The University of Washington Huskies put up a bit of a marker over the weekend, beating Oregon 14-10 on a cold, wet day in Seattle.
Oregon had earlier logged a surprise win over Western Washington and that seemed to signal that this year's NCRC league is perhaps a shade tighter than usual. UW came into the game having lost to Western Washington and Boise State, but this result shows that maybe they've figured some things out, and maybe, yes, the NCRC is going to be tough to preduct.
That UO-WWU game was a low-scoring affair, and so was this one.
Oregon scored early to take a 7-0 lead, and in fact held that lead through to halftime.
Points were at a premium. Oregon's defense has been strong, but Washington had been working at it, too.
"We focused on our tackle count last week," said UW Coach Will Wheaton. "We broke it down for players on made tackles, missed tackles, dominant tackles ... We didn't point fingers, but it's amazing what effect it has on young men seeing their missed tackles [on video]."
Motivated by that UW held Oregon to just one penalty goal the rest of the game.
The aggression in the tackles produced two yellow cards against the Huskies, but still they started to put some attack together as well, with No.8 Vaea Tangitau, recently moved from the centers to the forwards, carrying hard and getting his team pst the gain line.
Hooker Brian Cain powered over with Washington's first try, which Sebastian Sosa converted. Oregon had trouble getting going throughout the second half, and that didn't abate when UW was shorthanded.
Seb Sosa found an opening and split through defense, chipping the ball ahead for captain Jaedan Johnson to chase down and dive on. Sosa converted, and Washington had a 14-10 victory.
Defense had been the driver of it all.
"We put a lot of emphasis on tackling behind the gain line and fighting to get them going backwards," said Wheaton. "I would imagine that we doubled or even tripled our dominant tackles, and we probably doubled our double-tackle success. We also worked on spreading width quickly and shutting down their backs. That meant that they kicked on our terms, which was nice. It was kind of a day where we were focusing on disruption."
