Washington’s offense certainly has the attention of Oregon secondary coach John Neal.
The Ducks last week allowed 651 yards of total Washington State offense. This weekend, they’ll face a Washington team that has started 5-0 this year and averages 45.4 points a game.
Defensive backs coach John Neal spoke with reporters after Tuesday’s practice. Here are some of his answers:
The Huskies have made a big jump from last year to this year. How much of that is John Ross healthy?
I think it’s also that they’ve got themselves a really, really good quarterback. The minute Chris Petersen has a really good quarterback, all the pieces fit. You can see it coming, like a lot of these programs. Colorado. Washington State. Cal. You see the systems in place. Coach has been there a few years and going against the same guys that you’ve been going against for the last couple years.
The key is the quarterback. I think they always had a good running game. They had speed and I think real good receivers. I think adding John Ross and the other kid, No. 6 (Chico McClatcher), they’ve got everything. They have a great offensive line. They have the best offensive line that I’ve seen so far.
Steve Greatwood was very adamant yesterday that the streak isn’t going to end. Does the mindset change at all knowing that you have to have a bounce back game against one of your biggest rivals?
That’s just all talk. We have to practice and play and hopefully we will play at home, the way that we expect to play at home. And play the kind of game that Washington played last week against Stanford. That was a special time for them. It showed.
We have to have that kind of effort here at home to do whatever we’re going to do. I don’t know who’s going to win or lose. Right now, it’s not about that. I don’t talk about that. It’s about getting to the next play and making sure we have the best defense that we can and we know what we’re doing.
What was the biggest thing that stood out to you when you saw some of that Washington-Stanford footage?
Just the execution of Washington’s offense. They’re really sharp. They’re a team that you would always think that they run the ball, but if you look at their stats, they have about 250 yards passing and 250 yards rushing. That’s pretty phenomenal. That’s the essence of being really, really good. So that part, just the execution part, it was crisp and clean and fast. They’re multidimensional. Stanford probably didn’t have the same type of athletes on defense that they’ve had in a long time. You kind of notice that too sometimes.
 
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