Adam Jude
The Seattle Times
There were two controversial targeting calls during the Huskies’ 21-7 victory Saturday night in Salt Lake City, and both resulted in an ejection of a Utah defender.
“Great calls,” Washington coach Chris Petersen said Monday.
It was a physical battle in a game featuring two of the Pac-12’s top defenses. Washington’s defense had several highlight-worthy hits — from Byron Murphy, JoJo McIntosh and Ben Burr-Kirven, to name a few — and Petersen was most pleased that the Huskies were able to make those kinds of plays without using their helmets.
“That’s the goal, that’s the idea. We’ve been working on it really, really hard and I think it showed up,” Petersen said. “It’s hard to play like that but it shows it can be done and we’ll keep working on it. We’re by no means saying we’re always going to be able to stay like that but we work hard on it.”
Washington coaches have been teaching rugby-tackling techniques — to take the head out of the tackle — since they arrived at UW in 2014.
Since the start of the 2016 season, the Huskies have had only one player ejected for targeting (that, coincidentally, was McIntosh after a hit on a Utah running back last November).
“I get frustrated with the coaches who whine about (the targeting rule),” UW co-defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake said last year. “Don’t whine about it. You want to watch football 100 years from now? We can’t lead with our helmet.”
A question Monday was posed to Petersen noting that “some fans think football’s gone too far” to protect players when it comes to targeting rules.
“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” Petersen said. “The rules are changing and the rules have changed for the better of the game, and it’s still going to be the toughest, most violent team sport I think there is. To me, that’s all positive. Is it hard on the guys with those last-minute adjustments where a back is cutting and a receiver is going down? It is hard on them. It’s really hard to have that ‘strike zone’ exactly where you want it.
“But I don’t know what you’re talking about. You trying to say football’s going soft? I mean, I’m not seeing that.”
