Weekend Sports Roundup: 3, 6, 12 Edition
Not-So-Good Things Come in Threes: During the regular season, the Sounders played Real Salt Lake twice. In both games, there were three goals scored: a 2-1 Sounders win on May 28 and a 1-2 Sounders lose on September 10. Saturday when the teams met for Game One of their two-game playoff series, there were again three goals scored, but not one was by the Sounders. During the 90 minute game, Salt Lake managed to knock three of their ten shots on goal in, while Seattle could convert on none of their four efforts. Such a resounding defeat does not bode well for the Sounders advancing beyond the first round of the playoffs for the first time in their MLS careers. To move beyond the conference semifinals, not only will they have to beat Real Salt Lake on Wednesday, but they will have to score four goals in the process.
Next Up: Game Two of the two-game conference semifinals is this Wednesday at CenturyLink Field. Bust out your green, cause the Sounders need all the home field advantage they can get.
Lucky Number Six: It took the Washington Huskies the whole season to qualify for a bowl last year. In 2011, they've hit the magic number for bowl eligibility in just eight games. Saturday, the Huskies beat the Arizona Wildcats to go 6-2, which means they will be headed to a postseason bowl for a second year in a row. Even die-hard Husky fans will admit this is a bit of a rare occurrence. So, congratulations. As for Saturday's game itself, perhaps UW was a little rusty coming off their loss to Stanford, which might account for how they fell behind early to Arizona. However, the offense picked up steam by the second quarter. UW lost the lead again briefly in the fourth quarter, only to score two touchdowns to secure a 42-31 win.
Next Up: Conference powerhouse Oregon comes to town Saturday. Wouldn't it be nice to hand them a loss?
12 Just Isn't Enough: While the Huskies secured their postseason position, the chances of the Seahawks returning the NFL playoffs slipped further and further away. One good thing that emerged from Sunday's loss to the visiting Bengals is that we can finally put those Charlie Whitehurst as starter questions to bed. Whitehurst made his fourth career start on Sunday, but his 4/7 for 52 yards performance quickly saw him benched in favor of Tavaris Jackson, who, sore pectoral muscle and all, completed a smaller percentage of passes (21/40) but threw for significantly more yards (323). All those stats don't really mean anything though, when neither quarterback was able to throw a touchdown. Of the 12 points the Seahawks put up in the 34-12 loss, six game from kicker Steven Hauschka and six were the result of a Marshawn Lynch rushing touchdown. The Seahawks can't rely on the running game because Lynch managed fewer yards in 16 carries than Leon Washington did in two and he's just not a good enough back to stake your entire offense on. Throw in some poor coaching decisions and it's abundantly clear that the Seahawks need to go back to the drawing board.
Next Up: Heading down to Dallas for Sunday's game against the Cowboys.
