Week 5: Hello Seattle

By Kyle Magin

Tomorrow, for the second time in a week, the eyes of the American football world turn upon Seattle. The Emerald City's beloved Huskies welcome Stanford's potent defense and running game to CenturyLink Field. I was super psyched about this game and wanted to post for you all a great song about Seattle, a city I've come to love since moving out west, then I found this:

Now I want to wear flannel and bang my head against a wall while listening to grunge.

Stanford -6.5 @ Washington
U-Dub comes into this game with major question marks, and Stanford comes in looking like a defensive juggernaut. Last we saw the Huskies, LSU pancaked them, laying 41 on the dogs and holding the offense to just three rushing first downs and six passing first downs, and eight of the Dogs' 12 drives ended in punts. Since then, they've managed to right the ship slightly with a win over Portland State, improving to 2-1 on the season. Stanford is on a roll at 3-0 and last we saw them, they dethroned the #3 USC Trojans by blanking the Barkley-led boys for the last three quarters of the game. Two USC drives advanced past five snaps, with most ending in three & outs. Opponents convert less than 25 percent of the time on third down against the Cardinal and score touchdowns in the red zone just 44 percent of the time. Stanford Free Safety Ed Reynolds is the best center fielder in football, defending or breaking up 7 passes and intercepting three more. His matchup against Husky QB Keith Price will be one of the more interesting matchups of the night, as Price's passes go for about 10 yards per reception. If he can get a little support from an anemic rush game, he might find space underneath against the Stanford corners and linebackers, and just maybe find something deep. Stanford QB Josh Nunes has some accuracy problems, but goes 12-plus yards when he does complete.

Hawaii @ BYU -27.5
BYU, I've come to find out, is the quintessential button mashing knob you used to hate playing dorm room NCAA football against on that PS2 you spilled the beer on. They pass without consciousness, completing just 57 percent of their throws, but connecting with wideouts for 11.4 yards per grab, though. This is not good for Hawaii, who gives up about 12.6 yards per catch with a weak, young secondary. BYU, though, can go very bad, like QB Riley Nelson did against Boise State last week, leading the Cougs to a whopping 6 points. Hawaii can make up ground with its fairly effective run game and awesome ability to score in the red zone—it happens 91 percent of the time. Head Coach Norm Chow's gameplans are a bitch to deal with, even for a solid defense like BYU's. The Cougs have a solid, solid group of experienced linebackers, though, and Hawaii has very little in terms of receiving, meaning we'll see BYU stack the box and force Hawaii to beat it over the top.

Oregon -30.5 @ Washington State (Seattle)
UO's defense is getting nothing but better, and that's bad news for Wazzou, already losing the time of possession battle by an average of 6 minutes per game. You don't play so much for home runs against the Ducks D as you play for time of possession. It sounds simple, but keeping the ball out of Chip Kelly's offense's hands is the best way to keep things close. With Wazzou giving up third downs at a 49 percent clip, expect to see Ducks QB Marcus Mariota a lot Saturday, which will translate to a lot of points.