#10 Huskies Grind out Win in Utah, 21-7

The Huskies pulled out another tough win against the Utah Utes; something that’s become the norm when these two teams meet. Washington capitalized on turnovers and Utah penalties to take the Utes down, 21-7.

Myles Gaskin finally had his 100-yard game, rushing for 143 yards on 30 carries and one touchdown, while Jake Browning was 14-24 and threw for 155 yards and one touchdown.

Aaron Fuller led all receivers as well with 166 yards.

It wasn’t a pretty win for the Huskies; the offensive line seemed to change its lineup every possession. Browning was running for his life at times and, on one drive, was driven far into the backfield three plays in a row. But the Dawgs continued to battle back when sevearl drives stalled late in the game.

“We didn’t score the points we’d probably like to score”, Chris Petersen said following the game, “But I know the quality of defense we just went against — at the end of the day, this is going to give our offense some confidence.”

For Utah, it was a comedy of errors; two defensive starters ejected for targeting, and several penalties at key moments that cooled productive drives.

The Huskies took the lead early when Myles Gaskin took it 38 yards to the house on the Huskies’ first possession. Utah fired back later in the quarter, however, on a short run from Zach Moss to tie the score at seven-a-piece going into the second quarter.

Jake Browning would give the Huskies back the lead to start that quarter by running into on short yardage and the Huskies would take a 14-7 lead to the locker room for halftime. 

The Huskies received to start the second half, but that drive was swallowed up and the Utes got the chance to try to even things up one more time, but things began to take a bad turn when Utes quarterback, Tyler Huntley completed a pass to Britain Covey that was fumbled and receoved by Taylor Rapp.

Eight plays later, the Huskies would score again when, under pressure, Jake Browning got a pass off to Ty Jones who was waiting in the endzone. That play was reviewed because, initially, it was called out of bounds. But after review, the replay showed that Jones did have both his foot and knee in the endzone during the catch and the Huskies were awarded six.

The Huskies would go to to recover another fumble, and seal the game when Utah turned the ball over twice on failed fourth-down conversions.

For the Huskies, this was a must-win game; not only was it the Pac-12 opener for Washington, but it was also the last time they were to go on the road before beginning a two-game home stand against Arizona State and BYU, respectively. 

These Utah-Washington games continue to be slug-fests but this is the first in three years that the Huskies have won by a two-touchdown margin.

The Huskies should move up one or two spots in the polls this week; #6 Wisconsin lost at home to BYU (who was unranked) and Auburn lost to #12 LSU.

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