UW defensive unit struggling with trust

SEATTLE — Watching the horror show that was last weekend’s game film, Washington’s defense realized part of its problem is trust.

Too often, said senior defensive end Greyson Gunheim, UW’s defenders saw Oregon players running through holes that shouldn’t have been there.

“After Oregon, we’re all disappointed with how many yards they got and just what they did,” he said. “It made our defense learn that we have to stick to our responsibility and not worry about what everyone else is doing. You can’t try to make too big of a play or try to do something extra, because it’s just going to mess you up and mess the whole defense up. With Oregon, when they do the option stuff, you can’t be looking for the ball. You’ve just got to do your responsibility, and after watching film of the game, people were trying to look for the ball and do too much, and that’s where we got stuck.”

Gunheim said it’s now up to the senior leaders on the defense and the coaches to make sure everyone is held accountable and to start demanding more out of everyone.

“It was pretty obvious after the game, and obvious watching the film that people weren’t trusting someone’s responsibility to have the quarterback or someone’s responsibility to be in a certain gap, because they were trying to do both of them at the same time,” he said. “We’re trying to talk to the young guys and everybody to try to come together and trust one another.”

Gunheim admitted that a fix won’t likely come overnight, but that the defensive meetings since the loss have so far been positive.

“Probably not right away is everything going to be fixed, but you could definitely tell the attitude of our team has changed and gotten more to that, and people are already starting to trust one another, just the way we talk to each other and are holding each other accountable,” he said. “If someone makes a mistake, we let each other know now instead of not really saying anything. We’re kind of getting on each other, and it’s sometimes better to hear it from other players than just your coaches.”

Best game? Not quite: While many are calling Jake Locker’s 257-yard, four-touchdown performance against Oregon the best game of his young career, the quarterback disagrees with that evaluation.

“No, we lost, so obviously I didn’t play well enough to win the game,” Locker answered when asked if Saturday had been his best game. “I’ve started two games where we have won, so no.”

Lappano on the sideline: Locker said he enjoyed having offensive coordinator Tim Lappano on the sideline for the first time this season. Lappano, who in previous games had worked from the press box, decided last week to move to the field.

“I felt really good about having him down there,” Locker said. “I felt like we had a really good understanding of how we were going to go about attacking the next drive. You could kind of get a good idea about how we were going to go about each drive before we went out there, which I think put everybody on the offense in sync a little bit better. It was nice having him down there, you didn’t have to get on the phone to talk to him. The communication I felt was just a lot better.”

Injury update: Linebacker Donald Butler, who left Saturday’s game with a knee injury, is unlikely to play this weekend, UW head coach Tyrone Willingham said. Willingham said that while it’s too early to know for certain, Butler will likely miss this week’s game and possibly the following game as well.

Trenton Tuiasosopo, who has shared time with Butler this season, will start if Butler is unable to play.

TV guide: This weekend’s game will be shown on KSTW Channel 11 in the Seattle area, on KHQ Channel 6 in the Spokane area, and on KNDO(23)/KNDU (25) in the Yakima and Tri-Cities area.

Players of the week: Locker earned the team’s offensive player of the week award, while place kicker Ryan Perkins earned special teams honors. No defensive player was selected.

Tobias Togi (special teams), Cort Dennison (defense) and Gregory Christine (offense) were honored for their work on the service teams.

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