in 4A at the start of the year, is 0-3 after losing 27-11 to 2A Capital Friday night. All three of Bothell’s non-league opponents were ranked in the top 5.

News, Sports

Same Ol’ Same Ol’ for Huskies and Seahawks

Football WeekendThe Huskies learned Saturday where they are in their climb back up the mountain of college football eliteness–still looking for their shoes at base camp. #3-ranked Louisiana State laid some Christian Grey-style domination on the Huskies, winning 41-3.

I missed the chance to make some easy money at Auto Battery, where I was watching among an overflow crowd of University of Georgia alumni there for the UGA/Mizzou game. Halfway through the second quarter, watching LSU make UW QB Keith Price run for his life, I mentioned to my friend that the game was “over.” Some Georgia guy sitting near us was all, “It’s only the second quarter,” and I stupidly tried to explain my position instead of just giving him 1,000-to-1 odds on a Husky comeback and telling him to put his money where his mouth was.

LSU’s plethora of huge, fast, defensive linemen owned the game. Their four-man line was able to pressure Price without blitzing–which meant that Price had to find open receivers, on the run, against seven LSU defenders. It was hopeless. A quarterback with a hero complex would have forced throws down the field and thrown multiple interceptions; Price wisely either dumped the ball to his outlet receivers or threw the ball away. The Huskies had more punts (8) than they did catches by wide receivers (7).

The oddest thing to me was reading Steve Sarkisian starting his post-game assessment of LSU by praising LSU’s offense. Not that the Tigers don’t deserve the praise, but their 437 yards of total offense was largely a function of how often they had the ball. The Tigers averaged 6.2 yards per play, which is very, very good, but San Diego State had 5.5 yards per play against the Huskies two Saturdays ago.

Sarkisian still seems to see the game through an offense-only lens, and if he’s going to turn Washington into a power again, he needs to apply his football and recruiting acumen to the subject of defense. Like legendary Husky coach Don James, Sarkisian is a former college quarterback. Unlike Don James, Sarkisian has not yet figured out that, as a football coach, he’ll be remembered for defense or he won’t be remembered at all.

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Solid Play from Wilson Highlights Seahawks’ Persistent Weaknesses
Russell Wilson had a solid but not spectacular start for the Seahawks in Week 1, and led a last-minute drive that had the Seahawks a sticky fingertip away from a victory. After four consecutive passes from inside the 10-yard-line in the game’s final minute fell incomplete, the Seahawks were left with a 20-16 loss that looked a lot like last year’s losses. To wit: The Seahawks couldn’t protect their quarterback and couldn’t get consistent pressure on the opponent’s quarterback.

One note on Wilson’s start–the NFL’s QB rating system gives him an awful 62.4 score (100 is considered a good game), but that system doesn’t take QB rushing yards into account (Wilson had 20), and it dings Wilson for a meaningless interception at the end of the first half. Wilson played well, giving his receivers multiple chances to win the game for the Seahawks. He may not, as Bill Simmons of ESPN contends, be the best quarterback in the NFL, but I’m looking forward to more.

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Aberdeen/Hoquiam #InternetFail
The 107th Aberdeen vs. Hoquiam football game was chosen for an Internet broadcast as part of the Great American Rivalry Series, so of course the game was a complete blowout, with Hoquiam winning 49-6…Skyline High did the state prouder, going to Salt Lake City and crushing one of Utah’s top teams in a game that was televised on ESPNU…Bellevue vs. Bothell was supposed to be a good game, but it was a complete mismatch, with Bellevue up 35-0 at half. Bellevue–which has added a spread attack to its already potent wing-T offense–is ranked as high as #5 in the nation. It’ll be cool to see how high they can rise.