By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Conventional thinking is that, for No. 16 Washington to defeat No. 9 Washington State Saturday, the Huskies have to harass Cougs quarterback Jason Gesser – statistically, the top passer in the Pacific-10 Conference.
But first, they have to get to him.
And the Huskies haven’t been able to get to anyone lately.
“We have to shock them,” UW outside linebacker Kai Ellis said.
It may be a shock to most everybody should Washington muster enough pass rush to hurry Gesser. The Huskies have 18 sacks this season, eighth in the Pac-10 and 16 fewer than they had last season. Outside of two penalties for roughing the passer, Washington hasn’t touched the quarterback in the last two games. Zero sacks.
“We’d love to get pressure on the quarterback,” UW coach Rick Neuheisel said. “There’s one of two ways. You beat somebody at the point of attack and get upfield to make a play, or you blitz. In blitzing, you’re exposing yourself in man-to-man coverage. Then you have to cover. We’ll try a little of all of it.”
Something has to work better than it has. Against Oregon State Saturday, the Beavers were well prepared for Washington’s linebackers and/or safeties rushing in to blitz, both in their schemes and in their play-calling.
Linemen and blocking backs picked up the Husky blitz packages, allowing quarterback Jonathan Smith to get off his passes unimpeded and with electrifying results.
That’s what happened, for example, when Smith found tailback Ken Simonton wide open on a little screen pass, which Simonton turned into a 45-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
So, the OSU coaching staff did a great job in anticipating the blitz and called a perfect play against it. Then the offensive line executed its blocking schemes flawlessly.
“It’s like they knew what we were going to do before we did it,” UW defensive tackle Larry Tripplett said.
Gesser represents an added difficulty.
Unlike Smith, Gesser is a threat to run. So even if the UW line beats its counterpart or linebackers flood gaps, the Huskies have no guarantee that Gesser won’t escape for big yardage.
“He is an elusive guy,” Neuheisel said.
Much of the onus is on Ellis.
Signed out of City College of San Francisco with the idea that he could step in and instantly improve the Huskies’ pass rush, Ellis has no sacks, two arthroscopically-repaired knees and three missed games.
It’s not the year Ellis had envisioned. In his two junior-college seasons, CCSF went 24-0 and won two straight JC National Championships. Ellis was named Defensive Player of the Year by the California Community Colleges Coaches Association last season and was SuperPrep’s highest-rated JC player in the nation.
“You can’t go undefeated in college for four years,” Ellis said. “This has been a learning experience.”
Much of the problem in his adjustment to Division I football, Ellis said, is that the offensive linemen use cut blocks – block defenders below the knees – more readily and more effectively than JC players do.
“I know they’re going to chop-block me,” Ellis said, “so I slow down. But then I keep on running, and they’re going to chop-block me, anyway. I can’t get around it. I’ll jump over them. I don’t put my hands down, because they want me to do that, so they can throw over the top. That’s when I get cut. I really haven’t mastered the cut yet.”
Ellis and the rest of the Huskies may want to start now.
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