SEATTLE — Stoic and a bit self-amused at his purposely standardized answers, Washington defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox made it simple.
“We just didn’t play well,” he said.
The 52 points the UW football team allowed Arizona last year in Tucson were just four fewer than South Carolina State gave up to the Wildcats. Arizona was one of two schools to drop 52 points on the Huskies’ much-improved defense last year. The other was Oregon, which led the nation in points scored.
“We didn’t cover well, we didn’t tackle well, we missed run fits,” Wilcox said. “We missed some matchups in the pass game. It was just overall a really poor effort on our part.”
That predictably sunny day in Arizona was one filled with gloom for Washington. The loss dropped the Huskies to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Pac-12 play.
The most damning result, however, was not numeric. While getting blasted in the desert, the Huskies effort fell off. They hung their heads. It was their third consecutive loss and the 2012 season’s low point.
“It was really the one time we didn’t seem as competitive as we usually were,” Wilcox said. “We had a good week of practice, usually you kind of feel those things during the week, but we didn’t. We practiced well and practiced hard. We just didn’t execute well.
“Everybody’s got to do a better job.”
That defeat was part of the inspiration for Washington moving to a no-huddle offense this season. The Huskies gave up 104 points to the up-tempo offenses of Oregon and Arizona in a span of three weeks.
“We fell apart,” linebacker John Timu said.
Timu will be back Saturday after missing the second half of the game against Illinois on Sept. 15 and all of last week’s game against Idaho State because of a bruised rotator cuff.
He said the injury happened in the first quarter against Illinois, but he’s not sure when. His right shoulder began to go numb. Eventually, he couldn’t lift his arm over his head. Timu said Tuesday that if last week had been a title game, he may have been able to play.
“Maybe,” he said. “Would I have been productive? Probably not.”
The Huskies say two things are different for this year’s meeting with Arizona: leadership and their familiarity with up-tempo offenses.
Daily practice against a fast-paced offense has helped. Growing up a bit has been beneficial, too.
“Last year was lack of leadership,” Timu, a junior, said. “It was hard to get those guys going after we were down by so much. It was hard for guys being so young, who were called on to be leaders, to uplift those guys.
“It’s a whole different story now. We’re more experienced and we’re not going to allow that to happen.”
Safety Sean Parker, a fellow captain, echoed Timu’s thoughts.
“Last year, we were more working on being together as a team,” Parker said. “We still had some character issues to deal with, including myself. The thing about this year, we came together.”
The Wildcats will try once again to pull them apart Saturday.
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