How did Washington beat USC two weeks ago? The question of the week for IFPers, I would think…
Well, not to take anything away from what, in many ways, was a program-changing win, but USC beat themselves as much as Washington beat them two weeks ago. The Trojans got next to nothing out of backup QB Aaron Corp in that game (starter Barkley was sidelined with a bum shoulder from the Ohio State game), they were 0-10 on 3rd downs, and had 8 penalties tossed on top of that. USC was up 10-0 early but began piling up the mistakes, sloppy play, etc.
We think Washington showed more of their true colors last week at Stanford. They are a team that really struggles to stop the run, and were gashed for 322 yards on the ground against the Cardinal (Stanford TB Toby Gehart, alone, had 200 yards rushing and a TD). Washington allowed Stanford’s Chris Owusu to take the opening kickoff to the house and it was all downhill from there. The Huskies did not score in the 2nd half and hyped QB Jack Locker, who led the Huskies on the game winning drive vs. USC the prior week, was a less-than-sparkling 16-31 for 190 yards and three turnovers vs. Stanford.
In the first meeting between Notre Dame and Washington without Tyrone Willingham on one of the sidelines since 2001, IFP sees another high scoring, track meet-like affair. The defenses are similar, per the numbers anyway, and while Washington’s offense is OK and seems to be improving under Sarkisian, and Locker is starting to finally live up to the hype and will probably be a Mel Kiper “Big Board” darling next April, Notre Dame’s offense is better right now, even with all the walking wounded. If the Irish were totally healthy, I think the story would be similar to the last three ND-UW blowouts. Probably closer this time around, but IFP sees the gold hats taking care of business at home this weekend, with a bye on deck.
Notre Dame 38 – Washington 27.
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