Washington has struggled all season to finish games and once again it proved costly in a 35-31 loss to the Oregon Ducks Saturday afternoon at Husky Stadium.
“We just didn’t make enough plays on offense,” center Nick Harris said about the offensive struggles in the second half. “We just kind of hit a wall on offense. And you can’t do that with a team like that.”
The Huskies gained all the momentum right before halftime – as quarterback Jacob Eason threw a 5-yard TD pass to Andre Baccellia to give the Huskies a 21-14 lead heading to the locker room. Washington would parley that TD, with a 33-yard TD pass from Eason to true freshman Puka Nacau to give UW a 28-14 lead less than two minutes into the second half.
Washington’s offense was rolling up to that point. But they would score just three more points in the final 28:16 of the game. And the Ducks would find their rhythm on offense. The Huskies defense had a hard time tackling and could not get off the field on key third and fourth downs.
Maybe the key play of the game, came on the final play of the third quarter. The Huskies had a 31-21 lead and the Ducks faced a fourth and three on UW’s 36-yard line. Oregon caught the Huskies on a blitz and ran a WR screen to Mycah Pittman – who ran it 36 yards for a touchdown – to cut UW’s lead to 31-28.
Washington’s inconsistency on offense would be highlighted on a third down and two play on their own 28-yard line. The Huskies were clinging to a 31-28 lead with under 10 minutes remaining. The Huskies took out lead running back Salvon Ahmed and put Kamari Pleasant in the wildcat formation. Pleasant took the direct snap and was stuffed for a 2-yard loss – forcing the Huskies to punt. The wildcat call will be talked about for weeks to come as the Huskies took their best running back off the field. Ahmed finished the day with 140 yards rushing and one touchdown.
“Really successful for the entire year,” Coach Chris Petersen said about the wildcat formation on third down.”We play the percentages. That’s why we called it.”
Oregon would then go on an 8-play, 70-yard drive, that would be capped off by a 5-yard touchdown pass from QB Justin Herbert to Jaylon Redd to give Oregon a 35-31 lead with just over five minutes remaining.
Washington’s game winning drive would be stopped at Oregon’s 35 as the Huskies failed to convert on fourth down. Eason’s pass to Puka Nacua fell incomplete as it appeared that there might have been pass interference. But no flag was thrown as Oregon celebrated their second consecutive win over Washington.
Even Numbers
This was a very evenly matched game. Oregon had 434 total yards of offense to UW’s 414. Both teams did not have any takeaways. Oregon tallied the only sack of the game. The Ducks converted 2-of-3 fourth downs. UW went 2-for-3 on fourth downs.
Can’t stop the run
Washington once again had a hard time stopping the run as the Ducks had 154 yards on the ground. Coach Petersen said that the team struggled to get off blocks and missed tackles.
Quarterbacks have big day
Both Jacob Eason and Justin Herbert had big days. Eason finished the game completing 23-of-30 passes, for 289 yards, and three touchdowns. Herbert completed 24-of-38 passes, for 280 yards, and four touchdowns.
Final takeaway
This game summed up what has been the Huskies season this far. The team has looked unbelievably good at times. And other times, they have looked bad. It goes back to last week as the Huskies trailed at half to Arizona and then went on a 38-point offensive explosion in the second half to blow out the Wildcats. This team just can’t seem to put four quarters together. And it definitively showed today.
