What a crazy Week-6 in college football. Unranked Vanderbilt upset No. 1 Alabama for the first victory over a Top-5 team in program history. Arkansas, also unranked, upset No. 4 Tennessee while No. 8 Miami had to outscore their opponent 21-to-3 in the final quarter to beat Cal—yeah, our Cal—by just one point. Wow! No. 25 Texas A&M easily beat No. 9 Missouri while unranked SMU beat No. 22 Louisville. And in this game the unranked Huskies who were down 17-14 and held scoreless in the 3rd Qtr returned the favor in the fourth while putting 13 points on the board for a big 27-17 win in front of the Washington faithful at home. And maybe just as important going forward in the season Place Kicker Grady Gross wasn’t quite as gross as last week, missing just 2-of-4 field goals instead of 3-of-4. At least the glass is now half-full.
The Huskies got the ball first and three minutes later Gross had his first shot at redemption from last week but missed a 41 yard field goal from the Michigan 24 yard line. The Wolverines took the ball but due to a false start and a couple of pass incompletions ended up punting it back eight plays later. Starting at their own 17 yard line the Huskies put together a beautiful 13 play 83 yard drive to take a 7-0 lead on a 3 yard Will Rogers TD pass to Denzel Boston. Forcing the Wolverines to punt on their next two possessions Washington would score again early in the 2nd Qtr on a 4 play 74 yard drive highlighted by a 37 yard pass from back-up Freshman QB Demond Williams Jr. and two 13 yard passes from Senior QB Will Rogers, one for a TD to Giles Jackson to go up 14-0. The Wolverines finally got it going on their next two possessions with a 39 yard TD run by Donovan Edwards and a 45 yard field goal by Dominic Zvada while holding Washington to a three-and-out in between. The Huskies had a chance to extend their 14-10 lead but their 28 yard field goal attempt was blocked with time expiring in the half.
Michigan would get the ball first to start the second half and would take a 17-14 lead at the end of an 11 play 75 yard drive and 8 yard TD pass from Senior QB Jack Tuttle to Junior TE Colston Loveland. After holding the Wolverines to a three-and-out on their next possession Washington Place Kicker Grady Gross would begin his redemption tour by connecting on a 28 yard field goal to tie the score at 17 each early in the 4th Qtr. Holding Michigan to another thee-and-out Washington looked to be on their way to take the lead but Will Rogers’ pass was intercepted at the Wolverine 37 yard line. However, just five plays into the Michigan drive Husky Senior Edger Rusher Von Tunuufi popped Tuttle who lost the ball to Washington’s Senior Lineman Logan Sagapolu at the Michigan 31 yard line. Less than two minutes later on back-to-back-to-back Jonah Coleman runs, including one into the end zone, the Huskies would take a 24-17 lead with 6:22 left in the game. Once again five plays later the Wolverines would turn the ball over again, this time a Jack Tuttle interception at the Michigan 41 yard line with well under four minutes to go. In no rush, Washington took their nice sweet time moving the ball 26 yards down to the Michigan 15 where Gross would kick his second field goal in a row to put the game out of reach at 27-17 with just one minute left to play.
Although the Huskies have lost two games on the season, with just one conference loss they are not out of it in the Big Ten and sit in fifth place behind the four ranked and undefeated teams left—No. 18 Indiana, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 Penn State. They’ll meet three of those teams on the road as well as Iowa and USC at home and will need to win them all. Next stop, Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City to take on the Hawkeyes this coming Saturday, October 12th, at 9:00am on Fox.