Washington was very lucky to keep their position at No. 5 in the AP Top-25 rankings this week after this stinker. Mike Vorel, Sportswriter for The Seattle Times, summed it up nicely in his headline when he wrote; “UW’s win over Arizona State felt like a loss.” This should have been easy compared to what they have coming after next Saturday’s road game to Stanford when they’ll face No. 24 USC and No. 11 Oregon State on the road as well as No. 13 Utah and Washington State in the Apple Cup at home—always a hard fought game. They are starting to feel like a team that has been reading their own headlines and celebrating something that hasn’t happened yet because in fact they have become very sloppy and undisciplined. As Mike points out in his article they have fumbled the ball six times and thrown up three interceptions in the last three games alone. They are in the bottom 10% nationally of teams with the most penalties per game and next to last in penalty yards per game. And, the most frustrating and easy to spot aspect of their poor play lately has been the number of missed tackles—34 in just the last two games.
This was a game that felt like the Huskies were going to let slip away until a miracle 89 yard pick six by Washington Junior Safety Mishael Powell put them up 12-7 half-way through the 4th Qtr after trailing the entire game. Probably realizing their good fortune, Washington held the Sun Devils to a three-and-out on their next possession—only the second of the entire game. Then took advantage at the end of an eight play, 62 yard drive, resulting in a Grady Gross 24 yard field goal to go up 15-7—still a single possession game. But aided by two ASU penalties the Sun Devil’s next drive bogged down and fizzled out after being unable to convert a 4th and 15 at their own 48 yard line with just 33 seconds left in the game. Washington took over and Penix-Jr took a knee and the Huskies survived.
After throwing 20 TD’s through the first six games of the year at a 70% clip, in this game Penix-Jr connected on 27-of-42 for 275 yards and no TD’s while also rushing twice for negative yards. After having thrown just three interceptions through the first six games he threw up two in this one alone. On the ground the Huskies rushed for an embarrassing 13 total yards on 13 attempts. I won’t do the math. On the stat sheet it looks like Arizona State won this game, as they recorded more 1st Downs, 20-to-17; more rushing yards, 145-to-13; more total yards of offense, 341-to-288, and had the ball for 15 more minutes than Washington in addition to turning the ball over just once compared to four times for the Huskies. As the AP pointed out in their Takeaway for this game having trouble against the Arizona State Sun Devils is nothing new for Washington having been beaten by them 13 of the last 15 times they’ve played. If Washington can’t develop a run game you can expect to see more interceptions from Michael Penix-Jr. Washington hits the road to take on Stanford while Arizona State heads back home to take on a Washington State team who, after starting out 4-0 and being ranked in the AP Top-25, have lost their last three and will be looking to right the ship.