FWIW, this year just feels right for Washington. Like the 2013 Seahawks...spent years not feeling good about the team, but then in 2013, everything felt right. It's the same thing with Washington, except I'm even more confident because I've always been a slightly bigger Husky fan than Seahawk fan, so I'm more in tune with what is and is not a good team.
The one thing that nobody talks about with Petersen's team is how they improve not just from year to year, but from game to game. Look at last year for a great example....they started crushing teams late in the year. I've seen it again this year...there was some drop off when some backups had to jump in for injured starters, but over the past few weeks they've improved immensely. Rapp, Potoae, etc..the rest of the team is getting better, too. The team that played against Colorado on Friday is better than the one that played against USC. People don't understand how good Colorado is....they only lost to Michigan and USC, 2 top 10 teams. They have a top 5 defense against the pass, lots of experience at all positions, and no real weak areas on their team. What was the score? 41-10. You bet your ass that Washington keeps improving, and they'll be even better when they play Alabama.
On offense, Petersen will have a month to figure out how to score points against Alabama... With players like John Ross, Dante Pettis, 2 good RBs that are difficult to tackle, a solid OL, and a QB that can move around in the pocket well and doesn't turn the ball over. I like it. You guys can knock on Browning all you want for struggling against top defenses, and that's fair, but he takes care of the football. He takes what the defense gives him. The pass rush will make things difficult, but don't expect Jake to turn the ball over and give the game away. There has also been some speculation that Jake might have hurt his shoulder against Oregon State, and that it had gotten better until he took another shot against WSU. He was uncharacteristically inaccurate against Colorado. If so, look for an improved Browning against Alabama.
This will be the best defense Alabama has played all year, with future NFL players at each position. Gaines is very disruptive when he is not double-teamed, and has even shown the ability to beat double-teams, so it will be interesting to see if Alabama's O-line is good enough to handle him. The linebackers and secondary speak for themselves. They fly to the football and tackle well in space. They force fumbles and are ball hawks on passing plays. Oh yeah, and they hit really hard too. I've seen a few "I don't know if I want to play football anymore" looks on opposing players faces after taking a crushing hit from UW's LBs/DBs. Essentially, UW can take away the one thing that an opposing offense does well. For Alabama, that's probably running the football, so expect Alabama to need to throw the ball a bit to get first downs. Laugh all you want, but if you really study the numbers, UW definitely had the best rushing defense in the conference this year.That could be a problem for their freshman QB throwing to a secondary full of 1-3 round draft picks in the biggest game of his life.
I don't know what the hell is going on with Joe Mathis, but he keeps dropping hints on Twitter like he's going to be ready to play. He just tweeted that he will be fully healed in 2 weeks. I doubt he will play, but it's something to keep an eye on. They did say that there was a small chance he could play in a bowl game when they announced he was having surgery. However, a couple days ago Petersen said something to the effect of him not likely playing again at all, and sort of said that Victor had a better chance, although he was very vague with his wording. Again, I wouldn't get your hopes up.
