Washington handled business against Eastern Washington Saturday afternoon. The Huskies, 47-14 win extended their home winning streak to 15 games. Below I hand out grades for the game.
The Offense
Led behind quarterback Jacob Eason, the Huskies scored touchdowns on their first three drives. Eason looked very comfortable considering he hadn’t played in a live football game in almost two years. The 6-foot-6 product out of Lake Stevens finished 27-36 passing for 349 yards and four touchdowns. Sure it was against an FCS opponent but Eason made NFL throws throughout the day and it was a great start to the season.
“He was good,” Petersen said on Eason’s play. “I think that our line did a nice job of getting him the ability to set his feet. It was a really good day one. I don’t want to move on too fast, but I know the challenge is going to be a lot different next week. I think it was good for him to get hit a little bit today. He covered the game there today.”
Washington’s offensive line played extremely well. The veteran line did not allow a sack and gave Eason plenty of time to throw the ball. Washington’s offensive line also got plenty of push in the run game as UW ran for 200 yards. Starting center Nick Harris left with an injury in the first quarter and did not return. That’s a concern going into next week but he was walking on the sideline after the injury.
Overall, this was a great start for the offense. UW averaged 7.0 yards per play and racked up 570 yards. As always under Chris Petersen, the offense showed balance, with 43 rush attempts to 38 pass attempts. We will get a better idea where this offense is next week going against a very good California defense.
Grade: A
Washington’s defense really tighten things up after a first halve that saw Eastern rack up 198 yards that included a 64-yard TD catch from Andrew Boston. Last season, UW allowed just one play of 40 or more yards. UW’s defense allowed just 76 yards after halftime.
“I thought it was really good,” Chris Petersen said about the defense’s performance. “There are a couple of things that I know Eastern beat us on. We were looking at a lot of offense in preparation for this one, we were looking at Eastern’s offense and Central’s offense. There was a lot of offense thrown at these guys. I thought for the most part it was good. There are a few tackling things that we need to work on. We need to make our tackles a little cleaner.”
Washington’s defense for the most of the game played good. UW finished with four sacks and a safety in the win. Eastern averaged just 4.2 yards per play despite the long TD.
One thing UW’s defense did not have was a turnover which was a little surprising.
Overall, the defense played well against a quality FCS offense. But this group I grade tough. They had a few missed tackles, gave up a long TD, and had no takeaways. This defense will improve over the year with so many new faces.
Grade: B
Special Teams
The special teams unit had a very good day for the Huskies. Joel Whitford punted two times for an average of 50 yards per punt. Whitford’s first punt went 52 yards and was downed at EWU’S 3-yard line. Race Porter also got a chance to punt and it couldn’t have gone better. Porter’s lone punt traveled 38 yards and was downed at EWU’s 1-yard line.
Washington’s kickoff coverage which was questionable at times last year, was very good yesterday. EWU had just two kick returns for a total of just 29 yards.
Peyton’s Henry made his lone field goal from 22 yards out.
Overall, this was probably one of the better specials teams day’s UW has had in awhile. Chris Petersen takes great pride in special teams and it paid off.
Grade: A
