Day number 228 for Jedd Fisch at Washington and his defense pitched a first-half shutout against Weber State enroute to a 35-3 victory.  Much of that was to the singular value that new Defensive Coordinator Steve Belichick highlighted at practice before the season.  “You’ve got to start with tackling. You’ve got to get the ballcarrier on the ground”.

And that’s something that WSU wasn’t able to do against whatever running back Fisch rolled out as the Huskies had 221 rushing yards on 31 carries (subtracting the 17 negative yards on sacks).  Arizona transfer Jonah Coleman had 16 carries for 127 yards and 3 touchdowns–and that’s not including a 44-yard score wiped out on a holding call on Quentin Moore.

Additionally, UW starting quarterback Will Rogers threw for 250 yards completing 20 of 26 passes and a TD.

Going back to the defensive side of the ball, it sounds simple enough, but it is an area in which the Huskies have struggled over the past couple of seasons.  The Huskies did not dominate on the defensive line by getting massive pressure into the backfield, but there was hardly a missed tackle throughout the game.

Another area the Huskies excelled in was secondary play.  There were many plays where the coverage led to pressure on the QB, the pass was broken up, or a big tackle was made in the backfield or on a screen.

Thaddeus Dixon promised that the secondary would be better than last year during an August practice, and this is a good step toward making that a reality.  Weber State QB Richie Munoz finished with under 100 passing yards on just 34.5% completion, and Dixon was a standout, as was transfer CB Ephesians Prysock and nickel Jordan Shaw.

Now, into the specifics of what looks Coach Belichick presented.

Base Defense: 

As expected, the Huskies were most often playing in a 4-2-5 defense.  The regular starters were mostly the same as what any diligent fan has read throughout fall camp, but there are a few differences between the depth chart released by Coach Fisch earlier in the week and what we saw on Saturday.

Defensive Tackle Jayvon Parker did not play a significant amount while working his way back from injury, but the entire defensive line did rotate a significant amount even within that base formation.

The linebacker room was exactly as listed on the depth chart, with Carson Bruener and Alphonso Tuputala taking the vast majority of the snaps and Bryun Parham seeing a lot of the field as well.

In the secondary, there were not a lot of surprises, but Darren Barkins who had been put as a potential starter did not see a lot of the field.

Amazingly it only led to one 3 and out on the night.

Interesting Alignment: 

Early in the 2nd half, the Huskies rolled out a play without a single interior defensive line player on the field.  There were three edge rushers and two inside linebackers on the field.  This is a package that was used quite a bit during camp, and fans will see a lot of it on late down and long-distance situations throughout the season.

Fun Stat Line: 

The Washington defense had 7 pass breakups.  For most of the game it was the defensive ends of Isiah Ward, Zach Durfee and Jayden Wayne.  In the first 20 minutes of the game it was Dixon who set the table for Weber State QB Munoz going 11 for 32 for less than 100 yards as he had 2 PBUs.

Final Note:

The 3 points allowed by the Washington defense was the least allowed since September 18, 2021.  A shutout would have been the first for the Huskies since September 12th, 2015.

Washington will try to build off of this defensive performance against Eastern Michigan at 3:30 on Big Ten Networks next Saturday.