It took a little while for the Huskies to get un-tracked in Week-1 and their ground game certainly needs to get better. But after getting blanked in the 1st Qtr their talented southpaw QB, Michael Penix-Jr, cranked it up in the 2nd while throwing four of his five TD’s—two to Jr WR Jalen McMillan who also took a direct snap into the end zone on the first play of the 4th Qtr. Penix-Jr connected on 70+% of his passes for 450 yards, 5 TD’s and no interceptions. Six receivers picked up multiple receptions with WR’s Rome Odunze and Ja’Lynn Polk along with TE’s Jack Westover and Josh Cuevas combining for well over 300 yards as well as a TD each for Odunze, Polk and Westover. Even backup QB Dylan Morris got involved in the action late in the 4th Qtr connecting with Cuevas on a 31 yard TD to put Washington up 56-19 where it stayed. Looking at the box score you might get the impression that the Huskies are running Mike Leach’s Air Raid as of their 568 yards of total offense only 78 yards of that came on the ground—although it did produce 2 TD’s. One on the direct snap to McMillan mentioned above and the other by Jr. RB Dillon Johnson.
After the 1st Qtr Washington never trailed in the game, up 28-12 at the half, 35-19 after three and holding the Bronco’s scoreless in the 4th while putting up another 21 points. The Sophomore Boise State QB Taylen Green struggled, connecting on less than 50% of his passes for 244 yards, 1 TD, and 2 interceptions. The Bronco’s outpaced the Huskies on the ground rushing 28 times for 138 yards and 1 TD by Sophomore RB Ashton Jeanty. Washington barely edged out Boise State regarding 1st downs, 22-21, and neither team set the world on fire regarding their third down conversion percentage with Washington just slightly more efficient while converting 40% of the time compared to 35% of the time for the Bronco’s.
Regarding Penix’s performance the AP, in their recap for ESPN noted that; “The five TDs matched Penix’s previous high set during a 2020 game against Ohio State while he was still at Indiana. He finished one TD pass shy of Washington’s school record of six set by Jake Browning during the 2016 season.” Boise State is the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West but what was projected by many to be a weak secondary certainly proved to be true against Washington’s prolific signal caller.
The run game for the Huskies is expected to improve behind what is a newly configured starting five on the line. As Head Coach DeBoer commented after the game; “We’re just not quite there yet as a whole group [with] everyone in sync. I don’t feel like it’s anything we need to be alarmed about yet. Obviously you can’t keep making the same mistakes, but it was one thing here, one thing there. It wasn’t the same thing that was popping up. It’s just [about] everyone getting better. There’s a different tempo to things, right? You practice hard but you aren’t really getting tackled all the time. There’s a different rhythm to it when you get into games.” The Huskies stay at home to host Tulsa in Week-2.