It came down to the wire, but Washington football couldn’t come away with the victory against the Oregon Ducks
The Oregon Ducks won the game 35-31. Washington football couldn’t muster any points in the fourth quarter, and Oregon scored the quarter’s only points, scoring the game-winning touchdown with 5:30 remaining in the game.
The Huskies were able to move the ball down the field in those last five minutes, but Jacob Eason‘s pass for Puka Nacua fell incomplete on a questionable call, and the Ducks were able to come out of Seattle with a victory.
One positive takeaway is that the Huskies were able to score four touchdowns on the day against an Oregon defense that had given up that number over their first six games of the season.
Eason went 23/30 for 289 yards and three touchdowns on the day. His three touchdowns went to Jordan Chin, Andre Baccelia, and Puka Nacua.
Eason and the Huskies had to get help from their other receivers because his favorite target Aaron Fuller missed most of the game with a left ankle injury. Salvon Ahmed had a huge day, running for 140 yards on 24 carries. The Huskies did a great job capitalizing with Ahmed, even playing without two of their top backup running backs.
Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert had a very similar day to Eason, going 24/38 for 280 yards and four touchdowns. The Huskies did a good job stopping running back CJ Verdell for the most part, he had just 11 carries for 48 yards. His running mate, Cyrus Habibi-Likio picked up his slack though, running for 81 yards and a touchdown.
The Husky defense seemed to get worn down in the fourth quarter, and it allowed Oregon to seemingly do whatever they want on the ground late in the game.
This loss now puts Washington at 2-3 in the Pac-12 and basically eliminates them from Pac-12 title contention. Oregon would have to lose out, and the Huskies would need help in the form of losses from Cal and Stanford to have even an outside chance at making the Pac-12 championship.
With a bye week coming up fro the Huskies before the Utah game, it’ll be interesting to see how the Huskies adjust before their next game with the week off to prepare.