Huskies Dominate Eastern Washington, Leave Unanswered Questions
SEATTLE, Wash. — No drama this time.
Not in this week’s result, though concerns remain despite a decisive win over an FCS opponent.
The Washington Huskies football team capped its non-conference slate with a 48-16 win over Eastern Washington on Saturday at Husky Stadium. The Huskies, favored by more than three touchdowns before eking out wins against Washington State and Utah State, dispatched the 42.5-point underdog Eagles from Cheney with relative ease.
The announced attendance was 61,619, though it appeared that many of the purported attendees found something else to do while Washington (3-0) played an inferior opponent for the third straight week.
What the undefeated start means remains to be seen when UW opens its stretch of nine straight Big Ten games next Saturday against Minnesota. And despite the lopsided result, there is still work to be done as the competition stiffens dramatically over the next few games.
For the first time this season, though, the Huskies weren’t sweating the result in the fourth quarter, and backup units saw the field.
“We caught the ball clean — we could start there,” Washington head coach Jedd Fisch said. “I feel like we're physically a better football team, so we were able to make some short yardage plays that we weren't capable of doing for some reason that we need to make sure that we get better at. We blocked things better.
“We probably put together a better game plan. I felt schematically as a coaching staff, we did a we did a better job putting our players in better position to be successful, and our players did what we know that they normally can do.”
Washington rolled with 546 yards of total offense, including quarterback Demond Williams Jr.’s 373 yards and four touchdowns through the air on 27-for-33 completions. After two key drops in the Sept. 12, 16-14 win over Utah State, Dezmen Roebuck caught all nine passes thrown his way for 121 yards.
Rashid William returned from injury to add six catches for 86 yards, and tight end Barone Naone caught two for 103 yards, though he’d have much preferred 104. Naone got wide open on a corner route, but was tackled just shy of the end zone after a 75-yard gain. The play was initially ruled a touchdown, but officials took it away after review.
“I saw my [Eastern Washington defender] miss me as he was trying to re-route me,” said Naone, a second-year, 6-4, 260-pound tight end. “I knew I was going to get the ball. All I had to do was dig a little harder when I got the ball.”
Freshman receivers Jordan Clay and Trez Davis caught their first college TD passes, and freshman running back Brian Bonner Jr. gained 86 yards on just six carries.
There would be no slow start this week. The Huskies scored more touchdowns in the first quarter (two) against Eastern than they did in the entire game against Utah State and the first three quarters of the Apple Cup.
Eastern (1-3), which took Chris Petersen’s 2015 Huskies and Steve Sarkisian’s 2011 squad to the brink, showed no signs early on of laying down. This was not going to be an 84-0 game like Eastern’s fellow Big Sky Conference opponent lost to Oregon earlier in the day. And this is also not the same FCS national title opponent the Huskies faced in the prior decade.
Still, it was an opportunity for the Huskies to feel good about a win.
“You know, obviously we didn't play how we wanted to the last two weeks, and you know we took that personally throughout the week of practice, and understood that, and attacked it every single day,” Demond Williams Jr. said. “So coming out here for the game, really, all of our minds were just set on being explosive, having fun, and just starting fast.”
Despite the signs of life from offense, some familiar issues crept up in the game. The Huskies committed eight penalties for 101 yards, several of which fall into the category of senseless.
Officials flagged Washington twice for unsportsmanlike conduct, and linebacker Xe’ree Alexander was tossed after a 15-yard targeting call. Fourth-year edge Jacob Lane got busted while he was on the ground for retaliating with a punch toward an Eagles offensive lineman.
UW committed three pass interference penalties, including two during Eastern’s lone TD drive, which cut Washington’s lead to 14-10 in the second quarter.
“Very disappointed in the penalties,” Fisch said. “That is not okay to have 100 yards in penalties, and multiple drives were kept alive because of penalties. We're too talented on defense to let our emotions get the best of us.”
The offensive line once again struggled at times. Though Bonner ran well, Trey Cooley (eight carries, 22 yards) and Ansu Sanoe (two carries, 3 yards) combined to average 2.5 yards per attempt.
Though Eastern was credited with just two quarterback hits, both were crushing blows. Demond Williams Jr. rushed seven times for 33 yards — including a 20-yard run — but was hit hard a couple of times after short gains.
He spent some time in the injury tent after throwing a red-zone interception. After safety McKel Broussard leveled Williams with a delayed blitz as the UW quarterback released a pass, the ball landed in the arms of Eagles safety Marcus Nixon just shy of the goal line.
With Fisch sticking his head in the injury tent several times to check on his quarterback, Williams was initially concerned about his right elbow. As it turned out, it was essentially a funny bone situation for the right-handed QB.
“I really just didn't know what happened,” Williams said. “I just felt a helmet or some, like, heavy object go right into my elbow. So I was kind of just trying to make sure I was good and went in the tent, made sure everything was okay. And then I was solid.”
How solid the Huskies are as a team will be determined the next two Saturdays against Minnesota and at USC.
