Huskies’ defense something to smile about
SEATTLE – Chris Petersen has faced difficult questions this season about the Washington Huskies’ stop-and-start offense, for which progress has been frustratingly incremental.
The UW football coach faces difficult questions about the defense, too.
Like this one, on Monday: if someone had told him before the season that the Huskies would lead the league in scoring defense after nine weeks, would he have believed it?
Hey, would you?
After Saturday’s 49-3 beating of the Arizona Wildcats, Washington ranks 15th nationally in scoring defense (16.9 points per game), 25th in yards per play allowed (4.79), 16th in yards per rush allowed (3.2), tied for 23rd in sacks per game (2.75), tied for 21st in tackles for loss per game (7.5), tied for 16th in interceptions per game (1.38) and tied for 18th in red-zone score percentage allowed (75.0).
Those numbers are made perhaps more remarkable when considering how much UW lost from its fairly stout defense a year ago. Nose tackle Danny Shelton, linebacker Shaq Thompson, buck linebacker Hau’oli Kikaha and cornerback Marcus Peters were each selected in the first 44 picks of the NFL draft, and also gone are starting middle linebacker John Timu, starting defensive linemen Andrew Hudson and Evan Hudson.
And, somehow, got better. In some areas, considerably better.
“It’s always going to start with talent,” Petersen said. “It doesn’t matter how good a coach you are. If you don’t have the pieces in this league, you’re going to be exposed in a heartbeat. We probably had a little more talent than people thought, behind some of those good players.
“But yeah, I think going back, you go, ‘Really? You’re telling me that? That’s pretty good.’”
Several UW players are among Pac-12 leaders, too. Senior linebacker Travis Feeney, who on Monday was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season after posting 11 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and two forced fumbles against Arizona, is the conference leader in sacks with 6.5 and ranks second in tackles for loss with 13.0.
And Feeney and cornerback Sidney Jones are tied for the league lead with three forced fumbles each.
But holding Arizona to three points – the Wildcats entered the game as the nation’s No. 9 team in scoring offense – might have been UW’s most impressive feat yet.