5 Keys to Washington Football game at Arizona State

Ground and pound with a lead

On one hand, Arizona State has three big down lineman who love to pin their ears back and rush the quarterback. On the other hand, that comes at a price.  In fact, the Sun Devils are often out of position to stop the running game. Doesn’t that sound like a good setup?

Meanwhile, the Washington Football team boasts a pretty good running game.   So good in fact, that the Sun Devils may have practiced defending it all week.  Practice or not, the Sun Devils  cannot defend a sustained running offense by the Huskies. So they will run blitz.

Now the pass pass pass early offense makes sense, doesn’t it?

Get lead, then bleed the clock dry

But Arizona State can and will make adjustments. They want this game, so the coaches will work hard to react to developments mid game.  That results in ASU getting softer on the run, more focused on the pass, and willing to gamble high stakes to get to the quarterback.

And that signals to Washington to unleash Gaskin’s running ability.  Get Gaskin going on offense, and that will rest the defense in that desert heat.   That’s good, because while all this is going on, the Huskies defense had been working hard too.