SEATTLE — When it was finally over Saturday night, when the Oregon offense had finished running wild at Husky Stadium on the way to a 55-34 victory, the best quarterback in the Pac-10 sought out the player many feel will someday hold that title.
Oregon’s Dennis Dixon found Washington’s Jake Locker, a player Dixon sees a little of himself in, and reminded the young quarterback that there would be plenty of good days ahead.
In that meeting, between the athletic, polished senior and the athletic, still-learning redshirt freshman, Husky fans can only hope to find one of the few bright spots in a three-touchdown loss to a bitter rival.
This surely fits squarely into the “Grasping at straws” category — hey, the team is in the midst of a five-game losing streak — but one positive Husky fans should take out of their team’s rather embarrassing performance (on defense anyway) is the hope that some day in the not too distant future, it will be Locker and company making fools out of Pac-10 defenses.
“Exactly,” Dixon said when asked if he saw glimpses of himself and the Ducks offense in Locker and Washington. “I told Jake Locker, man, he doesn’t understand what he brings to a defense. He brings a scare to a defense. As he grows into this offense he is going to be one heck of a player.”
Like Locker, Dixon has had his struggles passing the ball. He came into this season having thrown 18 career touchdowns and 17 interceptions, but a few seasons of maturing and mastering Oregon’s spread option has turned Dixon into one of the country’s most dangerous dual-threat quarterbacks. Dixon entered this weekend leading the Pac-10 in passing efficiency, completing over 70 percent of his passes while throwing only two interceptions. He was intercepted once Saturday, but on an end-of-the-half desperation heave that didn’t hurt his team.
After watching the Ducks put on an offensive clinic to the tune of 661 yards of offense, and a school-record 465 rushing yards, the Huskies can only hope that someday they’re the ones running up and down the field, going around and through baffled opponents.
On at least three occasions — and I’m probably forgetting others — fans cheered as a Washington defensive lineman or linebacker tackled running back Jonathan Stewart for a loss or short gain, only to realize Stewart was on the turf sans football while Dixon or Andre Crenshaw was running untouched the other direction.
“They did a great job of keeping us off-balance,” said Washington coach Tyrone Willingham. “When you think you have one covered up, the other one was popping out. The quarterback did an excellent job of executing their read option, their run option and put a lot of pressure on us.”
To be fair, Locker and the Washington offense were about as good as they’ve been all year. Thirty four points and 421 yards of offense are hardly embarrassing numbers. But Saturday served as a reminder that, in the Pac-10, 34 points won’t cut it every week.
When the offensive onslaught was finally over, Huskies defensive coordinator Kent Baer said of Oregon, “I don’t think there’s a better offense in the country right now. I really don’t.”
Then again, after watching his defense give up 39 first downs, and 465 rushing yards, Baer had better hope that’s the best offense in the country.
Husky fans watching Dixon carry out play fakes like a magician, and watching Oregon ball carriers rip off huge chunks of yardage all night can take a tiny bit of solace in knowing that could be Locker and the Huskies somewhere down the road.
“He’s a tremendous athlete and weapon,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said of Locker. “He’ll be a force to deal with in the future.”
Right now, the Huskies and Ducks share similarities on offense, but also do plenty of things differently. Oregon has gone to a strictly spread-option offense, while the Huskies still use multiple offenses, moving Locker under center from the shotgun a number of times.
Bellotti said the Ducks experimented using multiple offenses while transitioning to the spread, but eventually found that focusing on one offense would get better results. And while Washington’s offense looked good yesterday, it’s hard to argue with Oregon’s philosophy of doing one thing and doing it well. Really well.
Whether the Huskies stick to what they’re doing, or move to a more spread-centric offense, there is no doubt that Locker and the Huskies can be good. Maybe if they’re lucky, they’ll even be Oregon 2007 good.
After seeing first-hand flashes of Locker’s brilliance, and spending countless hours of practice going against Dixon, Oregon cornerback Jairus Byrd — who intercepted Locker in the third quarter — felt compelled to find Locker after the game.
“I went up to him and said, ‘You’re gonna be a heck of a player,’” Byrd said. “A lot of the mistakes came just trying to force it, but once he gets a little more comfortable in the system, I think he’ll be real good.”
So good, the Huskies hope, that the next great offensive performance at Husky Stadium comes from the team in purple.
“Who doesn’t want to put up 600 yards of offense?” Locker said. “That’s obviously something that everybody wants to do.”
Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com/huskiesblog
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