The Defense is the Dawgs' Savior

Kent Baer and his Husky defense deserve an Steve-Emtman-sized amount of credit for the way they've performed this year.

The Dawgs D has given up a ton of yards, but they've kept the team close in every game they've played. And they've done it despite being on the field more than all but seven defenses in Division I football.

The Huskies are ranked 112th in D-I football in time of possession (there are 119 D-I teams). They are holding the ball, on average, only two seconds per game more than Notre Dame, only twelve seconds more than Syracuse.

Not all of the time of possession gap is due to the offense, part of it is the "bend but don't break" strategy the defense has employed all year--few blitzes, hardly any man-to-man coverage.

Still, as bad as the Husky offense has been--and it's worst in the Pac-10 by a stunning margin; the Dawgs are averaging 50 less yards of offense than 9th-place Stanford--the Huskies have been within two scores in the fourth quarter of every game this season. They've even won twice.

Huzzah to the defense!