They say football is a game of inches, but it’s also a game of numbers. And there’s a story behind each of those numbers following every football game.
Here’s a review of what story the numbers told after the Huskies beat Eastern on Saturday, 47-14.
10 – The Jacob Eason era started with his first pass as a Husky was thrown into the ground as he went out of bounds. From that point on in the first quarter he was smoking hot hitting 9 straight passes as he ended the quarter hitting 9 straight. He finished the quarter 9 – 10 for 110 yards and two TDs.
For the game Eason completed 27 passes out of 36 attempts for 349 yards with 4 tds 0 interceptions.
9 – Jacob Eason’s first TD pass as a Husky was a perfectly placed 50-yard bomb to Andere Baccelia. The throw looked effortless…and it was just the beginning of an explosive offensive performance by the UW. In total they had 9 plays of over 20 yards including 3 plays of 30 yards or more.
All told 9 different players has a reception or rush of over 15 yards: Baccelia, Fuller, Bryant, Bynum, Mcclatcher, Otton, McGrew, Newton, and Braxton.
8 – Washington jumped out to a 21-point first quarter lead on the backs of 3 short fields. In their first drive of the season they drove 55 yards in 8 plays. Richard Newton scored on a 23-yard run. The next two drives were 50 yards each. Their second “drive” was 1 play 50 yards in 8 seconds followed by a 9 play drive that took 2:12 off of the clock.
Of the 8 times Washington scored (7 offense and 1 defense) they had 6 drives of 8 plays or more. Eastern had 6 drives of 3 plays or less.
7 – Obviously some of the offense being explosive had to do with the quality of the opponent. But some was the trust that the 2nd year offensive coordinator had in Eason’s arm. UW averaged 7 yards per play and Eason 13.2 yards per completion.
Freshman Richard Newton nearly rushed for 100 yards on 12 carries for an average of over 7 yards a carry.
6 – Chris Petersen laid the challenge for the receivers to take a step forward this season. To have a cohesive passing attack others would have to take steps forward that weren’t in the receivers room. Namely, Bush Hamdan with his playcalling and a QB that could go down field.
Hunter Bryant led all Washington receivers with 6 catches for 81 yards and 13.5 yards per reception with a long off 27 yards. In fact, all of 6 Washington’s receivers averaged over 11 yards per reception.
5 – MJ Tafisi finished third on the team with 5 tackles…two of which were reminiscent of Azeem Victor pre-injury type of hits. The first of the two slobber-knockers sent the EWU kick returner backwards 3 yards.
Late in the game Tafisi got in another big hit as he lowered the boom on an Eastern returner. Going down on first contact might have been the best thing to happen to the ball carrier because Edifuan Ulofushoio was cued up to unload another bone-jarring hit. Last season Ulofoshio dropped the hammer on two OSU returners forcing two fumbles.
4 – On Monday Benning Potoa’e’s name appeared second on the depth chart surprising most everybody. If Washington Head Coach, Chris Petersen, did that to put a chip on his shoulder then it certainly served its purpose because Potoa’e played possessed. The move from the edge to the interior of the defense paid off immediately.
Although he only finished with 4 tackles on the day he had 3 tackles for loss and two sacks. Those sack numbers only tell a portion of the havoc brought. He has not lost the speed as he beefed up to 290 pounds. But what Washington liked was the speed that he brought off of the edge they love that at 290 pounds he’s going to be quicker than most if the offensive linemen he faces.
3 – Backup QB, Jacob Sirmon, finished out the game with 3 kneel downs for minus 4 yards. Coach Pete elected to be conservative with the ground games especially with Center, Nick Harris nicked up and sidelined for much of the game.
The final one went for minus two yards giving the Dawgs exactly 200 yards on the ground.
2 – Aaron Fuller made three Sports Center-worthy catches…two setting off the Air Raid siren. For Eason’s second passing TD in the purple and hold he put the ball a spot where only one person had a shot at it: Fuller…but even that looked impossible…reminiscent of Quinton Pounds’ TD reception against Auburn in the 2018 season opener in nearly the same spot.
1 – The bookends on the scoring on the day came from two freshmen: running back, Richard Newton, and linebacker, Laiatu Latu. Both player’s first registered statistic produced scores. Newton’s broke a few tackles on his way to a 23 yard TD.
Washington Punter, Race Porter, dropped a perfect pooch punt that was downed at the 1 yard line. One play later Laiatu dropped Eastern’s Isaiah Lewis in the end zone for Washington’s final two points. In doing so he helped Washington cover the spread.
