It’s interesting, UW often has this game. I’ve watched it through the years. One that’s just not great. One where they’re behind the 8 ball against a team with think is worse. And most of the time they win ugly, and maybe it means something, maybe not. And sometimes, that game comes on a day where the other team makes enough plays and UW doesn’t.
It does remind me that the whole “going vanilla” thing is usually a way to excuse angst about not looking great rather than actual reflection of game plan. Those late 2000s teams had a few slow starts I dismissed that way, and it was a good lesson.
(FWIW, offensive plays work like this most often. You have your base plays. That’s over 80 percent of your in-game scheme. The stuff that changes game to game is smaller and subtle. Your base is what wins most games. The extra stuff is trying to get small edges here and there. There’s a few exceptions, but you need a good coach for it to work. Chryst vs OSU in 2016 was about the most extensive expansion of things, and it left Urby impressed)
