After their struggles — particularly on offense — in Saturday's loss to Cal, the Huskies are also eager to get back out and play. UW plays next Oct. 8 at USC.
Coming off a 30-24 loss to California in their Pac-12 opener Saturday, the Huskies begin their lone bye of the season this week.
With fall-term classes starting Wednesday at UW, the bye comes at a good time for players to get adjusted to their new schedules. On the other hand, after their struggles Saturday — particularly on offense — the Huskies are also eager to get back out and play.
“I think when you play like this on offense, you don’t want a bye; I think you want to go play again with a chance to redeem yourself,” UW coach Chris Petersen said. “But it is what it is, so we’ll use the extra practice time, get some guys hopefully healed up and work on some fundamentals, work on hanging onto the ball and making tackles and try to improve.”
On Monday, Petersen will host his usual press conference at 11:30 a.m. Players are available for media interviews on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Next weekend, the Huskies will begin in earnest game-week prep for their Oct. 8 game at USC for a Thursday prime-time showdown with former UW coach Steve Sarkisian.
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After committing five turnovers against Cal, and missing numerous tackles, the Huskies will get back to basics this week.
“It’s not going to get any easier,” Petersen said. “Everybody is really good in this league and you have a new challenge, and that’s the hard thing about having a young team. The scheme’s going to be different the next time we play and so you’d like to go and do it again and try and get it right, but you can’t do that. These guys will come back. It’s way too early in the season. Look at the teams we play, and the kids know that, and it’s like I told the guys last week, ‘This is still about us.’ We have to go back and tackle better; we have to go back and pass-pro better; we have to not fumble to ball, and it’s all the things that we can control.”
Links:
- Larry Stone: With their young offensive line, reality slapped the Huskies in the face Saturday.
- Percy Allen sidebar: Cal’s Jared Goff impresses at Husky Stadium.
- Notebook: Budda Baker was missed in the UW secondary. His status remains unknown for USC.
- From Christian Caple: It only felt like the Huskies had 12 turnovers.
- From The AP’s Tim Booth: Cal has confidence now.
- From The UW Daily: UW’s defense kept it close.
- Cal is 4-0 for the first time since 2007.
- The Bears ended a 10-year drought at Husky Stadium.
- USC rolled to a big win at Arizona State.
- Utah stunned Oregon, 62-20, in Eugene to enter the national-championship picture.
- The Ducks have lost their identity.
- UCLA routed Arizona in the desert.
My AP Top 25 ballot this week:
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan State
3. Ole Miss
4. UCLA
5. TCU
6. Baylor
7. LSU
8. Utah
9. Notre Dame
10. Texas A&M
11. Georgia
12. Alabama
13. Clemson
14. Florida State
15. Northwestern
16. Stanford
17. USC
18. Oklahoma
19. Mississippi State
20. Michigan
21. Wisconsin
22. Oklahoma State
23. Cal
24. Arizona
25. Toledo