After back-to-back games of second half surges, the Washington Huskies’ second-half offensive machine screeched to a halt in a 24-7 loss to the Michigan Wolverines. Missing the left side of its offensive line, UW couldn’t mount a rushing attack leading to a scoreless second half after 3 Demond Williams, Jr. interceptions.
Instead of running all-out blitzes on Washington’s second year QB, the Wolverines varied the defensive looks, dropping defenders into coverage, often making Williams throw into traffic. The result speaks for itself, but here’s a statistical look at UW’s second half performance:
0–The Huskies scored zero points in the second half. In fact, on two drives in the second half UW was able to run only 1 play for zero yards as Michigan picked off passes on the first play of drives.
2–Washington lost 2 tight ends in the game. Starting tight end Quentin Moore was blocking on a punt and appeared to sustain a neck injury. He was taken to a local hospital for observation. Replacing him was Lynden-native Kade Eldrige who was injured soon after and, according to Husky head coach Jedd Fisch, probably won’t be available soon.
3–With the teams locked in a defensive battle, the Husky D gave the ball back to the offense twice with turnovers on downs. However, Washington’s offense turned the ball over with 3 interceptions and a turnover on downs with the latter being a 4-play drive that went backwards 8 yards, giving Michigan the ball at the Husky 17. Michigan ate up nearly 4 and a half minutes going 9 yards on 7 plays, to kick the final 3 points of the game.
4–In the middle of the three interceptions, Michigan’s defense held on downs on just 4 plays for -8 yards. On those four drives the Huskies ran a total of 9 plays for 25 yards.
5–The Husky offense mustered 5 explosive plays total, but none over 20 yards in the second half. In the first half connected with Denzel Boston, Raiden Vines-Bright and Jonah Coleman. In the second half the longest play for UW was a 17-yard connection with Dezmen Roebuck.
6–On UW’s 6 drives in the second half the Huskies managed to run more than 4 plays once, running 10 plays for a mere 27 yards. In total those drives consumed a mere 8 minutes and 9 seconds. More troubling is that the turnovers kept the Husky defense on the field for over 13 of the 15 minutes.
7–Washington’s only 7 points came in the 2nd quarter after a pass completion from Williams, Jr to Raiden Vines-Bright for 31 put the ball on the UM 11. He nearly scored 2 plays later, going out of bounds at the 1. Jonah Coleman punched the ball in from there giving him 13 rushing TDs and 14 total TDs.
-8–The Huskies managed minus 8 yards of total offense in the 4th quarter. That includes a missed field goal by Grady Gross. In the 3rd quarter UW had 16 yards on 5 carries. With -8 yards on the 4th down fumble by Williams, the Huskies finished up with -8 rushing yards in the second half.
9–In total, Washington had the ball 10 times–9 times it came up dry.
10–Demond Williams averaged over 10 yards per completion–10.4 to be more accurate. However, in the 4th quarter he was 0-1 with the incomplete pass being an interception.
The Huskies play Illinois next Saturday at an undetermined time.
