Washington State at No. 17 Washington
For those not familiar with college football in the state of Washington the rivalry game between the University of Washington and Washington State first took place on November 29, 1900. Since then they have met 118 times including the game this past Saturday which Washington won in less than inspiring fashion 24-10. With the teams now belonging to different conferences the traditional schedule of the game taking place on the Friday after Thanksgiving wasn’t possible. So, for the first time in the history of the rivalry, the teams agreed to meet Week-1. In addition to being a bore-fest of a game through the first three quarters with the Cougars not scoring and the Huskies only putting 10 up over the same amount of time, the game was full of poor execution and miscues with 8 punts, three missed field goals, two interceptions, and a combined 18 penalties for 180 yards. The basically stunk up the place and yet somehow Washington survived on the Week-2 AP Top-25, dropping only two spots to No. 19. Another game like that and they’ll go the way of Michigan.
For Washington, Junior QB Demond Williams Jr. connected on 24-of-35 for 268 yards, 1 TD to Senior WR Rashid Williams, and no interceptions. With four players handling the ball at least four times, The Huskies rushed a total of 29 times for 134 yards and two TD’s—one by Williams, who also led the group in yards, and one by Senior RB Jayden Limar. On the other side of the ball the Washington defense picked up three sacks, eight tackles for loss, and five pass defenses. For the Cougars, Sophomore QB Caden Pinnick was 16-of-25 for 142 yards and 2 interceptions. He did a better job on the ground for Washington State, leading all rushers with 14 carries for 61 of their 100 yards on the ground as well as their only TD. Their defense had no sacks and just two tackles for loss.
Washington barely edged out the Cougars in first downs, 20-18; just 34 more yards rushing, but had 150+ more total yards of total offense, 402-to-242. Regarding third down efficiency the Huskies weren’t very good, just 33%, but Washington State was even worse, 0-for-9. The Cougars made both of their fourth down conversions while Washington was 0-for-2. The Huskies line coach Michael Switzer didn’t hold back on his criticism after the game and was quoted in a Seattle Times article by Andy Yamashita as saying; “Really disappointed. The way we played, physically, wasn’t to our standard. Some moving pieces in terms of guys getting their first action … but . . . to sit there and make excuses for it, we will not. We’ve got to improve greatly. And the guys understand that very clearly. They understood it before the game was over.” Washington State hits the road to take on Kansas this coming weekend while Washington gets to stay home and host Utah State.
Oregon State at No. 23 Houston
https://www.espn.com/college-football/recap/_/gameId/401856778