Boy I’m sure glad I didn’t run over to the Sportsbook at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma and take Washington and the 3.5 or 4 points they were offering like I did with UCLA last week. Of course that was 27.5 points—big difference! It always takes your heart a bit longer to catch up with your head regarding your team. And even though the Huskies lost their coach to the SEC, lost their most prolific offensive players to the NFL, and all but five players that started in the national championship game against Michigan and needed to replace their entire receiving corps, the No. 1 tailback, starting TE and both tackles, two starting edge rushers, defensive linemen and safeties, and new starters at linebacker, cornerback and nickel back—for some crazy reason you go into the season thinking your team can withstand all that loss and still compete. Well, they can compete but I hope the Husky faithful can give Jedd Fisch some time to put the winning consistently part back together. As Dan Raley wrote for Sports Illustrated regarding Washington; “Whoever takes over the program is going to have to start over in many respects, as if this were an expansion franchise. Again, it’s a massive rebuild, not a reload. Overnight, the Huskies have gone from [a] top 20 team and feared Big 10 contender to [an] unknown quanity.” As far as the rebuild goes, the secondary—currently in the Top-5 nationally in passing yards allowed—has improved more rapidly than the run defense that is sitting down at No. 41 and in the bottom half of the Big Ten.
Watching how easily an unranked Iowa beat the Huskies, 40-16, never trailing from start to finish and shutting them out completely in both the 1st and 3rd Qtrs., it’s pretty clear that with No. 18 Indiana, No. 4 Penn State, and No. 3 Oregon on their schedule still left to play there are going to be some more ugly losses for the Huskies this year. For a few minutes this one got out of the gate OK with the Huskies holding Iowa to a three-and-out to start the game but then had a Grady Gross field goal blocked at the end of their 14 play 73 yard subsequent drive. Iowa would take their second possession all the way to the house at the end of a 9 play 80 yard drive and Kaleb Johnson 6 yard run for a TD and a 7-0 lead. The Huskies would tie the score seven minutes later on a TD completion from Will Rogers to Denzel Boston. But after holding the Hawkeyes to a three-and-out on their next possession would fumble the ball back to Iowa on their own 19 yard line leading to a Hawkeye field goal to go up 10-7 and then after holding the Huskies to a three-and-out 17-7 on an 18 yard TD pass from Iowa QB Cade McNamara to Kaleb Johnson. Washington Place Kicker Grady Gross would finally get one off —a 46 yard field goal to make it 17-10 with 29 seconds left in the half. But a 26 yard return of the Huskies kick-off combined with a 53 yard run by Kaleb Johnson would take Iowa all the way down to the Washington 28 yard line with 24 seconds left. After two incomplete passes and just four seconds left, Drew Stevens connected on a 46 yard field goal to put Iowa up 20-10 at the break.
Washington would get the ball to start the 3rd Qtr but eight plays later QB Will Rogers’ pass would be intercepted—the beginning of a half that would remain scoreless for the Huskies until just inside the last three minutes of the game where they would finally score again on a TD pass from Demond Williams Jr. to Rashid Williams. But by then Iowa had already scored two more touchdowns and two field goals to win it going away 40-16. For Iowa, Senior QB Cade McNamara didn’t throw for a ton of yards, just 108, but still found the end zone twice with no interceptions. On the ground, once again the Huskies got torched by a single RB, this time it was Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson who not only caught one of McNamara’s TD’s but rushed 21 times for 166 of the Hawkeyes 229 yards as well as both of their scores on the ground. On the other side of the ball the Iowa defense recorded four sacks, 5 tackles for loss, and 4 pass disruptions. For Washington, Senior QB Will Rogers connected on almost 65% of his passes for 195 yards, 1 TD to Sophomore WR Denzel Boston, and 1 interception while backup Freshman QB Demond Williams Jr, who came in early in the 4th Qtr, connected on 12-of-17 for 71 yards and another TD, this one to fellow Freshman Rashid Williams. Junior RB Jonah Coleman did most of the damage on the ground for Washington, rushing 9 times for 80 of their 127 yard total, but never found the end zone.