Huskies feeling a bit desperate

SEATTLE – So much went wrong for Washington’s offense in Eugene last weekend that there must be plenty of blame to go around, right?

The Huskies couldn’t run the ball against Oregon (2.2 yards per carry) and struggled to protect quarterback Jake Locker. Receivers struggled to get open against Oregon’s tough secondary, and when they did they frequently dropped passes, or Locker missed them.

According to offensive players and coaches, just about everyone is culpable. Offensive coaches said they didn’t have their players ready, while the players said they didn’t make the plays that could have kept them in the game, an eventual 44-10 season-opening loss.

What everyone could agree on, however, is that things need to change in a hurry for the Huskies, who hope to make drastic improvements before BYU comes to town Saturday.

“This has to be the year,” said guard Jordan White-Frisbee, who was critical of his unit’s play. “This game right here has to change it right now, because there’s no more time to wait. This is it for us. We know how strong we are, but we’ve got to prove it, and last week we didn’t prove it. This is our chance to change it.”

White-Frisbee is part of an offensive line that is the most experienced part of the offense, and is expected to be a strength of the team. Against Oregon, which stacked the box with eight and nine defenders to stop the run, the offensive line wasn’t able to create running lanes.

While Oregon’s defensive philosophy put the UW line at a big numbers disadvantage, White-Frisbee and his coaches refused to use that as an excuse.

“We want to have the attitude that no matter how heavy the odds are stacked against us, we can still have success,” said offensive line coach Mike Denbrock. “We’re going to keep pushing that point home. … I didn’t get my job done as a coach, first and foremost, of making sure those guys were on top of every little detail they needed to be on top of.”

The offensive line wasn’t entirely to blame for the lack of a ground game, starting tailback Chris Polk said.

“There were holes, I just didn’t see them,” said Polk, who rushed for 19 yards on 14 carries in his Washington debut.

Now that the young players have learned from their first game experience, and now that they’ll be playing at home, offensive coordinator Tim Lappano thinks the offense will be able to do more.

“We’re going to be able to open it up a little bit more,” Lappano said. “You’ll see some things that you haven’t seen in a while.”