During Oregon’s bye last week, junior linebacker Spencer Paysinger, junior cornerback Brian Butterfield and a few other players went up to Seattle for the Jay-Z concert. It was a good opportunity for the athletes to forget about football for a while and relax.
But Paysinger wasn’t allowed too much time to completely forget — he was wearing an Oregon sweatshirt that drew a few looks and comments from Husky fans.
Paysinger should have expected a few verbal jabs to come his way, but this week it will be more than just taunts from the Husky Stadium crowd who he will face. The Duck defense will play a completely different Washington team than the one that went 0-12 last year, led by first-year head coach Steve Sarkisian.
“Last year they were a lot of freshmen,” Paysinger said. “This year they’re just better football players and play with more passion. You can tell from any of their games that it comes down to the fourth quarter. They haven’t been blown out. They beat USC up there. Their record really doesn’t reflect how good they are.”
Washington (3-4 overall, 2-2 Pacific-10 Conference) leads the overall rivalry against Oregon 58-38, but the No. 12 Ducks (5-1, 3-0) have been the victors of late, winning the last five contests by an average of 24.8 points.
But Husky quarterback Jake Locker might have something to say about that. The dual-threat quarterback holds the Husky single-season rushing record for a quarterback with 986 yards, and the Ducks aren’t taking him lightly.
“He’s probably the best overall athlete we’ll play this year, besides someone like Jahvid Best,” Paysinger said. “The ball is going to be in his hands every, play and we have to key to that. He runs a 4.4 or 4.3 40-yard dash and he can pass the ball 70 yards off the back of his foot.”
Senior defensive back T.J. Ward said the key is to just make sure Locker isn’t comfortable in the pocket.
“For us, it’s just important that we are keeping heat on him and not letting sit back there and be comfortable,” Ward said, “(making) him look around and know that someone is going to be on him every time he turns around.”
The Husky defense has also improved during the past year and has been tested this season by the nation’s sixth-toughest schedule. The defensive focus had a major pay-off for Sarkisian and Washington when the team beat then-No.3 USC on Sept. 19.
“They play very fast,” senior tight end Ed Dickson said of the Huskies. “They fly to the ball and their defensive line and linebackers are pretty decent.”
But Dickson and the Ducks see some weaknesses, particularly in the pass defense. With five seconds left in last week’s game against Arizona State, the Husky secondary broke down and a wide-open Chris McGaha caught a 50-yard Danny Sullivan pass to score and beat the Huskies 24-17. That conclusion left a bitter taste in Husky mouths, including defensive coordinator Nick Holt’s.
“There are mistakes and they’re not perfect,” Dickson said. “There are weaknesses in the secondary and we’re going to attack them. I’m expecting them to be on point and ready for us, but we can attack them in their secondary and if we keep going deep, one of them is going to break because they’re not sound.”
Junior quarterback Nate Costa also has seen some things that weren’t there a few weeks ago. He said football players play hard every game, but he just didn’t see that fire in the Arizona State game.
“If you watched the game against USC, that was probably the best game that they played because of USC’s talent level,” Costa said. “I don’t know, I just didn’t see the intensity level (against ASU) that I saw against USC. Maybe it was the fact that they weren’t as motivated — it was at Arizona State.”
But there shouldn’t be any underestimation between Washington and Oregon this weekend. There’s a lot of history between the two teams.
“This is a new era in the rivalry,” junior quarterback Jeremiah Masoli said. “Maybe this game will set it off and we can make some history this Saturday.”
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No. 12 Ducks to face much-improved rivals in Seattle
Daily Emerald
October 22, 2009
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