There are no words for what happened on the field against the 1-4 Arizona State Sun Devils. Washington’s offense was able to keep pace as best they could in the 45-38 loss, but their defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed and gave up nearly 400 yards of offense to an Arizona State offense led by backup quarterback Trenton Bourguet for the majority of the game.
Excluding halftime, the defense only forced two punts and one turnover through the Sun Devils’ nine drives. Arizona State was 9/13 on third down, and rushed for nearly five yards a carry as a team, led by Xazavian Valladay, who had 111 yards on the ground and a touchdown. It looked like Valladay had his choice of gigantic gaps to run through up front, especially against a Husky front that was light on bodies, and called on true freshman Jayvon Parker to play in his third career game.
As chaotic as it was up front, the secondary was in shambles all game long outside of an interception from Davon Banks. Redshirt freshman Elijah Jackson got the first start of Husky career, and looked solid until he had to leave the game with an injury. As promising as he looked, it’s hard to say that about the rest of the secondary, and leaves a lot of questions to be asked about the coaching staff’s scheme on defense. The scheme has asked the safeties, namely Alex Cook and Kamren Fabiculanen, to play a lot of man coverage and that has clearly bitten them pretty hard in the back-to-back losses.
With edge players consistently dropping into coverage before missing tackles or being unable to hang in coverage, the Huskies have gotten practically zero pressure on the opposition in both losses. In fact, since recording eight sacks against Stanford, they’ve recorded none in the two games since.
Michael Penix Jr’s interception that careened off of Jaxson Kirkland’s helmet and into the arms of Jordan Clark who took it 38 yards for a score ended up being in the difference in the game, but he kept the offense afloat, throwing for 311 yards and rushing for a touchdown. He didn’t throw for a touchdown for the first time this season, but Cameron Davis picked up the slack, rushing for three scores on the day. Penix also dodged a bullet, avoiding a major injury late in the fourth quarter after a dirty targeting call when he got sandwiched between a few Arizona State defenders.
There’s no sugarcoating this loss. After UCLA beat Utah on Saturday, that loss can’t be looked at as a bad one. But going to Tempe ranked 21st in the country, and giving up almost 400 yards and 45 points in a loss to a 1-4 team with an interim head coach is frankly unacceptable. The coaching staff has one week to figure it out before a homecoming matchup with the Arizona Wildcats and their high-flying passing offense. Hopefully coming home (no pun intended) will help right the ships, or things could go awry on Montlake in a hurry.
