With a huge Big10 win under their belts the Huskies have no time to rest as they head out to Iowa City for a match-up with the 3-2 Iowa Hawkeyes.
On paper this Iowa team looks very similar to Michigan, and so far in on field performance they have as well. While the Huskies just defeated Michigan, the road trip, along with a 9am Pacific time kick-off provide some unique challenges for Washington today.
Here’s what the Huskies need to do to escape the midwest with a win.
Keep It Up On Defense: There’s no arguing that the offense looked good last week, but it was the performance out of this Husky defense that won the football game. From the first snaps the Huskies were moving differently than we have seen in recent memory.
Iowa’s gameplay looks a lot like Michigan’s. Run the ball whenever they can and only throw when they have to. Michigan found some success when installing a little more pass game into their approach, so expect Iowa to make an effort to seem two-dimensional.
That should be the Huskies opportunity to attack. Voi Tunuufi, and Isaiah Ward should be leading the charge on passing downs and making Cade McNamara uncomfortable.
When he does get the ball out it is on the ball-hawks in the backfield to make plays. Keep your eyes on Karen Fabiculanan and Thaddeus Dixon to make game wrecking plays.
Find A Way To Score: On the flip side of things this Iowa defense is very good, especially against the run. The Huskies are going to have to earn every yard today.
Jonah Coleman was the storyline in the early weeks, but as we have seen Will Rogers settle in and the emergence of Denzel Boston this Huskies offense has been able to move the ball pretty much however they want.
Iowa has allowed more than 100 rushing yards in a game just one time this year, if the Huskies are able to hit that mark they should win this game. But if they don’t it’s going to comedown to the ability of Will Rogers to make the big throws, and the ability of his playmakers to get open.
EXECUTE: Maybe the biggest difference between last weekend and today is the setting. A night time home game against a top-10 team has very different energy than a game kicking off at 9am on the west coast in Iowa City. Not to mention against an unranked team, despite Iowa being very close to Michigan in terms of performance.
The Huskies did pretty much everything right last week. They finally got out penalized by their opponent and that fact showed up on the scoreboard. If the Huskies want to win this game than they need to keep themselves clean.
Not only did they execute but they had the UW faithful at their backs. Kinnick Stadium will not be so friendly, Iowa fans are looking for a big win this year, and the Huskies are a perfect match.
We know what this Huskies team can do, but today we will learn a lot about who they are.
