The Washington Huskies dominated from start to finish in their first ever Big 10 conference game. Northwestern had no answers throughout the entire evening as Washington controlled the game from start to finish resulting in 24-5 victory.
At no point of the contest did it feel like the Wildcats had any momentum. The Husky defense made life miserable for Jack Lausch without his bruising back, Cam Porter, to pose a threat in the running game. Lausch was under duress almost every time he dropped back and the few times he found open receivers drops were a problem. One drop bounced off the receiver’s chest into the waiting arms of Khamori House.
The Huskies left points on the field with a missed field goal at the end of the half and a fumbled snap which was Northwestern’s only takeaway of the night. Overall, the Husky offense was able to move the ball and pick up the necessary yards to keep the drive alive.
It was clear that the embarrassing effort in the Apple Cup woke the program up. There are many positives to come out of this game. The receivers improved their blocking on the outside, the interior line dominated, Jonah Coleman can also jump, and maybe the biggest of all is penalties have been cut in half.
There are two issues that continue to plague this team that can come back to bite them as the competition gets stiffer.
Kick Coverage: Last year kick coverage was a strength of this team. Players like Carson Bruener, Tristan Dunn, and Maurice Heims looked like they were shot out of a cannon. Teams made the adjustment to take the knee and start at the 25 yard line. The super human effort by Elijah Jackson to trip up Joseph Himon II at the four yard line prevented the only touchdown of the game.
The Cougars were able to take advantage of the kick coverage often get better field position.
Teams like SC have elite return games and will take advantage of this mismatch. While it is easy to say that Grady Gross needs to kick it out of the back of the endzone, the reality they need to clean up this aspect of the game to win the field position battle.
Fumbled Snaps: There were three fumbled snaps Saturday. They came via shotgun and under center. Will Rogers has failed to catch a snap in each of the last two games. One on Saturday resulted in the only turnover of the game. Mishandled snaps have continued to plague this offense and has the possibility to rear it’s ugly head in a close game.
Overall the Huskies dominated and made good adjustments which will be needed on a short week for a Friday night road trip to New Jersey. The reality is there are still issues that can be fixed to give this Washington program the best opportunity to make noise in the conference.
