Top 10 questions Washington Football team answers in opener

(1) Can quarterback Jake Browning win a big game in 2018?

Well now, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?  But when talking a big game, we are not talking about THE big game.  To be honest, we had already discussed that question earlier.  So this is not a national championship topic.

The question at hand is more myopic. Can Washington Huskies quarterback be counted on to win the big games in 2018?  Last season, the bigger games in the schedule came down to at Stanford, hosting Washington State, and facing Penn State.  IN 2017, Browning ended up 1-2 in big games.

But that was then, this is now.

Some say quarterback Jake Browning does not have a strong arm. Some say that he is not decisive enough under pressure. You can ignore those claims.  He proved himself to be a cerebral quarterback in setting the Washington record for consecutive games with a touchdown last season.  That is a tremendous feat, considering the turnstyle of receivers moving up and down the depth charts due to numerous injuries.

Let’s consider some hard statistics. Jake Browning has been a three-year starter at Washington. In the past three seasons, he has thrown for 9,104 yards and completed 706 passes of 1,095 attempts. That is good enough for a career average 64.47% completion.  He has tossed 78 touchdowns to just 24 interceptions. And at all else, he has been sacked just 74 times.  78 touchdowns, 74 sacks.

So when scouts and analysts examine Browning, they are looking at a quarterback who simply does not make many mistakes. His TD to INT ratio is an impressive 3.25.  Quarterbacks who fall into that category in the NFL are Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Russell Wilson. Now, I’m not suggesting that Jake Browning will tout an NFL career at their level. But he has the makings of a very shrewd decision maker who understands when to thrown and when not to throw the ball.

There is no bigger game on the schedule for Washington than their opener. Other games later in the season have a more direct impact on their Pac-12 ranking. But if Washington is to compete for a national championship, they must win this one. I believe Jake Browning is more than enough quarterback to win this grueling contest. In fact, he is the ideal quarterback.  Auburn defense will attempt to rattle Browning, forcing him to make mistakes. But behind that offensive line with Trey Adams on the blind side, look for Browning to keep moving those chains. And as long as Washington moves the ball, they will win this one.