Washington needed a late fourth quarter comeback to beat Utah Saturday night. The comeback was capped off by a 38-yard game winning Tristan Vizcaino field goal, to give UW the 33-30 win.
Here are my grades from the game…
The offense
It wasn’t pretty for most of the game. The offense looked a lot like it did against Stanford, the week before. Washington was struggling to run the ball and inconsistent in the passing game.
But something changed with the Huskies down seven points with 2:03 remaining. The Huskies quickly marched right down the field, with a 9-play, 61-yard, 1:05, TD drive that brought Husky Stadium into a frenzy.
After getting the ball back with 29 seconds, UW ran the ball on first down. Utah called a timeout, trying to get the ball back. But the timeout backfired, as Jake Browning found Dante Pettis for 18 yards. Browning then found Andre Baccellia for 31 yards to set up the game winning Tristan Vizcaino, 38-yard field goal.
Overall, it wasn’t the best offensive performance but when the game was on the line UW came through. Jake Browning finished, 26-35 passing, for 354 yards and two touchdowns. Myles Gaskin finished with 114 yards receiving, 52 yards rushing and three total touchdowns.
Grade: B
The defense
Washington’s defense struggled to get stops for the second consecutive week. After not giving up more than 28 points since 2015 (Heart of Dallas Bowl), UW has given up 30 points in consecutive weeks. Utah finished the game with 410 yards, including 293 yards passing.
Utah quarterback, Tyler Huntley, scrambled and extended plays all night long as UW’s defense struggled to adjust. The Utes averaged 15.4 yards per completion. For the first time all season, Washington gave up a play of 40 or more yards when Huntley found Rae Singleton for a 40-yard TD.
But even though this wasn’t the performance UW’s defense has grown accustom to, they did get a few key stops to spark the comeback.
Overall, not good performance by UW’s defense. They gave up too many chunk plays and let Tyler Huntley’s mobility cause too many problems.
Grade: D-
Special Teams
Washington’s special teams was an absolute disaster last night. The Huskies missed an extra point, missed a 30-yard field goal, kicked the ball out of bounds, gave up an onside kick, and gave up a fake punt for a first down. This was not anywhere near the special teams we’re used to seeing from Washington.
Let’s chalk up this special teams performance up as a fluke – outside of the kicking game.
The one positive, was Tristain Vizcaino’s game winning 38-yard field goal.
Grade: D-
