The Washington Huskies have an opportunity to recalibrate and put on an offense show before a brutal November slate that will determine their bid for a playoff berth. The week after Stanford, Washington will head to the Coliseum to take on USC.
Because of the poor showing last week against Arizona State I don’t foresee another dud of a game from the Husky offense. Washington failed to score an offensive touchdown for the first time in the Kalen DeBoer era. Ryan Grubb talked about how disappointed (and “pissed”) in how he prepared the team a week ago.
Washington had a dangerous wakeup call and got out with a win, but much of the good vibes from beating Oregon and the dominant first half of the season are gone.
I believe that the team will respond with a focused effort to execute at a high level.
It also helps that reinforcements are coming. Washington has been beat up this season with key losses on both sides of the ball. Grubb said that receiver Jalen McMillan and Julius Buelow will be back this week.
Getting those two back will be a huge boost to the program. Even with Rome Odunze and Ja’Lynn Polk playing at a high level, McMillan has been sorely missed. His ability to expose the middle of the field and chunk defenses has been non-existent.
It is easy to quantify Buelow’s value to the offensive line. Washington was able to hold up against Oregon, but ASU exploited the middle of the O-line when Landen Hatchett was moved to the center. Buelow return puts Parker Brailsford back to center and the experienced Buelow back into his natural position.
Landen’s older brother will likely be back at one of the guards positions—that’s essentially the line that did so well against Luzon
Then there is Stanford. They stormed back against Colorado for a 43-42 OT win, outside of that game Stanford, especially on the defensive side of the ball, has looked atrocious against everyone.
The Cardinal have given up more than 315 yards through the air and are 11th in the conference giving up 36 points a game. Washington’s offense should have no problems finding their rhythm against this defense and getting Michael Penix and this offense back to clicking on all cylinders.
The Stanford offense has had major issues with getting the ball into the end zone. They are averaging about 21 points a game, but their losses to UCLA, USC, and Oregon only resulted in one touchdown.
Washington’s defense has taken some major steps forward this year including the big stops against Oregon and a dominant effort against ASU-albeit with the assistance of an over-bearing Husky Stadium.
Stanford also tries to control the ball for as long as possible against the top teams in the conference in an attempt to keep the game from getting out of hand too early.
With all that in mind, I believe that this game will be very similar to UW’s matchup with Oregon except that Washington won’t go three and out to start resulting in only one possession in the first quarter.
I expect Washington to execute early and make this a laugher before the half.
Washington -27.5 under 60.5
Washington 45 Stanford 13
