Jake Browning, like most quarterbacks playing for a sports team located in Seattle, Washington, is fast-becoming a polarizing figure. Either you love him — or you blame every miscue in Husky Football for the past four years on him.
This article hopes to encourage all who read it to have an original thought — rather than the sheeple-ish, lemming comments that are all over Twitter following every Husky game (even the games when the Husky offense puts up over 600 yards).
Take the emotion out of it — and look at it objectively:
[icon name=”caret-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Does Browning throw bad balls? It happens to every quarterback.
[icon name=”caret-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Turning the ball over? It happens more often than any quarterback would want to admit.
But the biggest and most annoying mantra is “He just can’t win the big game”.
So let’s review the career of Jake Browning…
[icon name=”caret-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Freshman year — Washington went down to #17 USC and beat the Trojans 17-12. That was a big game.
[icon name=”caret-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] The Huskies also beat Southern Miss to win the Cotton Bowl that year.
[icon name=”caret-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Sophomore year — Nationally televised game against the #7 Pac-12 defending champ Stanford. Followed up by going on the road and beating #17 Utah.
Big games. Ranked teams.
It doens’t matter if you have three yards-passing — if you’re going to pin a loss on a quarterback, then you have to pin the wins on him too.
Right?
Wrong. This is Twitter we’re talking about. Internet message boards where everyone knows more about the game than the guys who are actually on the field playing it. And Monday Morning Quarterbacks all know the worth of a player more than highly-paid coaches.
To expect that level of fairness and common sense might be asking too much of fans who blame players for losses, but don’t apply the same standards for wins.
This began to really rear up in the 2016 season when the Huskies were 9-0 and they hosted USC at home. The loss happened, and what we didn’t know was that Browning had a nagging shoulder issue going on behind the scenes — but the Huskies would go on to take out #23 Washington State for the Apple Cup to clinch the Pac-12 North, before heading to the Pac-12 title game against #9 Colorado.
Those weren’t big games?
It truly seems that the only ‘big games’ are the games that Jake Browning has lost in his career.
This weekend if the Huskies win and Browning plays a good game — does that constitute a “big game”? Because I guarantee if it doesn’t happen then the Browning-haters will say “he just can’t win the big game”.
The beat downs against Oregon the past two seasons aren’t “big games” either?
Believe me this isn’t about defending Browning — but it’s more about the moving goalpost mentality of his critics.
Let’s also examine the “four-year-starter” issue…
As an analyst, I can assure you that being a fourth-year starter is not a cake walk for any quarterback.
The tendences are all out there for opposing teams; they’ve seen this guy play for four years. The ingredients are baked into the cake with so much game film for defensive coaches to break down, the pressure on a quarterback is that much more pronounced.
Consider how Jake Haener came in and did no wrong. For one thing, he’s a good quarterback — but also consider the fact that no one on the North Dakota staff had film on him.
Even Hugh Millen played that down, as it was a no-pressure situation for Haener and the game was already won.
I remember when jubilation broke out in Tennessee because Payton Manning was returning for his senior year.
Defenses knew very well who he was and what they were going to see.
Manning was arguably one of the top 10 best of all time. Went 11-2 overall his senior season. Had been an All American and came back with the expectation to win a Hesiman and National Title — he didn’t do either.
When there’s that much pressure on a senior quarterback and so much game film on him, it’s hard to reach those goals.
Believe me; no one puts more pressure on Jake Browning than Jake Browning.
Going further, there was an immense amount of hype for Arizona QB, Khalil Tate coming into this season. The pundits predicted that he could be the Heisman breakout player, the hidden gem of the Pac-12, etc., yet his first two games are just milquetoast and his team is 0-2.
It was easy for him to go off and blow people away when he was hot off the presses and there was no film on him, but it gets harder when tendencies are exposed and more film is studied.
Remember the “Chosen one”, Josh Rosen?
How many championships did he win? Big games? Yet Rosen never got the media scrutiny and fan scrutiny that Jake Browning has gotten.
Going Forward…
Washington is back in the top 10, they’re relevent, they have turned the tables on Oregon, they’ve split with USC and Stanford the past two meetings (respectively), they’ve made it to a college football playoff, won a Pac-12 championship outright…
And five years ago Husky fans would have eaten this up in a heart beat — but now the expectations have become like crack cocaine — they want more and more and more.
Do I get frustrated watching Browning? You bet I do — but I step back and see how tight he is and the heavy burden he carries each time he takes the field.
Five years ago Washington hadn’t beaten Oregon for over a decade, they hadn’t seen a Top 10 ranking in nearly two decades, and hadn’t won a conference title since the turn of the century.
So maybe fans should try stepping back as well and take an honest look at this quarterback.
Going into Utah this week, it doesn’t help losing your starting left tackle and your starting center is “week-to-week”. The center is the quarterback of the offensive line, and Browning practiced with Nick Harris all year.
And of course the left tackle is the body guard; protects your blind side — he’s the guy who has your back. Trey Adams has been out since the latter part of last season — you think that doesn’t get into Browning’s head a little bit? He and Browning have been playing together since their freshman year.
Washington won a natty with a good quarterback, not a great one, but they had a great offensive line that only gave up 11 sacks the entire year and stayed healthy the whole year.
If you like Browning? Great, if you don’t? Try stepping back and taking a realistic look rather than just parroting something you read on some message board or Twitter.
Twenty years from now he will be remembered as “one of the great ones”.
Browning has the talent to go all the way with this team, but mentally? I see a guy who seems to be struggling in the mental aspect.
Some fans would love to see Jake Browning go to the bench, but if he walked off the UW campus today — he left the UW football program way better than he found it.
