A couple of early stats from Pro Football Focus for your viewing pleasure:
Kirby may not be as sick as Matt Hayes’ anonymous friend thinks he is.
Whoa, baby. And Cleveland wasn’t even the starter in either game.
I know I’m repeating myself, but Sam Pittman is a wizard.
Get The Picture 
I wonder if Matt Hayes will do a follow-up piece about how average Eason was against the mighty Cal Berkeley Bears. I guess stats are easier to pad when you’re playing a directional school.
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Don’t blame Eason blame the receivers. He had the ball there where it should be and the did not catch that was was the Seattle paper.
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Washington has ZERO receivers that can catch. Game is on YouTube. Watch the 1st quarter. Eason played well. Receivers? Ugggh
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It is truly remarkable to have this many quality OL players, and Pittman is doing a great job of cross training them so the cupboard almost always will have something on the shelf when needed. And they are athletic/mobile.
That said, the early number of sacks/pressures allowed, and lack of a push on short yardage plays against two average, or below, defensive units is troubling. When we get to the meat of the schedule and into post season we need to have this tightened up. A few busted plays at critical times can be the difference. Our defense (while pretty good) doesn’t look to be “shut down” quality to me when playing the explosive offenses I see around the country. In games against the high flyers, the OL has to be our point of difference. If they are “the best”, we should be fine; think we are a little short of that. Small sample, I know, and yes, this is a 1st world level problem relatively speaking.
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Shoot, Mac, I’m not sure how many shut down defenses are out there right now.
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Should the O get a comfortable lead on the score board (17-24 pts) this D will be shut down quality….(7-12 pt) lead,we’ll be in a dog fight….we will prevail in the end
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One average or below average defensive unit. Everything you described only happened against Vandy. They missed an assignment in the first quarter and allowed a sack against Murray. That’s it. They were 8/10 on third down, and there wasn’t any lack of push in short yardage.
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I’ve gotten over the short-yardage issue as far as blaming the line. I think we have to run more perimeter/iso type plays out of more spread out sets and not be afraid to execute a cheap throw if they’re not gonna play it honestly.
Few teams have the ability to line up pure, no gimmicks, no counters, we’re-running-here and not struggle for the real estate. Mainly because all the defense has to do is get the lowest form of a tie to stop the play. Put the ball near the goal line where pass coverage is less of a concern and the lead defender at the point of attack can basically “win” the play for his team by going to the ground (anything but being driven back or sideways).
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I’m interested to see how Fields does against the Wisconsin defense in late October. That’s probably going to be the only challenging defense he’s going to face all year in the regular season IMO
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Next official title for Coach Pittman will be “Grand Poobah”
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