During a session with the media earlier this week, Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis spent more than a few minutes talking about his team’s inability to finish off teams.
The Washington Huskies? They’re trying to remember how to start a game.
The fast starts that were a staple during the first two games of the Steve Sarkisian era have slowed to a crawl as the Huskies (2-2) have had to rally from deficits on each of the past two Saturdays. While the UW coaching staff is anything but panicked about the recent slow starts, it’s safe to say that another early deficit could be too much to overcome this afternoon at Notre Dame (3-1).
The Huskies are hoping to revert to their old ways.
“When we start like that,” freshman wide receiver James Johnson said in reference to the UW’s fast starts to the LSU and Idaho games, “I kind of feel that we can pretty much have our way. You get very comfortable, very confident, like the coaches are calling all the right plays. I think it does a lot mentally for us when we’re moving the ball like that.”
After scoring on their opening possessions of the first two games — against Idaho, UW actually scored touchdowns on five consecutive drives — the Huskies fell behind against both USC and Stanford.
The Trojans jumped out to a 10-0 lead before UW snapped out of its funk and rallied for one of the biggest upsets in school history. A week later, Stanford scored on the opening kickoff and led 17-7 before the Huskies’ offense finally produced a score.
Yet the UW coaches aren’t overly concerned with the early deficits that have plagued the Huskies the past two weeks.
“The game isn’t won or lost in the first quarter,” Sarkisian said. “It’s nice to get a lead, but it’s not everything. If you go ahead 10-0 or fall behind 10-0, it doesn’t mean you win or lose.”
That was evident in the USC game, when Washington’s first offensive possession stalled around midfield and was sandwiched between a pair of Trojans scoring drives. By the time USC took a 10-0 lead, it had a 148-15 advantage in total yardage. For the rest of the day, UW out-gained the Trojans 278-212.
The Stanford game was a different story. While the Huskies moved the ball on their opening possession, an interception near the goal line thwarted that drive and stalled the offense for most of the first half. A defensive touchdown helped UW stay within 24-14 at half, but the game soon got out of hand.
“You have to adapt,” Sarkisian said. “I thought we did against USC, but we didn’t against Stanford. I thought we started to drift off, and that’s why you saw some of the mental things and missed tackles.”
Today’s opponent has had the opposite problem. The Irish have jumped out to double-digit leads in each of their past two games, only to need a late rally to win them. So the ingredients are in place for another early Huskies deficit.
If it happens, the UW will be in familiar territory.
“It’s not like any of the games we’ve played have been 34-3 or anything, where you’re chasing (the opponent) all day,” Huskies offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier said. “That wasn’t the case (at Stanford). Shoot, the game was only 17-14 with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter, and we turned it over twice. It was a game of what-ifs, and the what-ifs went the other way.”
One of the keys to making today’s game go the Huskies’ way could be to get on the board early.
“We just have to play our game,” Johnson said. “If we play our game, nobody can beat us. It’s going to be a tough environment, but I think we’ll be fine.”
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