[BostonCard]

Somehow, when we had the ball with 3 minutes and change remaining, I had this horrible premonition that Shaw would turtle, we would kick it back and Washington would win on a last second FG.  Turned out to be a TD and 2-pt. conversion, but the result is the same.  Another L.  Just sad.

Note that we actually tried a pass play on third down.  I had my brother texting me asking why do we didn’t try to run on third and four (answer, because we don’t have a good run game).  But turtle going on third down would have given the ball back to Washington with 2:20, left, not 3 min, and might have forced Washington to pass a few more times.  Who knows, maybe Morris, who has a ton of INts this year tries to squeeze one where it shouldn’t go and we intercept it to seal the game.

Either way, it was really bad clock management by Shaw.  The only time he should have called time out was on a fourth down right before the kicker was to kick.

BC

Yes, but running Austin Jones twice into the pile on the first two downs didn't do much to move the clock, since UW had two TOs in their pocket.  Our problem is a fundamental inability to move the ball (265 yards total offense), but when you need to move the ball downfield to seal the victory and have no run game, and then you decide to run it twice when you know the opponent can stop the clock, then it's almost a decision to hand the ball back with plenty of time, which we did. And Sanborn's miserable punt did not help matters.

I agree that it had been too early to turtle, given that we did not have any semblance of a run game.  We should have just played for a couple of first downs, and not worried about forcing Washington to burn time outs. We needed to run at least six plays to put UW into desperation mode, and the best way to do that would have been to run a pass play on first or second down.  But having forced UW to use both of its time outs, you could make the case that running it one more time would have been smarter than a play that stopped the clock.  I don’t think, however, that was the case.  It was a decent play call, with a pretty good chance to get a first down.  And had we gotten a first down, we could have left UW less than a minute running it into the pile three times.

Like the WSU game, we had a chance to win late and let it slip through our fingers, which is frustrating.  But, I didn’t think we outplayed WSU and didn’t think we outplayed UW, so it is hard to feel too broken up about the losses.

We need a better offensive line, we need our injured wide receivers back, and we need some semblance of a defensive line that doesn’t give up six, seven, eight yards each time the opponent’s running back touches the ball.  It is tough to be optimistic about the rest of the year.  Next year May be better on the offensive side of the ball, but it will be really tough running out young and inexperienced defensive linemen.

BC

[BostonCard]

Somehow, when we had the ball with 3 minutes and change remaining, I had this horrible premonition that Shaw would turtle, we would kick it back and Washington would win on a last second FG.  Turned out to be a TD and 2-pt. conversion, but the result is the same.  Another L.  Just sad.

Note that we actually tried a pass play on third down.  I had my brother texting me asking why do we didn’t try to run on third and four (answer, because we don’t have a good run game).  But turtle going on third down would have given the ball back to Washington with 2:20, left, not 3 min, and might have forced Washington to pass a few more times.  Who knows, maybe Morris, who has a ton of INts this year tries to squeeze one where it shouldn’t go and we intercept it to seal the game.

Either way, it was really bad clock management by Shaw.  The only time he should have called time out was on a fourth down right before the kicker was to kick.

BC

Yes, but running Austin Jones twice into the pile on the first two downs didn't do much to move the clock, since UW had two TOs in their pocket.  Our problem is a fundamental inability to move the ball (265 yards total offense), but when you need to move the ball downfield to seal the victory and have no run game, and then you decide to run it twice when you know the opponent can stop the clock, then it's almost a decision to hand the ball back with plenty of time, which we did. And Sanborn's miserable punt did not help matters.

I agree that it had been too early to turtle, given that we did not have any semblance of a run game.  We should have just played for a couple of first downs, and not worried about forcing Washington to burn time outs. We needed to run at least six plays to put UW into desperation mode, and the best way to do that would have been to run a pass play on first or second down.  But having forced UW to use both of its time outs, you could make the case that running it one more time would have been smarter than a play that stopped the clock.  I don’t think, however, that was the case.  It was a decent play call, with a pretty good chance to get a first down.  And had we gotten a first down, we could have left UW less than a minute running it into the pile three times.

Like the WSU game, we had a chance to win late and let it slip through our fingers, which is frustrating.  But, I didn’t think we outplayed WSU and didn’t think we outplayed UW, so it is hard to feel too broken up about the losses.

We need a better offensive line, we need our injured wide receivers back, and we need some semblance of a defensive line that doesn’t give up six, seven, eight yards each time the opponent’s running back touches the ball.  It is tough to be optimistic about the rest of the year.  Next year May be better on the offensive side of the ball, but it will be really tough running out young and inexperienced defensive linemen.

BC