[socalstanfan1]

I expect us to win, roughly in the way we have the last few years: a punishing running game, a physical defense, and basically error-free play (not a lot of penalties, no crushing turnovers).  But, a word of caution about how much we can read into the one game at LSU (in which Washington was obviously overmatched):  college football teams can grow a lot through the course of a season.  We saw it with our own team last year, when the OL looked a bit shaky against SJSU, improved against Duke but still had some problems, then really began to come into its own.  Even more dramatically, the Stanford 1999 Rose Bowl team was blown out in Texas, 69-17, then turned around and started crushing people, themselves. 

Mitigating against Washington showing a big improvement is their injury situation, particularly on the OL.  They just keep losing key pieces to their line, and if your OL is overmatched, I think it will be pretty hard to get any of your offense in sync.  They may strike on a big play or two, but I would be surprised if they can sustain a bunch of long drives.

[socalstanfan1]

I expect us to win, roughly in the way we have the last few years: a punishing running game, a physical defense, and basically error-free play (not a lot of penalties, no crushing turnovers).  But, a word of caution about how much we can read into the one game at LSU (in which Washington was obviously overmatched):  college football teams can grow a lot through the course of a season.  We saw it with our own team last year, when the OL looked a bit shaky against SJSU, improved against Duke but still had some problems, then really began to come into its own.  Even more dramatically, the Stanford 1999 Rose Bowl team was blown out in Texas, 69-17, then turned around and started crushing people, themselves. 

Mitigating against Washington showing a big improvement is their injury situation, particularly on the OL.  They just keep losing key pieces to their line, and if your OL is overmatched, I think it will be pretty hard to get any of your offense in sync.  They may strike on a big play or two, but I would be surprised if they can sustain a bunch of long drives.