Salvon Ahmed carried the team early, and helped set up play action.
Ahmed had 8 carries for 44 yards and a touchdown in the 1st quarter and added another 47 yards on 5 carries in the second quarter. In the second quarter the Huskies came out in I-formation ran the ball two plays then Eason faked the handoff, turned and launched a 48 yard touchdown pass to Jordan Chin. Ahmed came out of the locker room on fire early in the second half and had 5 carries for 46 yards in the third quarter. He added another 6 carries in the fourth quarter but for only 19 yards. He finished the game with 24 carries for 146 yards and a touchdown. Ahmed has shown that he can carry the load when needed but has also seemed to disappear at times. The Husky offense has now shown with the right play calling they can move the ball and score points against one of the best defenses in the country. They will now need to find a way to be more consistent with their play calling to put their players in the best position to succeed.
Husky defense is still struggling to find any pass rush.
No matter who the huskies rotate in on defense they can’t seem to find a way to get pressure on the QB. The defense rotated in a lot of guys on the defensive line and linebackers but nobody was able to get past a very good Oregon offensive line. At times today it seemed like Justin Herbert had all day to look over the defense and find an open receiver. After the game Coach Petersen mentioned the lack of pass rush as a main reason the defense struggled to get off the field. The defense finished the game with no sacks and even if one guy got in to pressure Herbert the rest of the line was blocked so well that Herbert was able to step out of the way of pressure and get the ball out. The lack of pass rush has been a real issue for the Husky defense since the beginning of the season and will need to be addressed in order for the defense to be successful the rest of the year.
Getting off blocks and bad tackling continue to hurt the Huskies run defense.
Coming into the game the Huskies knew they were going to have to be able to stop the run in order to win the game. In the first half they were able to hold the Ducks to only 42 yards rushing on 15 carries. Cj Verdell got 11 of those first half carries for 48 yards but he didn’t get any carries in the second half. The Ducks were able to make some key adjustments at halftime and came out in the second half running more inside with Cyrus Habibi-Likio and Travis Dye. The two Duck RB combined for 20 carries for 128 yards and a touchdown in the second half and that changed the momentum of the game. When Coach Petersen was asked about his struggling run defense after the game he said the problems were a combination of not being able to get off blocks and missing tackles. The Huskies ran a lot of 4-1-6 on defense today with four down lineman, Brandon Wellington in the middle as the only linebacker, and 6 DBs. The Ducks did a good job at spreading out the Husky defense then running the ball right up the middle. Levi, Tuli and the other defensive tackles did a good job at times stopping the play at the line of scrimmage but problems arose when the Oregon RBs broke through the line there was nobody there at the second level to make the tackle. UW likes playing a lot of defensive backs because it is the strength of their team but they will have to find a way to stop the run with the personnel they have playing.
Hunter Bryant continues to be the best receiving playmaker the UW offense has.
Jacob Eason has shown the ability to make any throw needed to get the Husky offense going but at times he hasn’t had enough playmakers on the field for him to get the ball to. Hunter Bryant has been the one consistent threat in the passing game and has shown why he will be an early NFL draft pick soon. Today he had 3 catches for 65 yards and honestly probably should have been targeted more just because of the mismatch he forces other defenses to deal with. So far he has 27 catches for 387 yards on the season, he is a constant mismatch and should be the number one target in the passing game. The offense has struggled to find any consistent threat to ride through the ups and downs of games Hunter has shown he could be that guy but will need to find that rhythm with Eason and step up to be a more consistent target.
New wide receivers stepped up and made plays.
Fans who have been asking to see new guys out at WR for the last few weeks finally got what they had been asking for. Aaron Fuller got the start but only played a few snaps early then was out for the rest of the game, after the game Coach Petersen said he was a little banged up coming out of last week’s game. Puka Nacua got his first career start this week and was able to show what he could do. Early in the third quarter Puka caught a short curl turned and out ran the defense for a 33 yard touchdown. Terrell Bynum got more playing time than he had all season and was able to make some plays. He finished the game with 6 catches to lead the team but for only 43 yards. Jordan Chin had a nice 48 yard touchdown catch early in the second quarter. The 3 senior WR finished with a combined 2 catches for 13 yards. With any hope of a Pac-12 championship pretty much gone I would expect to see the young WR getting more playing time in the weeks to come.
