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Ty fuses some bullets
After the Oregon loss two weeks ago, head coach Tyrone Willingham said his team needed more bullets to compete effectively in the Pac-10 conference. Two weeks later, he found some bullets in the form of Louis Rankin, Jake Locker and an offense that ran off 95 plays; all of Willingham's firepower was enough to shoot Stanford down, 27-9, at the farm in Palo Alto. The 6-game losing streak has ended, a bowl game is still possible, internet rioters have been tasered, at least two hot seats are cooling off, and Ty and Kent Baer have time to mend the holes in the seats of their pants. Meanwhile, Ty fused 2 bullets together, packing the energy of a small hydrogen bomb. Rankin scorched the farm and Locker furrowed one his sidekick's tacklers on a spectacular play, putting the pampered Tom Brady to shame. Rankin and Locker, a synergistic twosome, combined for 352 yards on the ground, with Rankin posting 255 yards and one touchdown, the best performance by a U-Dub running back since Corey Dillion ran for 259 yards against Oregon in 1996. It was the fourth highest rushing yards total in school history. The Huskies' leading per game rusher, Hugh McElhenny, posted 296 yards against Washington State College in 1950. On a long running play, the synergistic duo worked in tandem. After Locker handed the ball off to his side kick, Rankin turned the corner on the right side of the line of scrimmage, with Locker following him all the way. Locker bulled a would-be-tackler 10 yards down field as he matched the fleet-footed Rankin stride for stride. Finally, Rankin was shoved out of bounds. Rankin also threw some key blocks as he protected Locker in the pocket. They have to be the most synergistic duo in UW history when their games are on. I can't see the overly protected, both on and off the field, the much ballyhooed Tom Brady running stride for stride with a swift running back and throwing a block for him. Announcers get carried away with their élan in describing Brady's performance. Unfortunately, they get paid to do that, along with insulting our intelligence. Speaking of the BCS...Don't get me started on that one. In running off 95 offensive plays, the Husky offense gave its defense some unfamiliar rest during the game, which energized its performance as it held the Tree to just 253 total yards. Washington (3-6, 1-5 Pac-10) won time-of- possession 35:46 to 23:14. The defense also added six sacks. In its preceding two encounters, in games against Arizona and Oregon, UW gave up bushels of numbers, like in 1,199 yards and 103 points. Although QB Willy Tuitama of Arizona blistered UW for 511 yards and 5 touchdowns, he also helped dispatch UCLA on Saturday, passing for 341 yards and 3 touchdowns. The bleeding has stopped momentarily. Baer is sure to hibernate and make up for lack of sleep last week. At Willingham' s side the last 13 years, Baer, 56, has not become incompetent overnight; instead, his defense has had the misfortune to run into two excellent quarterbacks in the last two weeks, Dennis Dixon and Tuitama, along with one of the best running backs in the nation, Jonathan Stewart. As a conference, the collective offenses in the Pac-10 are the best in the nation, and it doesn't help the defense when your own offense runs out of gas in the second half, as UW's seemingly has for much of the season. UW has lost time-of-possession in 6 of its 9 games. An offense that suddenly goes wonky with three-and-outs at key points in a game bears some of the responsibility for the defense's ineptness and its time on the field. Also, UW's 5 turnovers played a key role in the loss to the Wildcats last week. Throw them out and no one would have turned up the heat on the seat of Baer's pants last week.
Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at
malamute@4malamute.com |
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