Oregon at Washington
By the time this one was over Washington QB Dylan Morris will have notched yet another game with more interceptions than TD’s and Head Coach Jimmy Lake will have gone all Woody Hayes on one of his own players in a 26-16 loss to the Ducks at home in Alaska Airlines Husky Stadium. It looked good at the beginning for Washington as the stadium was packed with rabid Husky fans all decked out in their Purple Rain ponchos and screaming their heads off as the Husky’s intercepted Oregon on their first possession, ran it back 50 yards to the Oregon 6 yard line, and then scored two plays later on a Sean McGrew 5 yard TD run. Washington up 7-0. But other than a safety that’s all the scoring Washington would do in this game until the 4th Quarter. Sound familiar, it should because as far as conference play goes Washington scores 3 points or less per quarter played exactly 50% of the time this year.
The prolific Junior RB Travis Dye had another field day for the Ducks rushing 28 times for 211 yards and 1 TD with Brown also picking up a score on 12 carries for 63 yards. Freshman RB Byron Cardwell kicked in another 55 yards on 16 carries of the Ducks 329 total rushing yards on the night. Cardwell’s 55 yards matched the entire rushing total for the Husky’s although it took eight more carries to get there. Sean McGrew picked up 48 of those for Washington along with 2 rushing TD’s of his own. In the air, Oregon Senior QB Anthony Brown connected on 10-of-20 for 98 yards, 1 TD, and 1 interception. For Washington, Morris was 15-of-27 for 111 yards, no TD’s, and 1 interception.
As the AP pointed out in their recap for ESPN this was the second time this year that a team rushed for more than 300 yards against Washington. In comparison, between 2014 to 2020 only one team had topped 300 yards rushing on the Huskies. As it turns out that was Oregon as well, but the point being that Washington’s run defense has deteriorated and in this game seemed non-existent most of the time. Put that together with a game plan that produces seven three-and-outs as it did and a passing offense that throws for interceptions almost as frequently as they throw TD’s and you have what you see on the field—a big mess.
In what will be the beginning of multiple changes in the Husky staff Offensive Coordinator John Donovan was fired on Sunday, the day after the loss. When Washington AD Jen Cohen gets a chance to review the video of Head Coach Jimmy Lake going all Woody Hayes on one of his players he may be next–a suspension for sure. Percy Allen, Seattle Times Staff Reporter, described the context and what happend as follows: “In the first half Lake rushed to break up a skirmish between UW and Oregon players at the end of a Husky kick return and in doing so hit freshman walk-on linebacker Ruperake Fuavai in the facemask. And when Fuavai turned to walk away, Lake forcefully shoved him in the back with two hands.” When asked about the incident during a postgame interview Lake said; “I separated them, I didn’t strike him, I separated them.” The problem being the entire event was caught by ABC and it’s clear that Lake is providing an alternate set of facts to what really happened. Lake’s dismissal by Cohen would be a welcome relief for a fan base that is pretty fed up and convinced that he was a very good defensive coordinator under the watchful eye of Chris Peterson but is not head coaching material. To be continued.