Twitter
    Sportspress Northwest
    • Football
    • Baseball
    • NCAA
    • Hockey
    • Soccer
    • Basketball
    Twitter
    Sportspress Northwest
    Twitter
    Home » Thiel: Underdog Dawgs need Eason to find edge
    Football

    Thiel: Underdog Dawgs need Eason to find edge

    Art ThielBy Art ThielOctober 18, 201911 Comments6 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email
    Share
    Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email
    Jacob Eason has to do more than clear his throat Saturday. / Drew Sellers, Sportspress Northwest

    In the middle of the night in Tucson the past Saturday, the Washington Huskies apparently woke up screaming. Well, maybe not screaming, but mad. Or startled. Or disturbed. Maybe just perturbed.

    Whatever the calibration, it was halftime against the Arizona Wildcats, who were ahead, 17-13. The Huskies just completed a sixth consecutive quarter of football that bordered on the comatose. Since they ended up winning 51-27, clearly something hysterical, spiritual or pharmaceutical happened in the intermission locker room.

    But all anyone is willing to share is that Jason Eason spoke up. Apparently for the first time in his six-game career as Huskies starting quarterback. It is not clear whether the speech was Teddy Roosevelt-level, or more like Bluto Blutarsky in Animal House:

    Whatever, it must have worked. But coach Chris Petersen was light on illumination, except to say Eason so far had been a bashful orator.

    “Like he said afterwards, he’s more on the reserved side,” Chris Petersen explained at his Monday post-mortem. Did that mean he just cleared his throat in a menacing manner?

    “When that ball is in your hand, naturally a lot of guys are going to be looking to you and your voice,” Petersen went on. “The number one way to lead is to lead through example. Play good and do your job, which he’s been doing.

    “But it’s also nice when he starts kind of speaking out a little bit and bringing something to the table there.”

    On Oct. 5, in Eugene, where Nike has a college, a similar episode developed when the heavily favored Ducks found themselves down 7-0 to at halftime to Cal, which earlier beat Washington, 20-19.

    Coach Mario Cristobal reported that there was a commotion in the locker room ahead of his arrival. As he told the story to ESPN.com, senior LB Troy Dye could be heard though the door, saying things loudly that he likely did not learn in church.

    “It was passionate and had a lot of energy and juice to it,” Cristobal said.

    So much juice that Dye was sufficiently agitated, along with all in the room, to conclude his spontaneous sermon by puking.

    The Ducks won, 17-7.

    The comparison in revival-tent styles is not to suggest that reverse-pivot digestion is the superior methodology.

    But the 12th-ranked Ducks (5-1), who engage the 25th-ranked Huskies (5-2) at Saturday (12:30 p.m, ABC) at Husky Stadium, are playing with a cranial-vein-throbbing crankiness that looks and sounds like the Washington teams under Don James in the 1980s and early 1990s. Bookmakers are so impressed that the Ducks are three-point favorites in Montlake.

    “I think the fans are still even trying to get used to it,” senior LG Shane Lemieux told ESPN. “We’re not the team that’s going to blow people out of the water with, like, trickery and all that kind of stuff. We have our foundation . . . playing a physical, downhill-running, stopping-the-run-on-defense football team.”

    The Ducks now and the Huskies then were led by defenses that tended to make opposing offenses, well, throw up.

    Since losing late at Auburn 27-21 in the season opener, the Ducks have given up in the following games, in order, six, three, six, seven and three points. That’s Steve Emtman-class badassery. The Ducks defense leads the Pac-12 in allowing the fewest points, passing yards and total yards, and has 21 sacks, 12 interceptions and 50 tackles for loss.

    Definitely not Chip Kelly’s Ducks.

    It’s hard to say what the Huskies are.

    At season’s mid-point, they already have conference losses to two middling teams and thus have burned up their margin for error in returning to the conference title game for the third time in four years

    The six bad quarters (including all four in the 23-13 loss at Stanford) seemed to be as bloodless a stretch as the Huskies have had under Petersen’s direction.

    Given results so far, it’s either reverse the roles Saturday to out-gumption the Ducks, or work on the Cheez-It Bowl resume.

    Through little fault of his own, the opportunity to pull it off falls on Eason, mostly because he is the one truly difference-making talent in the starting 22. The Huskies have flashed moments of great play, but until the second half at Arizona, steady success against Pac-12 competition has been spasmodic.

    Much was expected of Eason, and he has delivered a lot. He’s hit on 66 percent of his throws for 1,692 yards, with 13 touchdowns and three interceptions. Yet, nettled by an experienced line that has played below expectations and a receivers group that has justified the low expectations forecasted for it, UW’s passing game in conference play is 10th in yards per attempt, and 11th in yards, touchdowns and first downs.

    It’s hard to know ahead of time about leadership qualities, especially for a transfer whose arrival controversially forced out two other recruited talents, Colson Yankoff to UCLA and Jake Haener to Fresno State. But Eason’s command is up for speculation.

    “It’s a slow process,” Petersen said. “There’s a bunch of different type of leaders, right? You got to be who you are. You’re not going to all of a sudden stand on the locker room stool and give a fire-and-brimstone talk.

    “But it really is getting out of your shell a little bit and helping others. That’s what the leadership thing is about. Serving your program, your teammates.”

    Petersen then went on a mini-rant about outsiders critiquing Eason’s leadership.

    “Such a weird question,” he said. “I always get that. It’s like, ‘So and so is playing well. Is that guy is really becoming a leader?’

    “I always (am) like, what are you talking about? Are you in the locker room? Are you on campus and seeing what he’s doing there? Because that, to me, what the leadership thing is about.”

    Petersen’s irritation suggests the topic hit a nerve. Maybe he’s right. Perhaps Eason’s winning the game on upper campus, although it’s hard to find the analytics to score that.

    Leadership is always an elusive value to define. Except, of course, when it isn’t there.

    To find a competitive, winning edge, it isn’t necessary to throw up. But a football leader doesn’t need gastric theater to throw down when the rival hits town.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email

    Related Posts

    A few musings about sports journalism as the unwinding begins

    February 18, 2022

    Carroll’s staff makeover seeks to get Wilson back in the game

    February 16, 2022

    Arizona loss unmasks truths about Hopkins, UW hoops

    February 15, 2022

    11 Comments

    1. wabubba67 on October 18, 2019 2:32 pm

      I was behind the Huskies bench at Tucson. I have never seen a team that was as emotionally flat….even after the defensive TD. The 2nd half had more to do with Arizona mistakes than UW offensive proficiency. Unleashing Puka would help…. he’s a genuine difference maker.

      • Tman on October 18, 2019 6:53 pm

        You want emotionally, flat check out the .Mariners.

        • art thiel on October 18, 2019 7:10 pm

          Their arc was intentional. Not so at Montlake.

      • art thiel on October 18, 2019 7:09 pm

        I trust your eyewitness account. There’s no swagger to this group.

    2. Husky73 on October 18, 2019 6:17 pm

      I really hate those guys and their fans. That being said, I expect to be in a deep funk by 5pm Saturday.

      • Tman on October 18, 2019 6:59 pm

        Don’t feel bad. The loser gets to go to the Cheez-It bowl.

        • art thiel on October 18, 2019 7:07 pm

          Cruel. But true.

        • Husky73 on October 18, 2019 11:08 pm

          Played at a baseball park.

      • art thiel on October 18, 2019 7:07 pm

        Sounds like you remember a 12-game losing streak.

        • Husky73 on October 19, 2019 3:59 pm

          It was 3:52.

    3. Guy K. Browne on October 18, 2019 10:29 pm

      Two questions… well three, how’d they get the camera in the locker room at halftime? Are all visiting locker rooms that run down? Is it me or does Eason strike an alarming resemblance to John Belushi? (I thought he was taller than that)…

    • Follow @Art_Thiel on Twitter
    Use our affiliate link on Amazon

    Subscribe to Our Weekly Roundup

    Get the top stories sent to your inbox every Thursday.

    Art Thiel on KNKX 88.5FM

    Kirsten Kendrick's Q. & A. with Thiel can be heard every Friday during Morning Edition at 5:45am and 7:45am and again that same day on All Things Considered at 4:44pm. It also airs Saturday at 9:35am.

    Listen now!
    Latest Posts

    A few musings about sports journalism as the unwinding begins

    February 18, 2022

    Carroll’s staff makeover seeks to get Wilson back in the game

    February 16, 2022

    Arizona loss unmasks truths about Hopkins, UW hoops

    February 15, 2022

    Rams win a survivors contest called the Super Bowl

    February 14, 2022
    Twitter
    • Football
    • Baseball
    • NCAA
    • Hockey
    • Soccer
    • Basketball
    © 2025 Sportspress Northwest

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.