edefuan ulofoshio

Previously: Washington Offense 

After profiling the fearsome Washington offense, we now pivot to the much less glamorous defense. Ranked 44th in SP+, Washington's defense has spent a lot of the year doing just enough to give them a win in each and every game. They have a couple stars and also some major worry spots. What should we make of them? Let's take a look: 

The Film: Going with Texas for the charting yet again, but drawing upon Oregon, USC, and other games as additional tape to factor in in our evaluations. 

Personnel: Click for big. [both FFFF charts available in PDF format for the laminators here]

Washington mostly plays a standard 4-2-5 in terms of personnel. Their EDGE who rarely comes off the field is star Bralen Trice, the Dangerman of this piece. The 6'4", 274 lb. rusher is more power than speed, but he's by far their best player at getting organic pressure on the QB, while being not a particularly spectacular run defender in my view. Texas largely had no issue dealing with Washington's four man rushes, except for the moments that Trice made something happen. His efforts have moved him up into the late first rounds of some NFL mock drafts. Trice is the heavier EDGE while the other side of the formation usually features the lighter Zion Tupuola-Fetui or Sekai Asoua-Afoa. Not a huge fan of either, with the latter nearing cyan territory for me. 

Defensive tackle is the weakness of the defense, players that were uniformly crushed by Texas in the Sugar Bowl. The best tackle they have is multi-year starter Tuli Letuligasenoa, who has dealt with a knee injury this season, which has limited his snap count. He played 39 of 73 snaps against Texas and that's probably the ballpark we're looking at for Monday. He is by far the highest graded DT to PFF... I thought he was pretty pedestrian against Texas but still probably better than the others. Those others include Faatui Tuitele, Voi Tunuufi, and Ulumoo Ale. All of them get the cyan, as I have major concerns after watching them get paved repeatedly by Texas.

More promising perhaps is Michigander Jayvon Parker, who they've beefed up to 297. He didn't play much and is not ready to hold up against the run but had a little bit of pass rush juice in his eight snaps. Jacob Bandes has played quite a bit at tackle this season with okay grades from PFF. He didn't play much against Texas so I don't have too many notes on him. Jacob Lane is a true freshman who was listed at 230 as a recruit and is up to 250, more of an EDGE but Washington has been lining him up at tackle on rush packages. He played 19 snaps against Texas, 17 of them pass rush snaps and had a little bit of jump but his miniature size makes it an odd fit. When opponents go heavy, Washington goes into a 5-2 so there are definitely snaps where they will have three DTs out there. Probably often given what we know Michigan likes to do. 

At linebacker the Huskies usually have two on the field, Edefuan Ulofoshio being the headliner of the group. If you're a real FFFF sicko, you may recall that Ulofoshio was starred by this column in the 2021 Washington Defense piece (Letuligasenoa was also a starter on that team). Yeah, he's been around and been a major contributor for a looong time. Interestingly, he isn't an every snap LB like most stars at the position, only playing 55% of snaps this season in totality and 66% of snaps in the Sugar Bowl. It wasn't the best performance against Texas but he had some moments of his strong play and the full complexion of his season suggests he's still a star.

[AFTER THE JUMP: ehhhhh]