Two weeks into the season the story of the Washington Huskies have been the explosive offense. Could the Washington Husky offense be on the trajectory towards a record-setting year? With just two games under their belt, it is too early to crown this year’s offense but there are signs that it could be the best offense on Montlake since Jake Browning, Myles Gaskin, John Ross, and Dante Pettis combined for a historic season in 2016.
One of the easiest ways to spot a good offense is to look for a team with the most explosive plays. The definition of an explosive play is a run of 12+ yards or a pass of 16+ yards. Last year the Huskies were one of the worst teams in the country in producing explosive plays. Over the 12-game season, they only had 88 explosive plays, an average of 7.3 per game. Over the second half of the season, they were even worse averaging only 5 explosive plays per game.
The first two games of the season show that the Huskies have already hit 26 total explosive plays, 18 passes, and 8 runs. That is an astonishing 33-percent of the total number the Huskies had last season.
Being better than last season was a given, in comparison to the 2016 offense the Huskies this season have already hit as many explosive plays through 2 games as the 2016 team did through 3.
When transferring from Indiana the main question about Michael Penix was if he would be able to return to the success he had in 2019 under Coach Deboer.
In week 1 against Kent State, Penix, and the Huskies showed us that they would have no problem hitting the explosive pass plays the team needs. Michael Penix hit 10 passes of over 16 yards in week 1.
Those numbers include a couple of deep corner routes that may have opened the eyes of NFL scouts and put the rest of the conference on notice. With the deep but underutilized WR group returning from last season, the Huskies have all the pieces to go toe-to-toe with any passing offense in the country.
Last week Penix and company’s offensive output backed up the week 1 numbers against Kent State. The Huskies have continued to hit explosive plays in the passing game but also showed the ability to run for explosive plays.
In the game against Portland St, Washington had eight plays of over 12 yards which is more than any game last season. Wayne Taulapapa and Cam Davis each ran for three each and Richard Newton added two more late in the game.
In 2021 the Huskies only had 24 explosive runs the entire season, never had more than 6 in a game, and had 9 games with 2 or less. Coming into the season it was expected that Deboer and Grubb would bring an offense capable of hitting explosive pass plays. But seeing this early ability to hit explosive plays in both the pass and run game is a good sign for continued success this season.
2016 was coincidentally also the last time the Huskies matched up with Portland St, that year the Huskies won 41-3. In that game, Myles Gaskin and Lavon Coleman combined for 152 of the Huskies’ 213 rushing yards. Last weekend Huskies rushed for 241 yards. Through 2 weeks Washington has already hit multiple offensive markers that haven’t been hit since 2016. Jalen McMillan and Giles Jackson went both went over 100 yards receiving Saturday against Portland St. That is the first time the Huskies have had two 100-yard receivers in a game since the California game in 2016 when Dante Pettis and John Ross both went over the century mark.
The 99-yard touchdown drive the Huskies had on Saturday was only the fourth time in Husky history, and the first time since 2004 of a drive of that length. Penix connected with Jalen McMillan for 84-yard touchdown pass. That completion is tied for the seventh longest pass in Husky history and the longest since Cyler Miles hit John Ross for an 86-yard touchdown pass in 2014. The Huskies finished with 617 total yards of offense Saturday–the first 600-yard game since 2018 versus North Dakota State.
This also gave the Huskies back-to-back 500-yard games which was another first since the 2016 season.
Even though it is early in the season and the Huskies have not faced a quality defense, with all the firsts since 2016 it is easy to draw those comparisons. This coming week the Huskies will face more than enough for a first test.
Michigan St has one of the best defenses in the Big Ten and will show us all we need to know about this Husky offense. Will the offensive line be able to hold up against a Michigan State’s or Stanford’s pass rush? Will Penix be able to drive the ball down the field against more athletic defenses? Will Tualapapa and Davis be able to get chunk plays in the run game?
