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Pres from REV leaves Cats caterwauling Husky Stadium, Seattle. Behind Chris Polk's 5 touchdowns and 244 total yards, the Washington Huskies subdued the Arizona Wildcats, 42-31, on a homecoming/blackout night in front of 59,825 fans. Polk, out of the Inland Empire (Redlands East Valley), set a school record of 18 career 100-yard rushing games, surpassing Napoleon Kaufman's 17 games. It's the third consecutive season he's rushed for more than 1,000 yards, posting 1,016 yards with 4 games left in the season. He became the first Husky to gain 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in the same game. The Pres from REV, with an IE tattooed on his right arm, was chief cook and bottle washer for most of the night and cleaned up the joint after the crowd, mostly dressed in black, left the stadium. President James Polk gave the nation most of its southwest, including Arizona. Chris Polk (the Pres, as we call him) almost defeated Arizona single handedly. He rushed for 144 yards on 34 attempts and caught 4 passes for 100 yards. "I don't know if any other player in our program now for the last two and half years has had more of an impact ... (on our) program," coach Steve Sarkisian was quoted as saying. With its sixth win of the season, Washington (6-2, 4-1 Pac-12) has become bowl eligible for a second straight season, and Sark is now 18-15 since taking over a team that had gone 0-12 in 2008. Although the Washington defense gave up 388 yards through the air, defensive coordinator Nick Holt's much maligned unit held Arizona to 36 yards rushing, intercepted 3 passes, recovered 1 fumble and sacked Arizona quarterback Nick Foles twice. (See Table 1 below for a significant defensive stat and its correlation with the Huskies' six victories and two losses this season.) It was a seesaw game for most of the night, with Arizona jumping off to a 10-0 lead. What had been a feckless Washington offense in the first quarter caught fire in the second quarter, to take a 14-13 lead into the half. It looked like the Dawgs were going to put the game on ice in the third quarter, but the Wildcats threw some hot water on their plans. With the Huskies holding a 21-13 lead and in possession of the ball on the Cats' 25 (with a first-and-10), the game took a gut-wrenching turn to the south for the Dawgs when QB Keith Price threw a pass to James Johnson -- whoops, who bobbled the ball. SS Robert Golden snatched the ball out of the air and following his blocking, ran -- seemingly helter-skelter -- from one side of the field to the other, finally crossing the goal line totally exhausted to score on a 91-yard pick six. A two-point conversion knotted the game at 21-all, with 10:40 to go in the third quarter. Going into the fourth quarter, the game tied at 28-all, kicker John Bonano's 24-yard field goal gave Arizona a 31-28 lead at the 14:10 mark. Polk posted the final two scores of the blackout night on touchdown runs from 5 and 2 yards out, and the caterwauling began. Table 1. In its six victories, Washington has held its six opponents to an average of 51.5 yards per game on the ground, which would rank second in the FBS if those six games were all of the games Washington had played. In its two losses, UW has allowed 377.5 yards per game. In its eight games, UW ranks 47th in the FBS in rushing defense (4th in the Pac-12), yielding 133 yards per game.
Table 2. Keith Price's cumulative passing efficiency.
Richard Linde, aka Malamute can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com |
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