What We Learned: Apple Cup

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It was a frustrating effort by the Dawgs as they were far from perfect in a week one Apple Cup. Nevertheless, they persisted through adversity (oftentimes adversity of their own making), to pick up a 24-10 win over the Cougs in the 118th Apple Cup. Let’s get into what we learned!

Thrown Headsets And Snooze Buttons

I was in a pit of despair throughout most of this game, and I think the main reason for that was the lack of execution by the offense. They’ll do this for stretches, and then most of the time right the ship (I think the Colorado State game last year was a good example of that). With that in mind, I can excuse a bit of a slow start. But one slow quarter turned into two, which snowballed into three. It took a 6/6, 115 yard performance in the fourth quarter to get Demond and the offense going, but before then, it was not a fun watch if you like explosive offense. I think that boils down to 2 things. First, it felt like the line couldn’t get any push up front. With new starters (Kodi Greene and Champ Taulealea), it’s kind of excusable. But for Mills and Azzopardi, there’s expectation, there’s preseason accolades, there’s experience. You can’t be getting pushed around like that! Especially not on the goal line, that’s when the unit as a whole has to buck up and bear down! To his credit, Fisch was frustrated, throwing his headset after the Cougs got the 4th down stop, and stating in his halftime interview, “if you can’t get one yard on the goal line, you don’t deserve the points”. Secondly, the play-calling left a lot to be desired. I get it, when the offense can’t get out of its own way, a lot of times you go back to basics, which is why we saw a lot of screens but those looked labored, and didn’t get a whole lot of yards. Some decisions Williams made were also baffling, but that’s easy for me to say as I’m an armchair quarterback. It seemed like Fisch and Demond were trying to show to the fans that he had taken that leap and it felt forced. Williams wasn’t taking the easy stuff as often as I would’ve liked, instead hunting for the backbreaker way too often! Even when the big play was there, Williams threw it behind Rashid Williams! I like big plays as much as the next guy, but even I know that sometimes the medium plays can set up the big shots! The good news, such as it is, is that this is only week 1, and there’s ample time to get it cleaned up. Let’s hope this lights a fire under the Dawgs offense and Utah State and Eastern feel the full brunt of this attack that was hyped up in the preseason!

Laundry on the Field

The other frustrating thing is all the penalties. Twelve flags for 130 yards is absolutely inexcusable, untenable and unsustainable for Big Ten play. Champ Taulealea committed 2 holding penalties on the Huskies’ second drive, pushing them out of the red zone when combined with a Demond Williams delay of game. That led to a 48 yard field goal which got the Dawgs on the board, but sometimes the breaks don’t bounce your way. Plus there was other stupid stuff, the Ramzak Fruen late hit, the Lawson taunt near the end of the game. Fruen’s infraction is less excusable because that’s a basic football play that he should know, even if he is a Freshman. And RDA.

Dude.

1 or 2 penalties I can understand, even if I would be a tiny bit frustrated. But 4? Four?

Including a targeting? That could’ve swung the game if the Cougs could even muster a hint of explosiveness? You might need to hand in the Batman moniker. You were no Caped Crusader this week! You were playing like the vigilantes cosplaying as Batman in the beginning sequence of The Dark Knight!

That kind of lack of discipline is part of wanting to be aggressive, I get that. But there’s a cost-benefit analysis that has to happen if you’re the coaching staff. “How many mistakes am I willing to put up with before making wholesale changes”? Plus it’s Year 3 of the Fisch era, how is this still an issue? Penalties, coupled with a laboring offense, made this game feel like it was about 6 hours long. Normally when I get frustrated at the Dawgs, I yell (something my Grandma can attest to, as I watched the Apple Cup with her 2 years ago, hi Grandma!). Not this time, I yelled a little bit, but I was mostly quiet in my frustration, watching in agony as the seconds slowly ticked away. As with the offensive execution, the penalties are something that will also need to be cleaned up. You can have the ‘16 Dawgs on defense, but if you have an undisciplined team, winning games will be that much harder!

Prodigious Pups

We close with a good thing. I know I chastised Fruen earlier but he was part of a defensive unit that was able to build on the momentum of a standout performance in the LA Bowl. His 3 tackles, with a pass deflected is a solid foundation for the young guy to build around. DCB was another in that defensive line unit that gave the Cougs fits, with 3 tackles and a pass deflected, looking like a grown man at 6’5” and 295 pounds. Jeron Jones picked off Pinnick off the deflection by DCB to set up a touchdown drive, and also tacked on 2 tackles of his own. Other than that, the veterans did what they do. Alex McLaughlin sealed the game with his 3rd pick in 2 Apple Cups, Jacob Manu played angry, tallying 11 tackles and 1 sack and Emmanuel Karnley had 5 tackles and a pass deflection in his Husky debut. There are very good reasons to be excited about the defense, and if it continues to be this good, at the very least, it’ll keep us in games! But, I need to see marked improvement both in offensive execution and discipline to definitively declare that this team is a contender. A win is a win is a win, but sometimes it makes your stomach churn. These next 3 weeks will tell us who we are, and what kind of team we want to be. I need to see a lot more to say that we’re better than last year.

Extra Things

• We finally have ourselves a punter, as Hunter Green announced his presence in his Husky debut, averaging 50.8 yards per punt, racking up 203 yards total.
• Coach Fisch said at his press conference that running backs Quaid Carr and Jayden Limar will miss extended time after suffering injuries. That depth is now even more of a concern than it was previously!

We have Utah State at home on Saturday afternoon! Go Dawgs, and let’s go 1-0 again next week!

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