Football notebook: Penalty flags fly, Miles scores, defense impresses (again)

Looking into some of the subplots of the UW's dominating victory over Idaho State Penalties bite Huskies again Multiple times this week, Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian said Saturday’s game against Idaho State was more about the “process” than the final score. After a win over Illinois in which the UW was at times sloppy and undisciplined, Sarkisian was hoping for a clean, mistake-free game from his team. He didn’t get it, which explains why Sarkisian’s mood was slightly tempered after the UW’s blowout win over Idaho State. Despite putting up 56 points, the Huskies struggled with penalties for the second week in a row. After being penalized 12 times for 104 yards against the Illini, the Huskies were flagged 16 times for 130 yards against the Bengals on Saturday. “We have to be more disciplined,” quarterback Keith Price said after the game. “It’s unacceptable, but we’ll fix it.” The first half was noticeably messy from the UW’s standpoint. The Huskies were hurt by an early fumble, dropped passes and 10 first-half penalties. Those are not welcome numbers for a coach who put so much emphasis on cleaning up such things this week. But Sarkisian is confident his team can solve the issues. “The penalties were the glaring issue and they need to be rectified,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve fixed a lot of things in this program over the last five years, and we’ll fix the penalties, believe me.” The Huskies came close the program record for most penalties in a game, which is 18, set in 1976 against Oregon State and equaled in last season’s disastrous Apple Cup loss. UW empties the bench The UW’s plan Saturday was to jump out to a big enough lead that it would be able to spread the playing time out in the second half. Turns out, the Huskies did not even need to wait until halftime. By the time the Huskies were up 42-0 midway through the second quarter, quarterback Keith Price and running back Bishop Sankey were both done. The pair spent the entire second half on the bench, which allowed other skill position players to see their first significant playing time of the season, and many did not disappoint. Price’s backup, Cyler Miles, came into the game in the second quarter and was efficient in his first extended action. Miles led the Huskies on six drives, two of which went for touchdowns. He completed 5-of-7 attempts for 97 yards and a touchdown, and was also the UW’s leading rusher with 89 yards (61 of which came on one play). “I definitely feel like I can improve on some throws,” Miles said. “There were a couple of throws that I just pulled the string on. I’m the type of guy to never be satisfied, and I understand that those couple throws I need to have, so just little things like that I could get better at.” Meanwhile, Sankey saw even less action than Price. A week after running the ball 35 times, Sankey’s workload was reduced to just four carries. Though he didn’t spend much time on the field, Sankey still made a difference tallying 77 yards and a touchdown. Once Sankey left, a collection of his backups combined to tote the rock for the remainder of the afternoon. Deontae Cooper was the busiest of the group, with 14 rushes for 59 yards. Cooper also bullied his way to a fourth-quarter touchdown, the first of his UW career. It was an emotional moment for a player who has fought back through three ACL tears and the team who has rallied around him. “I knew it was going to be a special moment for me, my teammates and my coaches,” Cooper said. “They’ve seen me put all the hard work in, the time, and going through the injuries, so it was definitely special.” Jesse Callier and Dwayne Washington were also heavily involved in the offense. Callier finished the day with 42 yards and a touchdown on seven carries, and Washington had 51 yards on 10 rushes, as well as a five-yard receiving touchdown. After fumbling the ball twice against Illinois, Washington took good care of it Saturday. “I just had to practice harder and keep the ball high and tight,” Washington said. “I had to not let it get to me.” Pass rush brings the heat Another point of emphasis early in the season for the Huskies has been pressuring the quarterback. After going without a sack in the season opener against Boise State, the Huskies responded with a four-sack performance against Illinois. They continued that positive momentum again Saturday. The Huskies got after Idaho State quarterback Justin Arias early and often, collecting seven sacks on the day. The leader of the line, senior team captain Hau’oli Kikaha, was especially effective, with 2.5 sacks. Defensive tackle Josh Banks added 1.5 sacks and freshman Marcus Farria [cq] had his first career sack. Kikaha, who had his first sacks since before tearing his ACL for the second straight year early last season, was happy with the overall performance of the entire defense. “I thought on the back end, our defensive backs were covering really well,” Kikaha said. “Our pressures were good in there, and we had a few good rushes up front and got after the quarterback.” Overall, it was a solid effort from a defensive line that needed one. In addition to the sacks, they made life difficult for Arias all day, getting into the backfield repeatedly. It paid off, as Arias was just 18-of-39 through the air for 140 yards and two interceptions. However, defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox still feels like there is room for improvement in the pass rush. “There’s times where we did things really well and were real clean and there’s going to be things that show up on the tape that weren’t real clean,” Wilcox said. “Sacks are great, but just to be able to affect the quarterback in the pocket is really important and we’ve got to do a better job of that.” Reach reporter Daniel Rubens at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @drubens12

Football notebook: Penalty flags fly, Miles scores, defense impresses (again)

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