Bears "ground it" out

Waco, Texas. Running the ball with impunity in the second half, the Baylor Bears outscored the Washington Huskies, 67-56, in the Valero Alamo Bowl.

Who needs a Heisman Trophy winner when you can run the ball for 482 yards?

Who needs a Heisman Trophy winner when you have three running backs gallop for over 100 yards each in the same game?

Just for good measure, Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III (a.k.a. RG3) passed for one touchdown and ran for one more to cap off the Bears' victory. Griffin completed 24 out of 33 passes for 295 yards on the night, posting a passing efficiency rating of 157.82.

But ...

RG3 was upstaged by KP1 (a. k. a., Keith Price), the Washington quarterback, who was paid scant attention to by the ESPN broadcast crew relative to its love affair with RG3. Price completed 23 of 37 passes for 438 yards and 4 touchdowns, while running for 3 more. Price's PE was 197.28 on the game, besting Griffin's, the nation's leader in that category.

To be fair to Griffin, however, he wasn't really needed considering the Huskies' feckless defense against the run, the Bears averaging 9.3 yards per carry on 52 rushing attempts.

Baylor's Terrance Ganaway gained 200 yards on 21 carries and scored five touchdowns. All in all, the Bears scored eight running touchdowns.

The Dawgs had their chances though.

With the Huskies leading 42-31 with 8:48 to go in the third quarter, Kasen Williams returned a punt 46-yards to the Baylor 13. But Chris Polk fumbled the ball away on the next play, and then Ganaway ran 89 yards untouched up the middle on the subsequent play to narrow the lead to 42-39 after the PAT.

"We just needed to tackle," UW defensive end Josh Shirley was quoted as saying. "The biggest thing in this game was tackling. That's something we need to work on for sure next year. We just didn't make the plays when they were presented to us."

Washington couldn't stop the run when it needed to, and that was the bottom line of the game.

Reference Bob Condotta's article for a description of all the records set in the game.

In its 7 wins this season, Washington has held its opponents to 49.6 yards rushing while yielding 342.7 yards through the air. In its 6 losses, UW has given up 307.67 yards on the ground and only 200.17 passing yards.

Table 1. Defensive stats in wins and losses.

Washington's Defense	Rushing yards p/g	Passing yards p/g
Seven winning games	49.6	342.7
Six losing games	307.67	200.17

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What is the quickest way to turn the Washington football program into a top 25 team?

For starters, the Huskies will begin to compete with the big boys, as in the top 25, when defensive coordinator Nick Holt begins to think "SEC front four" -- or, say, a Haloti Ngata -- when out on the recruiting trail and settles for nothing less. See the supporting data for this contention in Table 2 below.

For Price's passing efficiency rating see Table 3.

Table 2. Stop the run and win the game

In its seven victories, Washington (7-6, 5-4 Pac-12) has held its seven opponents to an average of 49.57 yards per game on the ground, which would rank first in the FBS if those seven games were all Washington had played. In its six losses, UW has allowed 307.67 rushing yards per game.  This table seems to say stop the run and win the game.

School	W/L	Rush	UW Rush
Eastern Washington	W	31 yards	148 yards
Hawaii	W	55	151
Nebraska	L	309	146
California	W	108	117
Utah	W	17	185
Colorado	W	62	295
Stanford	L	446	172
Arizona	W	36	179
Oregon	L	212	82
USC	L	252	46
Oregon State	L	145	160
Washington State	W	38	143
Baylor	L	482	182

Table 3. Keith Price's cumulative passing efficiency.

Team	C	A	Y	T	I	PE	C	A	Y	T	I	PE
EWU	17	25	102	3	0	149.87	17	25	102	3	0	149.87
Hawai'i	18	25	315	4	1	222.64	35	50	417	7	1	182.26
Nebraska	21	37	274	4	2	143.83	56	87	691	11	3	165.91
California	19	25	292	3	0	213.71	75	112	983	14	3	176.58
Utah	22	30	226	3	1	162.95	97	142	1209	17	4	173.70
Colorado	21	28	257	4	0	199.24	118	170	1466	21	4	177.91
Stanford	23	36	247	1	1	125.13	141	206	1713	22	5	168.69
Arizona	16	30	277	1	3	121.89	157	236	1990	23	8	162.74
Oregon	24	35	143	2	2	110.32	181	271	2133	25	10	155.97
USC	12	16	125	0	0	140.62	193	287	2258	25	10	155.11
OSU	5	9	76	1	1	140.93	198	296	2334	26	11	154.68
WSU	21	29	291	3	0	190.84	219	325	2625	29	11	157.91
Baylor	23	37	438	4	0	197.28	242	362	3063	33	11	161.93

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Washington	7	28	14	7	56
Baylor	21	3	29	14	67

Time	Team	How	Player (s)	UW	BU
1st qtr
11:14	BU	TD	Kendall Wright 11 yd pass from Robert Griffin (Aaron Jones kick)	0	7
7:26	UW	TD	Keith Price 5 yd run (Erik Folk kick)	7	7
6:03	BU	TD	Jarred Salubi 36 yd run (Aaron Jones kick)	7	14
0:48	BU	TD	Robert Griffin 24 yd run (Aaron Jones kick)	7	21
2nd qtr
11:32	UW	TD	James Johnson 12 yd pass from Keith Price (Erik Folk kick)	14	21
4:52	UW	TD	Devin Aguilar 1 yd pass from Keith Price (Erik Folk kick)	21	21
1:38	UW	TD	Keith Price 15 yd run (Erik Folk kick)	28	21
0:31	UW	TD	Chris Polk 56 yd run (Erik Folk kick)	35	21
0:00	BU	FG	Aaron Jones 42 yd FG	35	24
3rd qtr
14:00	UW	TD	Jermaine Kearse 80 yd pass from Keith Price (Erik Folk kick)	42	24
11:06	BU	TD	Jarred Salubi 7 yd run (Aaron Jones kick)	42	31
8:28	BU	TD	Terrance Ganaway 89 yd run (Jerod Monk 2pt pass from Robert Griffin)	42	39
7:44	UW	TD	Devin Aguilar 13 yd pass from Keith Price (Erik Folk kick)	49	39
6:01	BU	TD	Terrance Ganaway 1 yd run (Aaron Jones kick)	49	46
0:58	BU	TD	Terrance Ganaway 1 yd run (Aaron Jones kick)	49	53
4th qtr
9:40	UW	TD	Keith Price 8 yd run (Erik Folk kick)	56	53
8:15	BU	TD	Terrance Ganaway 4 yd run (Aaron Jones kick)	56	60
2:28	BU	TD	Terrance Ganaway 43 yd run (Aaron Jones kick)	56	67

 

Statistics	UW	BU
Total First Downs	26	33
Rushing	10	18
Passing	15	14
Penalty	1	1
Total Net Yards	620	777
Net Yards Passing	438	295
Net Yards Rushing	182	482
Completions-att-int	23-37-0	24-33-0
Punts, yards, average	2-109; 54.5	2-104; 52.0
Sacks by (number, yards)	4-18	0-0
Kickoff Returns: number, yds, tds	9-188-0	8-183-0
Punt returns: number, yds, tds	2-53-0	1--2-0
Kickoff Yards	9-572	10-620
Net Yards per kickoff	41.0	43.2
Average yards per kickoff	63.6	62.0
Touchbacks (kickoffs)	1	0
Third-down conversions	9 of 16	7 of 14
Interception returns: no., yds, tds	0-0-0	0-0-0
Penalties, no., Yards	1-15	8-58
Fumbles; number/lost	2-2	1-1
Time of Possession	31:50	28:10

Passing	cmp	att	yds	tds	int
Robert Griffin, III 157.82	24	33	295	1	0
Washington
Keith Price; 197.28	23	27	438	4	0
Bears Rushing	No.	Net	TD	Lg	Avg.
Terrance Ganaway	21	200	5	89	9.5
Jarred Salubi	5	101	2	36	20.2
Tevin Reese	2	101	0	78	50.5
Robert Griffin, III	18	55	1	24	3.1
Kendall Wright	4	28	0	10	7.0
Team	2	-3	0	0	-1.5
Washington Rushing	No.	yds	tds	long	avg.
Chris Polk	30	147	1	56	4.9
Jessie Callier	2	-4	0	0	-2
Keith Price	5	39	3	15	7.8
Bears Pass Receiving	No.	yds	tds	long
Kendall Wright	7	91	1	48
T. Williams	6	62	0	14
Tevin Reese	5	66	0	25
Lanear Sampson	3	25	0	9
Levi Norwood	1	23	0	23
Jerod Monk	1	15	0	15
Jarred Salubi	1	13	0	13
Washington Pass Rec.	No.	yds	tds	long
James Johnson	2	36	1	24
Kasen Williams	3	19	0	16
Chris Polk	2	8	0	6
Austin Seferian-Jenkins	5	59	0	17
Jermaine Kearse	5	198	1	80
Devin Aguilar	5	90	2	42
Jessie Callier	1	28	0	28
Punting
BU	No.	yds	avg	long	IN20
Spencer Roth	2	104	52.0	53	0
Washington
Kiel Rasp	2	109	54.5	57	2
Will Mahan
Attendance: 65,256

Richard Linde, aka Malamute can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com