Every practice leading up to the Washington game, the Arizona Wildcats defense focused on the same, singular thing: Get the quarterback.
"We just wanted to get pressure on him," safety Tra'Mayne Bondurant said after the UA's 52-17 win against the Huskies on Saturday night. "Through watching film, we knew what we could do.
"The main focus coming into this game was getting pressure on him."
That, they did.
Saturday night, against a weakened UW offensive line and a skittish quarterback, the UA recorded four sacks. Six other times, Huskies quarterback Keith Price threw the ball away, out of bounds.
Countless other times, he rushed his throws.
"Some of the pressure didn't get sacks, but it forced second-and-10 and third-and-10," UA coach Rich Rodriguez said.
A positive side-effect for the Wildcats: UW was penalized three times for holding. A fourth was declined by the UA.
"I thought they really strained a little harder up front and caused some holding penalties," Rodriguez said.
Entering Saturday's game, only 10 teams nationwide had recorded fewer sacks per game than the Wildcats' six over six contests.
The UA had only three since Sept. 16.
But defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel dialed up more blitzes than the Wildcats had used in any game all season. That was part of the plan.
The UA defense, Rodriguez said, doesn't have a singular pass-rushing talent.
Instead, they had to rely on pressure from blitzes all over the field.
"We have to get the pressure in other creative ways," Rodriguez said.
In film study, the Wildcats "saw that their offensive line had trouble picking up blitzes and had trouble protecting him," said cornerback Jourdon Grandon, who had a third-quarter interception of Price.
"So," he said, "we wanted to put as much pressure on them as we could."
The Huskies' offensive line had struggled all season.
Washington entered the game tied for No. 100 in the country by virtue of having allowed 2.83 sacks per contest.
Blame injuries, and attrition.
Guard Colin Porter, who was expected to start this season, retired after being diagnosed with a degenerative condition in his shoulder. Another guard, Colin Tanigawa, was lost for the season with a knee injury.
And starting tackle Erik Koehler was lost after dislocating his knee earlier this season.
The Huskies' line thought it had gotten good news before the game - right tackle Ben Riva returned after suffering a broken forearm in the season opener against San Diego State.
UW had started three different players in his place. When Riva returned, James Atoe moved to right guard, and true freshman Shane Brostek was sent to the bench.
But the Huskies' struggles continued.
"Price is a really, really talented guy," Rodriguez said. "We got a couple sacks, and we missed a couple too."
The result of pressure, he said, was that the Wildcats "didn't have to cover as long."
On defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich's birthday, defensive end Reggie Gilbert recorded one of the UA's four sacks.
Safety-turned-linebacker Marquis Flowers - who leads the team this year with 3.5 sacks- had one. Linebacker Hank Hobson claimed half a sack, too.
The pressure produced two red zone picks.
The first, by Bondurant, came at the UA 16-yard line with the Wildcats up 10-3 in the second quarter.
Grandon picked Price at the goal line with the Wildcats up 28 in the third quarter.
"It's great to be able to control the pace of the game and control the tempo, to be able to dictate what the offense does instead of the other way around," Grandon said. "It really makes you feel good at the end of the day."
And the Huskies feel bad.
"When you're on the field, you can kinda tell," Grandon said. "You can see it in their faces, when they get frustrated that they're not getting what they want, or how they want it."
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