Washington at Arizona
Like everything else mistakes writing about college football come in groups of three and since Oklahoma didn’t play Texas this past weekend—where did that come from–and UCLA didn’t upset Oregon—could have and if not for a couple of bone head penalties should have–I’m going to count my prediction of an easy win by Washington over Arizona as the third. Down 3-0 at the end of the 1st, 13-3 at the half, and 16-7 at the end of the 3rd, I’m sure if the last quarter of this game had gone like the first three they would have needed to put Husky Head Coach Jimmy Lake on suicide watch–and here I thought that first game loss to Montana was was the worst thing I would see this year. But, as Larry Stone wrote for the Seattle Times afterwards, this game against the Wildcat’s third string QB “threatened to devolve into a worst-case scenario in a season that has already been marked by massive underachievement. Nothing that’s happened so far, including the shocking loss to Montana that started them spiraling downward, would have equaled the utter embarrassment of losing to Arizona.” This is an Arizona team that lost to Colorado 34-0 just the week before, a win for the Buffalos that kept them out of the basement in the South—the basement that has permanently belonged to the Wildcats this season. This is an Arizona team that has given up an average of 32 points a game, worst in the PAC-12, up until this debacle by the Huskies. Yes, the Huskies finally prevailed with a 14 point 4th Qtr while holding Arizona at bay. But by then I sure as hell wasn’t watching—I couldn’t. Just like the opener against Montana, I was gone at the half. Final score, 21-16, and Arizona’s national longest losing streak—a streak that goes back to the 2019 season–continues at 19 games.
Jimmy Lake’s comments afterwards were like throwing a cup of water onto a building fire as he said; “Believe me, we’d rather win by lot than a little, but a win is a win. We’re finding out a lot about ourselves going through tough losses, and going through tough wins.” Hey Jimmy, the time for self-discovery is spring ball and pre-conference—not almost losing to a squad in the bottom 15% of the entire 130 team FBS during the portion of the season that matters. The game ball goes to 6’ 2” 300 lb defensive lineman Tuli Letuligasenoa who intercepted a ball from Wildcat QB Will Plummer early in the 4th Qtr on the 7th play of a drive that was down to the Washington 29 yard line. A 51 yard pass from Washington QB Dylan Morris to Terrell Bynum and 3 running plays later the Huskies were in the end zone on a 9 yard run by Freshman RB Cameron Davis—now only trailing 16-14.
After holding the Wildcats to a three-and-out on their next possession, Washington scores again on a 7 play, 82 yard drive, that includes another 51 yard pass to Junior WR Terrell Bynum, and a Dylan Morris 8 yard TD pass to Rome Odunze that finally puts them out in front 21-16 with 6:44 left in the game. After holding Arizona to yet another three-and-out and running the clock down on a long seven play drive resulting in a punt with less than a minute left, the Huskies intercept QB Jake Plummer on the fifth play of the Wildcats ensuing drive–this time by Sophomore DB Asa Turner as time mercifully ran out.
The Huskies were down five starters and lost another during the course of the game, but they should have been able to take out Arizona with an entire team consisting solely of back-ups. Mike Vorel, sports writer for the Seattle Times, described it this way; “They looked like a Jackson Pollock painting of poor play calls, errant passes and atrocious run fits, splattered across a turf canvas on national television. The Huskies rebounded . . . but for the first three quarters, it looked like rock bottom.” If I have to pick out a couple positive things it would be; 1. Morris finally has more TD’s than interceptions on the year having thrown for 217 yards, 2 TD’s, and no picks in this one and; 2. Washington’s pass rush was effective holding Arizona QB Will Plummer to just 68 yards on the night, no TD’s and 2 interceptions. But the Husky offensive line was horrible as Washington rushed for less than 100 yards and Morris was sacked four times while the Arizona defense picked up eight tackles for loss.
Washington only had one more first down, 25 more yards of total offense, and an extra minute on the field compared to Arizona. Without the 4th Qtr interception that led to a Husky TD the Wildcats would have won this game instead of Washington just squeaking by. Joseph Butler, the father of Husky OL Sav’ell Smalls, tweeted this during the game; “[I am] crushed right now watching this debacle!!! It’s completely over and I don’t care what you die hard UW fans and alumni say. Jimmy (Lake) & Company need to be fired right now!!!” Yeah, the families and fans are pissed and disappointed. As one of only nine 5-star recruits in the PAC-12 Joseph was hoping his son signed up with the Washington team that we all expected to see this year—not what we’ve seen so far. I don’t think things get better for either of these teams next weekend as Washington goes on the road to play a Stanford team that will have had a bye week to get healthy and prepare while Arizona travels to the Coliseum to face a USC team coming off a 31-16 loss to Notre Dame on the road.
Oregon at UCLA
With five fumbles and four interceptions combined this was a game either team could have prevailed in. Through the first quarter UCLA had Oregon’s number and made it look like this was going to be an easy upset. I mean even after throwing up an interception on their own side of the fifty yard line UCLA was able to block Oregon’s punt at the end of their failed ensuing drive and score a TD four plays later—up 14-0 at the end of the 1st Qtr. But Oregon came back scoring a TD on back-to-back possessions to tie the score—both by RB Travis Dye. With under three minutes left in the half the Bruins went on a 15 play, 56 yard drive, that included two fumbles by DTR—one down at the Oregon 11 yard line—but both recovered by UCLA with the last the result of a sack by Oregon LB Keyvon Thibodeaux with 2 seconds left in the half. Since the Ducks would be getting the ball after the break Chip Kelly decided to take the 3 points and the lead going into the locker room.
The Ducks scored TD’s on back-to-back possessions right out of the gate to start the 3rd Qtr with the second aided by a UCLA fumble at their own 33 yard line. Four plays later Oregon RB Travis Dye ran into the end zone on a five yard TD, his fourth of the day, to go up 27-17 half-way through the 3rd. UCLA’s ensuing possession stalled nine plays later on their own 43 yard line forcing a punt. Four plays later Oregon fumbled the ball back to the Bruins and it looked like UCLA had a chance to reduce the deficit down to a single possession. But an incomplete pass by DTR and another sack by Thibodeaux forced UCLA to hand the ball back after a failed attempt on 4th and 18 at the Oregon 38 yard line to start the final period.
Over the course of the next five minutes both teams would score a TD, now 34-24, followed by an interception by Oregon on their third play after the kickoff at their own 21 yard line. Seven plays later UCLA would finally cut that lead down to a single score, 34-31, on another TD run by RB Brittain Brown. 51 yards and 8 plays later, Oregon’s QB Anthony Brown was intercepted again at the UCLA 24 with exactly three minutes to play—plenty of time for the Bruins to drive down the field and make this upset a reality or at the very least kick a field goal and send the game into overtime at home in the Rose Bowl. But with just 65 seconds left and after another bruising hit by Oregon’s Thibodeaux, DTR left the game handing the ball off to back-up Freshman Ethan Garbers who had only thrown two passes so far in his entire college career. After converting on 4th and 8 he was picked by CB DJ James on a sidelines pass in which his passive receiver stood there while James moved in front of him for the game saving interception. Reminds me of how Seattle lost a Super Bowl.
Between the fumbles, interceptions, and penalties there were so many ways the Bruins should have and could have won this game. They gave back two interceptions, one in the red zone that led to an Oregon TD on a ridiculous defensive offside penalty by the same guy who caught the interception and had clearly set up at least a foot in front of the offensive line. On the next play he got called for the same penalty. Once OK, but twice, you’re kidding me. I didn’t forget I wrote last week that with CJ Verdell out with injury Oregon’s great RB Travis Dye wouldn’t be able to keep up with the one-two punch of UCLA RB’s Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown. And as far as yards go, he didn’t. But that’s small compensation for the fact that although he only rushed 14 times for 35 yards, 4 of those were for TD’s against the combined total of 3 for Brown and DTR. Oregon’s QB Anthony Brown completed 29-of-39 for almost 50 yards more than DTR, but didn’t have a single TD in the air and threw up two golden opportunity interceptions, one resulting in UCLA handing the ball right back to the Ducks with an interception of their own.
All of this and UCLA still could have won the game had their offensive line played well. After averaging 220 yards on the ground in the seven previous games, they were held to exactly half of that against the Ducks whose defense picked up 11 tackles for loss. On top of that DTR was hounded all game long in the course of being sacked 4 times. With the loss, UCLA drops to 3rd place in the PAC-12 South but can move back up into the number two spot with a with over Utah this coming Saturday—a must win for both schools. Oregon heads back home for what should be a fairly easy contest against Colorado.
Colorado at Cal
Colorado and Cal have the exact same records, 2-5 overall and 1-3 in conference. But this past Saturday they didn’t look anywhere near equal on the field as Cal dominated in every category on their way to a 26-3 victory at home in Berkeley. Led by their defense, who were credited with six sacks and twelve tackles for loss, Cal held the Buffaloes to just 69 yards in the air and 35 yards on the ground—no TD’s, one interception, and one fumble. The game ball for Colorado went to Junior Punter Josh Watts who came up to the plate and delivered 342 combined yards on 7 punts, with honorable mention going to their Freshman Place Kicker, Cole Becker, who provided the Buffaloes their only points of the night on a 33 yard field goal half-way through the second quarter to put them within 10 points of the Bears at 13-3—as close as they would ever get.
Cal didn’t miss a beat the first half, leading 10-0 at the end of the 1st Qtr and 23-3 at the break. After the half there were only 3 more total points scored in the 3rd and 4th Qtr by either team, and they belonged to the Bears on a 33 yard field goal by Junior Place Kicker Dario Longhetto–one of four on the night. The rest of the second half consisted of a combined nine punts and one interception. Cal’s Senior QB Chase Garbers connected on 22-of-29 for 225 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions in addition to rushing for 96 yards on 10 attempts which was enough for Garbers to become the school’s all-time career rushing leader for a QB. Collectively, the Bear’s rushed 40 times for 213 yards, converted 23 first downs to 7 for Colorado, and had 438 total yards of offense compared to 104 for the Buffaloes.
Having struggled through a tough year so far the Bears were pretty happy after this one with Cal Head Coach Justin Wilcox having this to say; “It feels really good. Lots of smiling faces in the locker room right now. I want them to enjoy this. It’s been a difficult stretch. Winning feels good but also we don’t want it to be the highlight of the season.” In the other locker room Karl Dorrell, after not coaching college football for many years, in his first year as Head Coach of Colorado last year won the PAC-12 AP Coach of the Year, finished 4-2 in a COVID restricted season, and earned his team an invitation to the Alamo Bowl. This year Colorado, in a full season, will probably end up with no more wins than the two wins they already have. As Coach Dorrell said afterwards; “That wasn’t the type of game I was expecting at all. We have a lot of work to do. We have to change things up to be more productive and more efficient and more effective . . . It was not a very good performance today.” Not sure either team will have much success this coming weekend as Colorado stays on the road to take on No. 7 Oregon in Eugene while Cal hosts Oregon State who only needs one more win to become bowl eligible.